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Being an Overly Political Jagweed? There’s an App for That!
Good news! Technology is now making it easier than ever for you to make every moment of your mundane existence a statement about your most deeply-held political beliefs. From the Washington Post:
If you’re a Republican, you might want to think twice before buying Lipton Iced Tea, and forget about Starbucks coffee. If you’re a Democrat, put down that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, and throw away the cylinder of Quaker Oats in your pantry.
But knowing who to direct my solipsistic preening at is so hard! There has to be a better way!
These are the sorts of conclusions that BuyPartisan — a new smartphone app that The Post’s In the Loop featured last week — encourages you to make. After you scan the bar code on products with a phone camera, BuyPartisan accesses campaign finance data and offers a breakdown of the manufacturer’s political giving — examining contributions from its board of directors, its chief executive, its employees and its associated political action committees. The Quaker Oats Co., for example, scores an overall average of 78.5 percent Republican. Starbucks is 80.75 percent Democratic.
Yes, BuyPartisan — for when you need to be a self-righteous prick … in a hurry.
When I was a speechwriter in the Bush White House, I had a standard practice for superficial social interactions: I lied about what I did for a living — not because I didn’t want to take any of the president’s grief (that was unavoidable), but because I hated the idea of immediately introducing politics into a conversation with a perfect stranger. I’ve never thought it necessary to know how my waiter feels about gay marriage or what my plumber thinks about Iraq (I’m pretty sure he’d keep tactical nukes on the table). Best I can tell, their concern for my ideology only extends to hoping I’m enough of a fiscal conservative that my check clears (suckers). This is how we wed the adjective ‘polite’ to the noun ‘society.’
Here’s the thing: I give people money for goods or services that are worth more to me than the cash. I feel no duty to police what they do with that money thereafter because it’s their money — and because I’m not a psychopath who thinks that one commercial transaction gives me an equity stake in everything the recipient does from there on out. I hope for the same courtesy from anyone who’s paying me (this is my gentle attempt to get Ricochet to lay off of me about the macaw smuggling).
Are there limits to this principle? Sure. If Starbucks decides to open up a chain of boutique abortion clinics where you can get a skim chai latte and pick up the newest Joni Mitchell EP while you wait to snuff out the unborn child inside you, I can probably find another place to get a cup of coffee. But it’d take something on that scale. Short of that, I have neither the time nor inclination to police the supply chain of every transaction I make for sufficient skepticism of the administrative state.
Let’s stop pretending the trend of which BuyPartisan (someone deserves welts for that name) is the pathetic apotheosis is about ‘social consciousness.’ It’s not. It’s about narcissism. It’s about ensuring that even the most pedestrian aspects of daily life are yet another opportunity for you to billboard your manicured sense of morality. It’s about offering you a dozen opportunities a day to deliver sermonettes on whatever issue you became passionate about immediately after you heard it discussed on The View. It’s about giving a patina of respectability to supercilious scolds and buzzkills.
Develop an app that keeps me at arm’s length from those people. Then we can talk.
Published in General
Totally agree with you here, Troy. In fact, I wrote a quasi-academic paper a few months back arguing almost exactly this same point: that virtuous people don’t politicize all their everyday purchases, and that using shopping as a way of expressing your deepest convictions is pitiful and sad. But you make the point more concisely, and are far more entertaining along the way.
I really think political shopping is just another way for people whose lives are basically pretty empty to give themselves something to feel good about.
As far as politics go, I am involved with my ballot. That’s all. I haven’t seen a reason to change that. Should I?
As just some guy at the tip of the Eastern European spear, I don’t see what I can do other than try to be an opinion leader.
Not for nothing, but I think Troy and Liz Lemon are the only two people who use the term jagweed.
Great post. Great comments. I don’t think every purchase should have political strings attached. But when the creator of a product has publicly gone out of his/her way to tell me they think I am a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal (i.e. The Dixie Chicks, Bill Maher, Sean Penn, Garrison Keillor) I choose to not support their commercial ventures with my hard-earned cash.
On one level I can commend those who wish to truly live their convictions. The problem I have is that things like this app, for the majority of those who use it, are mere pretensions. They do not actually have convictions about political ideologies, theories, or policies. They are simply running with the herd and gaining a sense of moral satisfaction from it.
I now have a Troy-crush. Read this aloud in the newsroom. The more seasoned reporters and editors laughed. The youngest member of the staff – recent J-school grad who thinks he is smarter and more socially aware than he really is – just sniffed and kept scrolling through Buzzfeed.
I don’t know, Troy. The more these Left wing “capitalists” work to finance the destruction of free markets and rugged individualism, the less I want to buy their products. My tendency to put politics aside for a tasty Frappuccino is actually helping the Left to finance the destruction of my personal freedoms.
As the Left gets closer to actualizing their psychotic fantasies, I’m waking up to the realization that I don’t really want to engage in free trade with them. If there’s a company out there that can offer a cool, caffeinated treat without bankrolling the oppression of my children, would it not make sense to look for an alternative?
One person’s narcissism is another’s self-preservation instinct. I may have to risk being a self-righteous prick and check out the app…
That, and totalitarianism.
Troy,
Can we recycle the picture of this pretty girl for some of your future posts?
Thank you
As Oscar Wilde said, “The trouble with socialism is that it takes too many evenings”.
Somewhere on Mr. Senik’s spectrum, we’ve switched our pharmacy from Target, which contributes big-time to Planned Parenthood and just the other day announced it had signed, as a corporate entity, a pro-buggeracious “marriage” petition.
Now if there were just some way to boycott Red China.
I have one that I like to throw into random comments. And as midge says: “[I] only think she’s so gorgeous because she looks like [my] wife.” Fair enough.
Troy, I agree that there are certain things that should be completely politics free, but is the destruction of your country worth less than the good or service you are attempting to purchase?
“Here’s the thing: I give people money for goods or services that are worth more to me than the cash. I feel no duty to police what they do with that money thereafter because it’s their money.”
Some things are unavoidable, but buying Starbucks, which has obvious financial power, in stead of the local coffee in your neighborhood (if you are lucky enough) is then used to tighten the shackles on your wrists and ankles. I refuse to buy GE products or any American made car. Why? Because I know that on some level the money from that purchase will be used to further enslave me in some way to the State. Novo Americana delende este.
The difference is you do not need “dug-down-deep-data” from an app to know where Starbucks stands.
She seems environmentally friendly.
Since Troy brought up the subject of pretty girls… Is there a dating app like this? Snap a photo of the girl across the bar, quick photo recognition brings up her voting record. If not, dibs!
So what is to be done about those non-necessity purchases where the political stance is less obvious? I remember a few years ago being in a Books-a-Million and finding in the politics section a simple blue book on political donations. In it I discovered that Jos. A. Bank gives mostly to Republicans while Men’s Warehouse gives mostly to Democrats. Prior to that, I had never shopped at Men’s Warehouse and bought a few things from Jos. A. Bank (I like their commercials and non-stop sales). After that moment, I became a staunch Jos. A. Bank fan.
On the other hand, Sonic seems to favor Democrats more than not. That’s a tough one for me because there is nothing like a Super Sonic Jalapeno Cheeseburger. It’s all about choices I suppose.