100 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
100 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Pablo here</title>
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<meta charset="utf-8" />
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<meta viewport="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../styles.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<main>
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<h1>Hi, Pablo here</h1>
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<p><a href="../index.html">back to home</a></p>
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<hr />
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<section>
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<h2>Is your drug dealer a homophobic socialist?</h2>
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<p>
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Lately, I've noticed a branch of
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<a
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href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_culture"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener noreferrer"
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>cancel culture</a
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>
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I've come to find quite disturbing. I think it has mainly extended in
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the US, though I think it's starting to happen in Europe too. It's
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this tendency for people at companies to politically and morally judge
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business counterparties and come to the conclusion that business
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shouldn't be done with them because of it.
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</p>
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<p>
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I experienced this first hand during some afterwork beers, and for
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some reason the scene got burned into my retina. A colleague of mine,
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beer in hand, said something like, “We're working with this customer,
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and they're unbearable because they complain a lot and challenge us
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all the time when we run the monthly reconciliation. Plus, they're
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from Israel.” I was mindblown at how casually that was dropped, with
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not even a footnote-like explanation deemed necessary. I played my 5
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year old child attitude card and asked, "What's the problem with them
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being in Israel?" She said, "Well, you know, they're in Israel and the
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whole thing is happening. It's terrible. We shouldn't deal with them."
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</p>
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<p>
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I couldn't hold it in: I asked her if her hairdresser was from Israel.
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She look at me completely puzzled: “I don't know. Why does that
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matter?” I told her, “I don't know. Apparently, you're upset about
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dealing people from Israel, so I'm assuming you need to check if
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everyone you do business with is from there to not do it if that's the
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case.” Silent stood and the air got thick. Someone jumped in with a
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nervous joke to break up the tension that my child like questions had
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somehow brought to the room, and the conversation moved on.
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</p>
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<p>
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Ever since that day, I've come across this kind of
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social-justice-business-censor thinking pop up a lot. Since that fun
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first encounter, whenever someone points out at how business should
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not be done with <whatever ideology/country/demographic they don't
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like>, I started jokingly triggering them by asking, “Actually, are
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you making sure your drug dealer a homophobic socialist?” They
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generally laugh, not grasping how their stances on politically
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deciding to do or not do business with someone sound as ridicolous to
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me.
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</p>
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<img
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src="../static/homophobic-socialist-drug-dealer.png"
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alt=""
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style="width: 50%"
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/>
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<p>
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Here's what disturbs me: trade is a very civilized act. When we
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trade—whether it's goods, services, or anything else—we're putting
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aside our differences and doing something mutually beneficial. We both
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walk away better off. We hurt no one. We make things a tiny bit better
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overall. Deciding not to trade with someone because of some political
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detail which is completely irrelevant to the trade itself is
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backwards. Even if I didn't like communists, I wouldn't care if a
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communist is selling me bananas. It just doesn't matter.
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</p>
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<p>
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Seeing people blow up trade over politics makes me sad. I think it's
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ignorant and hateful. And I don't think they realize where that kind
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of thinking can lead.
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</p>
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<p>
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In the end, I just hope people can leave politics out of business.
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Let's do business and all be better off thanks to it.
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</p>
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<hr />
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<p><a href="../index.html">back to home</a></p>
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</section>
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</main>
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</body>
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</html>
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