# What do you refuse to do out of principle? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428 "2010-08-06T17:56:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/61 "2010-08-07T17:37:13Z")
I don’t shop at WalMart or eat at Chick-fil-A for principle reasons. I don’t eat Dominos pizza, not necessarily due to principles (IIRC, that reason is no longer valid), but because it’s god-awful. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/62 "2010-08-07T17:42:06Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I also think the iTouch/iPhone is what stupid people use instead of a real laptop. I don’t know which one insults me more. The iTouch, to me, is pretty much the crappiest laptop money can buy, and I can buy netbooks for the same price. I own both a laptop and an iPod touch and I am perfectly capable of using both of them properly - I walk everywhere and want to listen to music, and I don’t see how a laptop or a netbook would fill that need. Maybe in your life it has no purpose, but it’s a bit harsh to say anyone who owns an iPod or iPhone is stupid. > [@GusNSpot](#): > > Always remember and never forget, there are impossible choices out there and having to make them sucks. This. A thousand times this. There are many things I have done that I said I’d never do. For example, I used to be a Walmart hater and boycotter, until I went through a long period of unemployment at a time when I was not qualified to do much more than retail. I caved and applied at Walmart, and I ended up working there for a year. FTR, they treated me just fine and paid a fair wage. From that experience I also learned that hard-and-fast principles are often a luxury of people who can afford an alternative. More in the spirit of the thread - I have tried really hard to avoid patronizing Air Canada, because they are rat bastards who treat their customers like shit. But they still have a stranglehold on some Canadian routes, so I have flown with them when necessary. ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/63 "2010-08-07T17:49:05Z")
Around here it costs $8.00 a month for the privilege to recycle our garbage. Nope, ain’t happening. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/64 "2010-08-07T17:50:06Z")
> [@gravitycrash](#): > > Around here it costs $8.00 a month for the privilege to recycle our garbage. > Nope, ain’t happening. That’s really more of a financial reason than it is standing on principle, though, isn’t it? Unless you still wouldn’t recycle even if it were free. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/65 "2010-08-07T17:51:20Z")
Let anyone tell me what I should/n’t eat or read or shop at. Vote for liberal Democrats (I did not see the “vote for Republicans” before I decided to post this.) While I’m at it, I hesitate to vote for liberal Republicans unless they’re more conservative than the Democratic candidate. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/66 "2010-08-07T17:52:30Z")
Buy a pet. I’ve been a pound puppy and show-up-at-the-door kitteh kind of girl for years, now. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/67 "2010-08-07T17:52:34Z")
I refuse to watch a movie adapted from a book until I’ve read the book, which is why I haven’t seen any _Harry Potter_ or _Lord of the Rings_ movies. I’ll get around to it eventually, I suppose, but not right now. It’s something that my mother ingrained into me at a young age and it stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/68 "2010-08-07T17:52:42Z")
Shop at Macy’s since they changed over Marshall Fields. No, I don’t think it makes a difference to Macy’s and I don’t picket or write angry letters to the _Chicago Tribune_. I just don’t shop there and my wife won’t buy me gifts from there. I don’t buy diamonds either. I compromised on this slightly for my wife’s engagement ring which was purchased at an estate sale so at least I avoided giving money to De Beers. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/69 "2010-08-07T19:12:57Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Buy a pet. > > I’ve been a pound puppy and show-up-at-the-door kitteh kind of girl for years, now. Me, too. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/70 "2010-08-07T19:17:53Z")
> [@Surly\_Chick](#): > > > [@suranyi](#): > > > > What if you’ve read it before Oprah picks it for her list? I happened to read _The Poisonwood Bible_ by Barbara Kingsolver several months before she picked it. I read \*Night \*by Elie Wiesel YEARS before she picked it. > > Gaaaaaa! Stop confusing the issue! I guess I should say I go out of my way to avoid reading books that are advertised as being on Oprah’s list. If I read it before it was on the list, it doesn’t count. 😛 > > Sheesh. There go my principles. So if you hadn’t read _East of Eden_ previously you wouldn’t once she picked it? What if you could find a copy without the big yellow O? Hmm? I mean, I get it - I try hard not to buy books with movie tie-in covers. Oh, what won’t I do? I won’t buy diamonds - I don’t like them and I don’t like how they get 'em. I prefer manmade gems. If I bought a diamond it would be an antique. As an adult, I won’t buy a pet. We did when I was a kid, but I know better now. Our shelter pets are better anyway. I won’t shop at Wal-Mart if anything else is open and it isn’t an emergency. I will NEVER eat at Maurice’s Barbeque. I’d starve first. I won’t watch American Idol and similar, but that’s not exactly difficult. I never even saw an episode when we did have cable. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/71 "2010-08-07T19:37:25Z")
High five, Use those stupid Starbucks words for small, medium and large, Care about celebrity children/weddings, etc., ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/72 "2010-08-07T20:02:00Z")
You know, threads like this pop up every now and then, and a fair number of people voice their loathing of Wal Mart, but it’s definitely not representative of the general population. The Walton family are the world’s richest billionaires, so either the Wal Mart haters are vastly outnumbered, or they shop there more often than they admit. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/73 "2010-08-07T20:05:03Z")
I read that too fast and thought, well, I might care a _little_ about underage celebrity children getting married to each other… I mean, like, eight year olds or something. I’d read the cover in the grocery store, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/74 "2010-08-07T21:26:50Z")
> [@NetTrekker](#): > > > [@Lucky\_13](#): > > > > Put my daughter in a children’s beauty pageant. She keeps begging me to enter her in one, but I refuse to raise another JonBenet. I’m just glad we don’t live in an an area where everyone and their daughter has been a pageant contestant at some point, otherwise it would be much harder. > > I don’t like those children’s beauty pageants either, but if your daughter is interested in that kind of thing maybe she could find something similar like dance lessons/recitals or some type of theater. I think that would be a great experience for a kid to learn to be in front of an audience and perform…and very useful in adulthood. She’s already taking ballet and hip-hop dance classes. In fact, she has a recital coming up in a couple of weeks. She loves being on stage, and the attention it brings her. She wants to be a ballerina - but then again, she also wants to be Miss America, a marine biologist, an astronomer, and the first Latina President of the United States. (Don’t worry, I have plenty of witnesses to her birth, as well as the original birth certificate as proof she was actually born in California. :D) ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/75 "2010-08-08T00:17:42Z")
That’s really more of a financial reason than it is standing on principle, though, isn’t it? Unless you still wouldn’t recycle even if it were free. [/QUOTE] I would be happy to do it if there was no additional charge. I don’t know, maybe I haven’t thought this all the way through. It just bugs me. _shrugs_ ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/76 "2010-08-08T00:48:53Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I refuse to own a Japanese car. > > I know it’s not logical. I know many Japanese cars have more U.S. made parts vs. their “American” counterparts. But I still have a hang-up over them. I know it’s irrational, but I just can’t get over what the Japs did to us in WWII. Did they call you racist names? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/77 "2010-08-08T01:16:17Z")
I refuse to get involved in contracts that offer introductory short term discounts. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/78 "2010-08-08T01:28:11Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > High five So you would just leave me hanging? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/79 "2010-08-08T01:31:46Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > > > Did they call you racist names? Ame-koh. You do realize that Japan is about as racist as a country can get ? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428/80 "2010-08-08T03:31:39Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Use an ATM. Why not? A serious question. I knew one American over here who would not use ATMs, but he never explained why. He was sort of an eccentric, a temperamental author, and we just never got into it. (You quickly learn to take these sorts of quirks for granted over here; believe me, there are much stranger.) It seems to me that ATMs have made life so much easier and convenient for bank customers. I can even use my card now to withdraw money from my account in the local currency of whatever country I happen to be in; no more screwing with traveller’s checks or wasting time waiting to exchange money inside a bank. Why do some people hate ATMs? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-refuse-to-do-out-of-principle/549428.md?page=5)