There is something fundamentally different, attitudinally, between liberals and conservatives. When the CEO of Whole Foods criticized ObamaCare, liberals protested the supermarket chain and organized a boycott. Ben & Jerry's has released Hubby Hubby ice cream, a parody of its Chubby Hubby ice cream that celebrates Vermont instituting gay marriage. The packaging features two grooms atop a wedding cake with a rainbow backdrop. I doubt I'll be eating any Ben & Jerry's ice cream, but it has nothing to do with Hubby Hubby. It's too expensive! Basic, relevant concerns like that guide my behavior as a consumer--does it taste good, is it priced right, is it good for me--not whether the guys behind the product share my politics. There is a politicization of inherently nonpolitical aspects of life--grocery shopping, ice cream--on the Left that, aside from the occasional boycot of Disney, doesn't really exist on the Right. This Tourette's-like impulse to announce one's politics loudly, and, in non sequitur fashion, inject it into areas where it doesn't belong, is what, more than anything else, alienates me from leftists.

Think they'll changing their name now to Bendover Jerry?

Hmmm?

It's funny when corporations try to take moral stands, isn't it? In this case they (Unilever) were on the right side of the issue, but it doesn't seem to make much business sense to plaster something celebrating what many of their most loyal customers, being morbidly obese religious fundamentalists, would find to be an abomination on their beloved pint of frozen cow cream.

(In the interests of full disclosure I'm addicted to Chunky Monkey and Banana Split, and ingest more than is justifiable for a sole consumer *hangs head in shame*)

"This Tourette's-like impulse to announce one's politics loudly, and, in non sequitur fashion, inject it into areas where it doesn't belong, is what, more than anything else, alienates me from leftists."

Mr. Flynn, you are an anachronism, as Thompson might've put it, "a prototype not meant for this modern world". Maybe that's going to an extreme, but you are a complex motherf$%#@!--an intellectual marine with a good taste in music who enjoys an occasional fermented libation - and, here's the kicker - a paleoconservative quasi-libertarian(wtf?)! That's weird, dude.

You said it, Dan! Only silly liberals engage in such useless and ineffective acts as boycotts. You'd never do such a thing!

LOG, I believe the two examples you point out are of consumers directly expressing their distaste of the product, itself, in hopes that the product would change. The current wave of distaste regarding Whole Foods' CEO's opinions as if he were Attila the Hun does not regard the quality of the product.

The Whole Foods phenomenon is not isolated - recently, there was a brouhaha and desire to boycott the video game "Shadow Complex" since its production was related to the new book of Orson Scott Card, who - horror of horrors - expressed in 1990 his opinions for outlawing flagrant and public homosexual acts:

http://kotaku.com/5343283/in-moral-debate-about-shadow-complex-both-sides-have-their-say

Also, the book, "Empire," is about a modern blue-state/red-state civil war. Could be a good premise but I don't have a good impression of his writing.

Last year, observers on a whale watching boat were minding their own business off of Provincetown on old Cape Cod when they got close to shore. There they witnessed dozens of men unabashedly engaging in group sex with eachother.

That is not exactly the kind of lifestyle that should be celebrated with an ice cream flavor of the month.

G. Fawkes: Right, and the Boston Tea Party was all about poor-quality brew.

That, or it was leftists announcing their politics loudly, and, in non sequitur fashion, injecting it into areas where it doesn't belong, politicizing beverages.

So Dan if all that matters is price and quality and the rest is just silliness then you'd have no problem continuing to buy whatever your favorite ice cream happens to be even if they started calling it by racist or antisemetic names?

The overwhelming majority of boycotts don't work and only serve to create more publicity for the a particular product but often times that is the only recourse the individual has. It may not cause any big change or alter anyone else's opinion but it is a principled stance and standing on and for your principles is never a silly or bad thing.

Ben & Jerry's is also currently test marketing other "inlightened" flavors in the Castro District...

Seroconversion Strawberry Suprise
Rimming Raspberry
Trinogamous Tropical Fruit

What's next: Hershey Highway?

Ethel we must have taken a wrong turn back there because we ended up in homophob city.
Get over it, people are gay. They always have been and always will be.
Theres alot of things that bother me about gay lifestyles etc, but you folk need to accept it.
Or you can spend your life angry posting here.
Full dislosure I am not gay, about as far as you can go the other way, giggity.

ME - you weren't one of those embassy guys in Kabul were you big fella?

haha, just goes to show how desperate you are to make ultra conservative points at any costs. BEN AND JERRYS??? this website is such a joke

"This Tourette's-like impulse to announce one's politics loudly, and, in non sequitur fashion, inject it into areas where it doesn't belong, is what, more than anything else, alienates me from leftists."

Well, that and sodomy.