Hi, Pablo here
Is your drug dealer a homophobic socialist?
Lately, I've noticed a branch of cancel culture I've come to find quite disturbing. I think it has mainly extended in the US, though I think it's starting to happen in Europe too. It's this tendency for people at companies to politically and morally judge business counterparties and come to the conclusion that business shouldn't be done with them because of it.
I experienced this first hand during some afterwork beers, and for some reason the scene got burned into my retina. A colleague of mine, beer in hand, said something like, “We're working with this customer, and they're unbearable because they complain a lot and challenge us all the time when we run the monthly reconciliation. Plus, they're from Israel.” I was mindblown at how casually that was dropped, with not even a footnote-like explanation deemed necessary. I played my 5 year old child attitude card and asked, "What's the problem with them being in Israel?" She said, "Well, you know, they're in Israel and the whole thing is happening. It's terrible. We shouldn't deal with them."
I couldn't hold it in: I asked her if her hairdresser was from Israel. She looked at me completely puzzled: “I don't know. Why does that matter?” I told her, “I don't know. Apparently, you're upset about dealing people from Israel, so I'm assuming you need to check if everyone you do business with is from there to not do it if that's the case.” Silent stood and the air got thick. Someone jumped in with a nervous joke to break up the tension that my child like questions had somehow brought to the room, and the conversation moved on.
Ever since that day, I've come across this kind of social-justice-business-censor thinking pop up a lot. Since that fun first encounter, whenever someone points out at how business should not be done with <whatever ideology/country/demographic they don't like>, I started jokingly triggering them by asking, “Actually, are you making sure your drug dealer a homophobic socialist?” They generally laugh, not grasping how their stances on politically deciding to do or not do business with someone sound as ridicolous to me.
Here's what disturbs me: trade is a very civilized act. When we trade—whether it's goods, services, or anything else—we're putting aside our differences and doing something mutually beneficial. We both walk away better off. We hurt no one. We make things a tiny bit better overall. Deciding not to trade with someone because of some political detail which is completely irrelevant to the trade itself is backwards. Even if I didn't like communists, I wouldn't care if a communist is selling me bananas. It just doesn't matter.
Seeing people blow up trade over politics makes me sad. I think it's ignorant and hateful. And I don't think they realize where that kind of thinking can lead.
In the end, I just hope people can leave politics out of business. Let's do business and all be better off thanks to it.