John Schwartz, a 57-year-old meditation teacher, got a brilliant idea, probably while meditating.
To show America's extreme displeasure with Donald Trump's policies and the unheard-of evolution of America into a place where the rich get richer, Mr. Schwartz wants all Americans to meditate for 24 hours.
Failing that, Schwartz wants Americans to refuse to spend any money for a day. He's calling the protest action an "economic blackout."
“They’re dismantling so many things in this country,” Schwarz said. “If people are going to step in and make a change that benefits the people, it’s now.”
Schwartz can't make the connection between oversized government and damaging the lives of individual Americans.
“We’re all exhausted. We’re all tired. Enough is enough,” Schwarz said. “We can’t sit back and watch these people boast about their wealth … and then we’re all sitting at home in anxiety and fear, not knowing how we’re going to make it till the end of the month.”
So, it's jealousy driving this protest? Watching people "boast about their wealth" isn't illegal. And who's doing that, by the way?
Is Schwartz trying to make a point that it was so much better when the Democrats were in charge and that things went to hell when Trump took office?
This is the leader of the anti-Trump opposition.
Schwartz isn't all talk and no action. He created a website — "The People’s Union USA" — to essentially unionize working-class people across the country, reports the Washington Post.
Schwarz has said his campaign is a "nonpartisan attempt at economic resistance against corporate greed, political corruption, and economic exploitation," reports NBC News.
So, he hates Trump but is "non-partisan." Got it.
Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said protest movements and collective organizing take time, especially as consumers deal with “the normal pressures of life.”
It’s also difficult to parse which online campaigns simply amount to virtue signaling — or “moral peacocking” — or actually motivate consumers to commit, he said.
“The ultimate test is: Are you willing to inconvenience yourself for your ideological point of view and to protest against something?” said Reed, who studies how consumers’ identities and values influence their spending decisions. “And for most people, the answer is no, especially if they can’t buy eggs and yogurt, they’re worried about other things.”
The Washington Post points to the successful boycott of Target following their mistaken belief that Middle America really digs those trans clothing lines and "gender-neutral" toys. There's also the grassroots destruction of Bud Light, which still hasn't recovered from using trans celebrity Dylan Mulvaney to sell beer to straight America.
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An economic boycott requires a significant investment of time and money into organizing. It also requires hundreds of volunteers to spread the word.
Schwartz is a one-man band.
“This is not just a protest. This is our warning shot. For too long, corporations have treated the American people like an endless source of profit,” Schwarz said in a video Monday. “They raise prices because they can. They pay workers the bare minimum while raking in record profits. They also lobby politicians to keep the system rigged in their favor. But what is it they fear the most? It’s us.”
Straight out of the Saul Alinsky "Rules for Radicals" handbook of protest. I've heard this crap since I was in my 20s in the 1970s. It's the "hidden hand" conspiracy where nameless, faceless corporations control our destiny.
Mr. Schwartz is delusional. And the best way to deal with his "economic blackout" is to ignore it.
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