How Do You Prove the Starbucks Boycott Doesn’t Make Sense? Boycott Everything.

So last week the phrase ” boikot Starbucks,” (“Boycott Starbucks”) was trending on Twitter. Why? Someone read a four-year-old article where the then-CEO of Starbucks spoke about the company’s support for same-sex marriage in the US.

This was enough to get the internet all worked up. Anwar Abbas and a long list of supporters including members of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), the Indonesian Regional Representatives Council (DPRD), conservative Singaporeans, and Malay nationalists backed the boycott.

Starbucks’ critics said that the company’s support of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights were not in line with Indonesia’s “national identity.” One even went so far to call same-sex marriage a “human rights violation” that would lead to the “extinction” of the human race. Forget disease, war, asteroids, and climate change, two men getting married is what’s going to finally end us all.

Let’s take a step back and unpack what’s going on right here for a minute. Twitter users were calling for the boycott of a foreign company over its support of same-sex marriage in the United States on a social medial platform that supported the same exact thing in Australia. Ironic much?

And are any of these companies explicitly calling for greater LGBT rights in Indonesia, Singapore, or Malaysia? Nope. (But that would be nice) Will this boycott affect Starbucks’ operations in Southeast Asia? Probably not. (Caffeine is seriously addicting, plus the world’s best coffee beans come from right here)

So then why does it matter? I guess it doesn’t. But there is still something that bothers me here (aside from the obvious anti-LGBT sentiment, which I’m not OK with). If you’re going to boycott one company (Starbucks) over its support for an issue you don’t agree with (LGBT rights) then shouldn’t you boycott all the other companies with the same politics? And how hard, exactly, would that even be? I decided to find out.

Time: 16:33
Location: VICE Indonesia’s office

So what would life be like if I couldn’t use any products from companies that support LGBT rights? Pretty difficult. I was reading this story where Apple CEO Tim Cook was openly talking about his sexuality, stating “let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.” The same year, thousands of Apple employees marched in the Pride Parade in San Fransisco.

I shut my MacBook Pro and put down by iPhone. This would already be way harder than most people would be willing to put up with. It’s also pretty hard to work when I’m employed in an industry where Apple products are the standard. I guess some people are going to have to make a choice between their ideals and their careers.

Time: 17:06
Location: Work

I suddenly remember I was supposed to meet a friend who just returned to Indonesia from New York. She was going to WhatsApp me, but then I remembered that Indonesia was already mad at WhatsApp over LGBT emojis. Facebook and Line too. In a country where WhatsApp is so ubiquitous that I use it for interviews, to talk to friends, and to share news and links, being barred from most mainstream messaging apps would make my life damn near impossible. Less than an hour after I started, this whole experiment already seems pretty doomed.

Time: 17:26
Location: Still at work

My colleague Yuda lent me his spare LG phone because I figured, at least it’s not Apple. But then I realized that the phone runs on Android, which is made by Google, who are also LGBT friendly. In 2014, Google changed the logo of the Winter Olympics in Russia into a rainbow to protest anti-LGBT violence by Russian authorities.

So what if I had a Windows phone instead? No luck there either. Microsoft, along with Nike, eBay, along with a long list of other companies supported same-sex marriage legislation in the US. That means I can’t use Apple or Windows laptops. I guess it’s low-tech only for me for the rest of this experiment.

Time: 17:35
Location: Still at work

I’m only one hour in and my life is already very miserable. Maybe this just shows how dependent Indonesians are on foreign-made products. I wrote in a notebook to get through my editorial meeting, but I really have no idea what’s going on in the world.

Time: 19:30
Location: The ride home

My workday is done, but since I can’t use my phone, I can’t order an ojek to get home. I use a Metromini, which is one of the city’s bus options, instead. And it’s actually pretty fun. I could easily fall asleep on the ride without having to worry about falling off the back of a motorbike. And since everyone else uses GO-JEK, Grab, and Uber, the Metromini is unusually empty.

But it does take a lot longer to get home. And I needed to walk abut 15 minutes back to my kost. This city isn’t really made for walking, but at least it’s exercise.

Time: 20:10
Location: Home

This is soooooo boooorrrrrring. I usually watch a movie on my laptop or read something online when I get home. But now I’m stuck with no access to technology. And I don’t even have a TV to watch (who does anymore?). But I had to be tough. Maybe this would be a good chance to think about my life and really get my shit in order. But instead I thought about what it would be like to live this way every day. The answer: Miserable.

Time: 22:02
Location: My bed

It’s three-to-four hours before my bedtime and I am already feeling exhausted by the mind-numbing boredom.

Time: 05:30
Location: My bed

I’m awake way earlier than usual. Maybe there’s a silver lining to all of this.

Time: 05:32
Location: My room

But what the hell do I do with this extra time? I usually need to look for story ideas to pitch so my editors don’t get annoyed, but how the hell am I supposed to find the ideas, let alone get them to my editors? Tie a piece of paper to a pigeon’s foot?

Time: 08:17
Location: My shower

I’m looking at all my bath products and feeling pretty sad. Nearly everything in my bathroom is made by Unilever and guess what? I can’t use those either. So I got a shower with just water, which means I basically got wet and then got out of the shower. I couldn’t wash my hair. At least I could brush my teeth. Oh wait…

I scanned my wardrobe and had to find clothes and shoes that haven’t yet made a stand for LGBT rights. So that’s no NIKE, no Adidas. I slipped on some other shoes instead and stepped out my front door for another day on the Metromini.

Time: 09:53
Location: The office

I’m back at work and feeling a bit dirty. It’s not just my hair either. I know this is just an experiment, but it’s also a long time to think this much about hate. As I walked up the front steps of our office, I saw the big sign we put in the front window beneath our logo that read HOMOPHOBIA and TRANSPHOBIA and felt a bit more relaxed. At least my workplace was a hate-free space. But then I thought about this whole experiment and wondered, should I boycott myself as well?

Time: 11:56
Location: Work

So experiment over. I couldn’t even make it one whole day. And at the end of it all I couldn’t think of any reason to expend so much energy hating a group of people, regardless who they are. Instead of getting mad about the politics of foreign companies operating overseas, how about we focus on actually getting to know one another, on reaching out and talking to all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender, or faith. Isn’t all this anger pretty exhausting?