What do you refuse to do out of principle?

Why the Nestle & Chick-fil-A hate from some of y’all?

I refuse to buy food not grown or produced in the US (with exceptions given to Canada and Western European countries).

I refuse to patronize bars or restaurants that permit smoking. It smells awful, it makes my eyes burn and my throat hurt and secondhand smoke is downright dangerous. It’s not really a problem, as smoking is banned in all of my city’s restaurants, and all of the nicer bars have banned it to see increased profits.

Skald, Chik Fil A is fundie-Christian. They’re not even open on Sundays. But let’s be honest - if In-N-Out was uber-Christian, I’d still be there as often as I could be. It’s just because Chik Fil A isn’t that good to begin with.

I know that they are owned by a Christian family; I am not sure I’d call them fundamentalists. But so what? Of what moment is the religion of the persons who own the company? Would you refuse to eat at a kosher Jewish deli because they do not open on Saturday?

Perhaps they mean extreme fundies, like Cracker Barrel. (Where I’d never eat, because of the way they discriminate – racist, homophobic, anyone who’s not mega-fundy Christian, etc.)

(I don’t like shopping at Walmart unless I absolutely have to – but that’s mostly because most of the people I see there look like the people on the People of Walmart site.)
I won’t watch a movie made by Roman Polanski. Even though his latest, The Ghost Writer, looks pretty good, and even has Ewan McGregor, I refuse to see it.

Except your own prejudice against Israel.

If you mean simultaneously, I’m absolutely on board.

Generally:
No diamonds (my wife bought her own wedding ring for that reason. Then the stone fell out and vanished, and she now feels that maybe they aren’t necessary after all…)
No purchased dogs except from Humane Society type places. (If I was wealthy it might be tempting to get a basenji and a corgi and a Samoyed and a pharaoh hound and…)

Prejudice is when you make up your mind in advance, without knowledge or evidence. I have no prejudice against Israel. Why not say anything about my “prejudice” against Nestle or McDonald’s, Ryanair, Iberia, or the Conservative Party? Are you prepared to believe that I have reasons for those boycotts but not prepared to concede that taking an ethical position can extend to disagreeing with the actions of a country or its government?

Not life-changing in the slightest, but I refuse to read pop-up/pop-under ads or look at them for any longer than it takes to find the X to close them.

I also refuse to stay on a webpage that blasts crappy music at me when I go to it. It is not 1995, there is no excuse for this anymore. X!

They give a lot of money to abstinence-only causes, I believe.

I’m not agreeing with the qualifications you require to assign prejudice to discrimination, however if you have a legitimate disagreement with the country of Israel, why are you penalizing Israeli citizens . Its not like it is a communist country whereby economic income is of direct benefit to the state. Should the rest of us boycott California strawberries because of George Bush or the war in Iraq ? What about the Mexican pickers ?

The boycotts of South African goods had a distinct effect in the movement towards the end of Apartheid.

It may not be much, but I can have no other influence, and I will not choose to support any regime with which I disagree. This is not prejudice.

I also neglected to address the fact that you seem to think British teachers stand around their classrooms indoctrinating their students. I said I wouldn’t stand for prejudice “in my classroom”, and I think it’s a salient point that no word of political or religious opinion passes my lips in that context. I don’t tell my students what to think, except that I tell them to find out the facts and not spout ill-informed or received opinions.

“I’m not agreeing with the qualifications you require to assign prejudice to discrimination” doesn’t appear to make sense. And you can’t disagree that prejudice means what I said it means: look at the word and its etymology in a dictionary.

Of course not, especially if one opened up in my city (our last kosher deli just closed :() But I wasn’t stating why I discriminate against them (I don’t), but why others do. For me, if the food is good, I’ll put up with quite a bit. If the food is just above-average + religious, meh, it’s easy to avoid. My own hard and fast restaurant thing has to do with smoking. And if the food was REALLY good there, I’d probably do take-out.

Do you eat rice?

I am curious if you feel the same way about Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Gaza I will make exception for the west bank since they seem to be following their peace agreement. But the others???

I must assume that you would agree with the statement that the end justifies the means. Regardless of the colateral damage.

I’m sorry, but those who desire to discriminate against an ethnic population with a carpet bombing strategy in mind hold no value for the innocents who suffer as a result. Furthermore, Boycotters of Israelis can provide no evidence it is working or that the boycotts of South Africa you use as an example played a part in the favourable outcome there.

You have no evidence that that hurting the people that you deliberately hurt will make one iota of difference at all. That the Israeli government is more concerned about their economy than their security. You simply wish to participate in a program against a particular population that you simply don’t care for.

You are one more example of a particularly American predilection to influence the affairs of a foreign country in a manner which you prefer with no regard to its effectiveness . Its not working in Iraq, its not working in Afghanistan, its not working in Pakistan and your efforts in influencing Canadian policy is not exactly appreciated here.

As far as the definition of prejudice is concerned, this is what I dug up amongst several others in the Free Dictionary

That is all you have. Israelis are bad and Hamas is acceptable.

I see no reason why I should “feel the same way” about any of those countries, or any other, since every country is different. I don’t even know what you’re asking me, since no-one has actually asked me what my feelings are or what they relate to specifically. And before you do, I think this has turned into a huge hijack of someone else’s thread, and I’m going to bed and won’t be at the computer till Wednesday, so don’t expect any replies any time soon! :slight_smile:

To be more relevant to the thread, regardless of any of my feelings about any of the countries you mention, we don’t get a lot of produce in general supermarkets from them; it would be absurd to hold a principled stance regarding contributing to their export taxes etc when the goods just don’t come here (which isn’t to say that I would - or wouldn’t - hold such a stance if it were relevant). We get a lot of produce (mostly fruit and vegetables) from Israel, and I won’t knowingly buy it. That’s all there is to it.

I still want to know why it’s somehow worthy of discussion that I boycott a country, but not that I boycott certain companies, and how this is more of a sign of “prejudice”. But as I said, I won’t be back for a couple of days.

She could be and still follow the rule. According to the US Rice Producers Association, rice is grown in enough quantities to necessitate state rice producers associations in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. I know of one company that is commonly distributed throughout Florida that sells rice grown in Texas, so I know that it’s entirely possible to buy rice that’s only grown in the US.

You have ascribed to me opinions which I do not hold and ignorance of situations, issues and history which I do not have. You have made assumptions about me, my life, even my nationality (clue: my location says London. That is not in America), and my mindset, which are wildly inaccurate, and which you have created in your own mind. I have specific ethical problems with the behaviour of the Israeli government (not the people) and I choose not to contribute to their economy. I don’t think for a moment that one person doing this is going to make even a bit of difference to them; but we all draw more or less arbitrary lines in the ethical sand, and this is one of mine.

You started out to attack me because you think teaching my students not to judge before they know the truth, and not to use these prejudgments to offend or insult people, cannot align with my statement that I won’t buy things from Israel. However this is not prejudice. Prejudice would be if I was refusing to buy anything those stinking Jews had rustled up (please know that I mean no offence by that, and that is not my opinion) without ever meeting a Jewish person or knowing anything about them. I have no problem with the *people *of Israel, or people who are ethnically or religiously Jewish. I just won’t give money to the Israeli government (which is not synonymous with the Jewish people no matter how people may use that fallacy to cry “anti-Semite” to every person who says anything negative about Israel) even indirectly through export licences etc.

I ask you again, how is this different from not buying things from Nestle or flying Iberia? I do not agree with them, on principle. It’s the same thing.

And now I’m going to bed. Really.

Very rarely. 1-2 per year perhaps. My SO eats it more frequently, and I do check to see it’s US produced - like nashiitashii said - before purchasing.

I guess it is because corporation boycotts are fare more targeted than a boycott of an entire people. Those innocents who draw sustenance from an " evil" corporation do have a choice to sever their ties. Innocent citizens of an entire country do not. After all who wants to take on all those Jews.

Regardless, Israeli boycotters, presumably concerned about the economic plight of Palistinians seem to have no care at all for israelis who are desparate for the security of their very lives.

Given that you are a teacher Teacake you have a tremendous influence over young lives and an ability to shape the future attitudes of the next generation far beyond my abilities. I suggest that you examine your pre-concieved notions of what is right or wrong vis-a -vis the Israeli/palistinian conflict.

I think you have a tremendous responsibility in that regard.