> If I refused to buy anything that was made or sold by anyone that had ever done harm to anyone, I'd probably starve to death...
Boycotting does not have to turn into a religion that drives you into starvation. You can just try to support the less evil choice, or only when you have time to spare.
And ultimately... that is why this type of activism usually fails eventually. First, in order to pick the lesser of two evils, you still need to scrutinize every item so you know which one is the less evil. That still takes time and after doing it a few times and realizing your trip to the market, etc took twice as long as it should, many people will not continue. This app has been all over my Facebook feed. So I imagine a decent number of my friends shared it... but probably didn't install it. That is not any more useful than changing your profile pic "to support" what ever cause is viral this month. Of those that did install it, you've given them the out they need... only when you have time to spare. After trying it a few times and seeing how it effects their life, maybe that one time they are in a hurry and don't have to time to figure it out, they just go with it. Reminding them just how much work the boycott is. But that was just one little fudge... they'll do better next time. Right... this little chip in armor is all it takes for so many people to eventually give up. Only the most dedicated people will continue for any length of time that would even be noticed by the corporations... but probably not enough people to make them change. Sure that is a pessimistic, cynical view but tell me you haven't seen this exact set of events happen time and time again. We'd like to hope this time would be different. But history is a pretty good indicator of the future.
I see this all the time. But I also see people who can't be bothered to vote (even in referendums), or can't be bothered to use the gym membership they've proudly bought, or are in the habit of eating junk food every day. Should we now give up on everything that has a little friction?
Just as we inside the HN bubble care about IP laws (see every thread about Apple's lawsuits), there are plenty of people who care deeply about food or other issues. And it's not a huge investment to use this app once during weekly groceries and figure out which companies are opposed to $personal_beliefs. After that a "good enough" boycott is pretty much zero effort.
I guess it is true that getting hundreds or thousands of other people to change their behavior a little bit can add up more than 1 person changing a lot.
