How To Resist Silently and Effectively
Your power is in your wallet
Many of the people I talk to are horrified by the current administration’s attack on our Democracy and the rule of law but feel powerless. They may not feel comfortable attending protests or expressing their concerns to others. Their elected representatives may be Trump supporters. They may feel that voting is pointless and that any action that they can take personally won’t make a difference.
But there is a way to protest against the Trumpublican regime silently and effectively, and that is to vote with your wallet. You might think that boycotts are ineffective and/or futile, but there’s plenty of evidence that they can work.
“The most efficient and lowest cost / lowest friction way to cause a disruption in the markets is to go after the subscription based revenues of the six or ten companies that now account for 40% of the S&P.” - Scott Galloway
When Brendan Carr, Trump’s FCC Chair, threatened ABC and parent company Disney, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair immediately cancelled the show. ABC suspended the program and asked Kimmel to apologize. (Nexstar is currently seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2bn merger with Tegna.1)
The backlash was immediate. Hundreds of celebrities and politicians criticized Disney and ABC for caving to pressure while thousands of subscribers cancelled their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions2. Within a few days ABC, Nexstar, and Sinclair reinstated the show.
“I want to say this seriously, that campaign that you all launched, pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of Only Murders in the Building - that really worked. Congratulations” Jon Stewart
This is a perfect illustration of the lack of principle and cowardice of corporate America. The cancellation was done in fear of reprisal from Trump, and the reinstatement fear of lost revenue. There is no underlying moral calculation. The decision making is completely financial.
And we’ve seen this before.
Since Target announced cancellation of it’s DEI program on January 24th it’s stock price has dropped by 50%.3
Elon Musk’s DOGE debacle caused Tesla auto sales to plummet and Twitter/X ad revenue declined by half.
Since Jeff Bezos’ change in editorial policy the Washington Post’s daily paid readership has declined to under 100,000, down from over 250,000 just five years ago.4
So how do you use your power? Here’s a road map.
Resist and Unsubscribe
NYU professor and author Scott Galloway has put together a website, Resist and Unsubscribe, that identifies the small number of large corporations (Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Paramount+, Meta, Uber, Netflix, OpenAI, X) that are providing the data, infrastructure, and logistics that enable the Trump administration’s attack on our democracy. This may seem like a drop in the bucket, but Galloway points out that at their current valuations of up to 40X of revenues, any action that you take becomes much larger. For instance, cancelling your $20 per month ChatGPT subscription can result in a $10,000 decrease in their market cap. That’s a great return on your dis-investment.
So take a look at Scott’s website and do your part to send a message to the oligarchs that they’ll hear loud and clear. Leave a comment below with which of the tech giants you’ve stopped supporting.