I tried this thought on a different message board, and the difference between Dopers and the rest of the world quickly became apparent. Here goes:
[ul][li]It is immoral for an employer to fire or not hire an employee for her political dealings. Now, whether it is legal is completely immaterial since legality and morality are not the same thing.[/li][li]Arguments apply to similar situations, unless they can be shown to have a relevant difference. In this case, suppose that I hire a house painter as an employee. If I found out that she supported letting Turkey into the EU, it would be immoral for me to fire her for that, and it would also be immoral for me to fire her if she donates money to a group that advocates that goal. Suppose instead that rather than hiring her as an employee, I purchased her services as an independent contractor. The situation is exactly identical with the exception of some legalistic mumbo-jumbo, hence the rule applies equally: It would be immoral to purchase the services of an independent contractor just because she donates money to a group advocating for Turkey to join the EU.[/li][li]But…with the independent contractor I’m a customer and she’s the business. If it is immoral for me not to do business with an independent contractor because of her politics, then it’s immoral for me to do the same with a mom & pop store. [/li][li]We can see where this is heading, so let’s cut it off at the pass. Let’s say that refusing to do business with a person is immoral; but against a corporation, that’s different. [/li][li]But coprorations fail to be meaningfully different from privately owned firms. First, because many one- or two-person operations are incorporated for liability & stuff, and second, because some privately owned firms are quite large and operate in what one would consider to be the corporate sphere.[/li][li]If corporations aren’t meaningfully different from private firms, and if it is immoral to refuse to do business with a private firm because of politics, then it is with corporations as well.[/li][li]Boycotts are nothing more than refusals to do business with firms because of politics. [/li][li]Boycotts are immoral[/ul][/li]Please note: If you think it is moral to fire an employee because of her politics, then you have effectively countered my thinking; but you have won no real victory if you can’t convince me of that moral stance.
Aside from the caveat above…thoughts?