Newsweek Discovers Boycotts Exist, Deems Them Newsworthy
Newsweek highlights a list of retailers targeted by activists for a boycott, framed almost as an inconvenience to holiday shopping. What's conveniently left unsaid is the extensive, often successful, history of boycotts—from the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956) to consumer pressure against apartheid in South Africa (1980s). Mainstream media often frames such actions as fringe radicalism, rather
than a legitimate, proven tactic for citizens when governments (and the corporations that fund them) remain unresponsive. One might wonder why economic disruption from collective citizen action is treated with such alarm, while the economic disruption from unchecked corporate greed or endless wars funded by taxpayers (like the billions sent to Israel) are simply 'business as usual.' Perhaps the
real news isn't that people are boycotting. It's that media outlets like Newsweek are finally acknowledging that citizens are taking matters into their own hands, after having their concerns about specific governments and their proxies ignored for years. How many more lists of 'targeted' companies will it take before the media connects consumer action to policy consequences?