Boycotting Brawny & Northern, Going Forward

I had heard some time ago that major Tea Party funders and Fake-grass-roots-founders David Koch and Charles Koch, who own controlling shares of America's 2nd largest privately held company Koch Industries, had bought Georgia Pacific, but it did not sink in, how many products Koch Industries makes that touch most Americans' lives. Of course, a visit to their smoothly designed, public relations website showcases all sorts of recyclables, renewables, sustainables, and environmentally friendly products. Only the barest mention of logging, petro chemicals & pipelines are linked - products that generate the vast majority of Koch Industries Billions in private wealth.

And what do the Koch brothers (not to be confused with the stealthy and ubiquitously evil Family Founder Doug Coe) do with that wealth, beside fund Tea Party ads and rallies and websites and busing Tea Party members across the country to inflate rally attendance? They lobby to fight climate legislation, environmental regulation laws, OSHA and worker safety regulation, and generally work in ways that the Simpson's Mr.Burns would thoroughly endorse.

So while Brawny® is a quality paper towel, and Quilted Northern® is our favorite toilet paper chez nous... I am a firm believer in voting with my wallet. I try to buy all my retail alcohol on Sundays, to discourage blue laws (which Baptists in South Carolina loved to try to impose on all citizens). I've not purchased Exxon Mobile gasoline since the Valdez spill in Prince Williams Sound. I used to go out of my way to buy Citgo gas, before Hugo Chavez began arresting journalists and imprisoning Venezuelan opposition party candidates and became Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's (محمود احمدی‌نژاد) BFF.

So now I am going to not spend my hard earned cash on identifiable consumer products made by Koch Industries, since I do not want to be a hypocrite and a funder of Tea Party Extremists. We'll find a toilet paper brand that is almost as good, and use fewer paper towels (with old house cats, there's some things you DON'T want to pick up with a washable rag, seriously). We already have cut out buying water in plastic bottles, refilling reusable steel, glass, and ceramic cups instead here in the desert.

What you do with your income is entirely up to you - and I know I have the occasional angry blog visitor who makes dumb comments and who will BUY-cott Koch, just as they ineffectively tried to BUY-cott Arizona when SB 1070 was passed by the state legislature, and BUY-cott Hummer and other dinosaur brands that have no place in the urban landscape. And that's fine. All that buying helps to align those consumers with their core beliefs and preferences - I wish them all the best as they migrate to their future dystopia. I'll be sleeping each night knowing I am not endorsing evil.