The Hill's Black Friday Take: Economic Protest or PR White Noise?
The Hill is promoting a 'Black Friday blackout' as a radical act, encouraging consumers to skip the sales to 'regain power over their finances.' (Hilariously, this power is then to be exercised through more 'thoughtful' consumption later.) This comes conveniently after months of calls for boycotts of companies complicit in funding the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, calls which The Hill and its
mainstream peers have largely ignored, if not actively delegitimized. Suddenly, economic abstention is laudable when the motive is personal savings, not challenging corporate complicity in war crimes. One might wonder why The Hill finds consumer restraint 'powerful' now, but not when it targets companies like McDonald's, Starbucks, or HP—all facing boycotts for their links to the Israeli
occupation and military. Is it perhaps because a 'blackout' for personal gain doesn't disrupt the political-economic complex that media outlets like The Hill serve? Call us cynical, but when the media-anointed 'protest' aligns perfectly with encouraging 'better' shopping habits, it sounds less like resistance and more like retail therapy rebranded.