Do Boycotts Work?
It’s natural to wonder about the effectiveness of social movements like protest marches and boycotts. Do they change anything?
As suggested in the graphic below, the answer appears to be a big fat yes in the case of the stationary bike exercise company SoulCycle, whose liberal user base was supremely cheesed off that one of SoulCycle’s major investors was hosting a reelection fundraiser for President Trump. They took objection to the fact that misogynistic, racist and anti-gay policies and rhetoric were at odds with SoulCycle’s purported socially conscious values, and, when high-profile clients pledged to boycott SoulCycle and its parent company Equinox, everyday users started to stay away hugely.
Craig,
Your capacity for unintentional irony remains unsurpassed!
An employee of a company advertising; ” everyone ( “all souls”) is welcome and hate isn’t tolerated” “We are a community committed to empowerment, diversity, inclusivity and love.”, issues a statement saying;
““I don’t think there’s a single employee at SoulCycle who has been more vocally anti-Trump than I have been,” followed by, ” if you support Trump and would donate money towards a fundraiser to re-elect him … DON’T TAKE MY CLASS AND DON’T ASSOCIATE WITH ME … your ‘support’ is not needed.”
Now add to this the radical vilification of the companies investors and even founders by some employees who believe they should have been included in getting a share of the equity offered by the founders, and it sounds like a really radical place to work or patronize.
No so much a business as a cult, undergoing a schism! (and a pretty vicious one at that).
But it gets worse, all is clearly not well in Kumbaya land.
A group of employees have formed a “resistance collective” to wrest control from the owners and investors by “social action”.
In their own words, they :
” They might be trying to fill the coffers of hate and bigotry and racism and misogyny, but we’re out here pumping up the volume on LOVE and INCLUSION and EQUALITY and JUSTICE. And we’ve got people in those rooms hell bent on changing the motherfucking world.”
The rant continued, basically enumerating ways to take part in radical, even violent action against their political enemies, donating money to the violent political group, ANTIFA, whom they describe as “social justice warriors”.
It would all be so hilarious, if it weren’t so sad.
Soul Cycle Inc, is just a group of people who pay to ride stationary exercise bikes in a group setting!
The drop off in attendance, is more likely to be because most client don’t want to be involved in a political propaganda session while exercising, or like most of these fads, have just lost interest.
With all the serious issues confronting the modern world, perhaps this is an excellent example of self-indulgent navel gazing when a person can state with a straight face:
“Now I have to figure out how to continue to pour my heart and soul into every class I teach, knowing that every dollar riders spend with me is enriching a man who is supporting what I consider to the most corrupt, evil administration in our country’s history,”.
The employee seems not to realize that a career as an “instructor” teaching people how to ride stationary bikes, is just a little ludicrous!
This sort of activity is evidence of a decadent and self-indulgent society. Both SoulCycle and their employees are products of everything wrong with US society.