Over
the
past
decade
plus
of
extreme
political
polarization
(not
originated
by,
though
dramatically
worsened
through,
Donald
Trump),
boycotts
have
been
deployed
by
activists
on
both
ends
of
the
political
spectrum
to
mixed
results.
Turns
out
it
is
really
hard
to
get
enough
Americans
to
give
up
convenience
in
acquiring
the
real-world
products
they
need
such
that
you
can
make
a
meaningful
political
statement
to
the
intended
recipient.
This
month,
however,
podcast
host,
author,
and
marketing
professor
Scott
Galloway
has
been
waging
a
unique
campaign
to
strike
back
in
the
face
of
ICE’s
lawless
operations.
Called
Resist
and
Unsubscribe,
Galloway’s
initiative
“targets
tech
and
AI
companies
and
inflicts
maximum
damage
with
minimum
impact
on
consumers.”
Resist
and
Unsubscribe
is
premised
on
the
idea
that
the
president
is
unfazed
by
citizen
outrage,
the
courts,
or
the
media.
Rather,
Trump
responds
to
only
one
thing:
the
market.
Galloway
correctly
recognizes
that
boycotting,
say,
certain
retailers
is
unlikely
to
have
a
significant
enough
effect
on
the
broader
stock
market
to
move
the
president.
On
the
other
hand,
seven
tech
companies
alone
account
for
more
than
a
third
of
the
S&P
500
index,
many
of
them
propped
up
by
massive
spending
on
AI
of
late.
Hurting
the
bottom
line
of
the
largest
tech
firms,
as
well
as
the
sycophantic
CEOs
running
them
in
accordance
with
Trump’s
whims,
would
actually
be
noticed.
Tech
companies
also
have
the
unique
flaw
(or
in
this
case,
advantage)
of
often
being
highly
reliant
on
speculative
measures
of
future
potential
revenues,
like
number
of
subscribers,
as
opposed
to
companies
selling
tangible
goods
that
are
valued
on
more
established
metrics.
Forgoing
a
few
of
many
available
subscriptions
is
also
a
relatively
easy
sacrifice
to
ask
of
the
individual
consumer.
All
this
means
that
consumers
like
ourselves
can
have
a
much
bigger
influence
on
market
capitalization
by
canceling
Amazon
Prime
than
we
can
by
skipping
a
few
trips
to
Target.
It
also
means
that
the
market
is
uniquely
vulnerable
to
consumers
who
are
willing
to
shun
AI
products.
The
first
step,
according
to
Galloway,
is
unsubscribing
from
OpenAI’s
ChatGPT
and
Anthropic’s
Claude
(if
you
are
among
these
platforms’
few
paying
users).
The
next
line
of
attack
consists
of
unsubscribing
from
other
tech
services
provided
by
companies
that
have
“outsized
influence
over
the
national
economy
and
our
president”
—
including
the
services
offered
by
Amazon,
Apple,
Google,
Microsoft,
Paramount+,
Meta,
Uber,
Netflix,
and
Twitter
(X).
Lastly,
Galloway
identifies
a
number
of
consumer-facing
companies
as
“active
enablers
of
ICE”
which
may
not
be
susceptible
to
the
standard
tech
industry
subscription
revenue
multiplier
of
10x
in
calculating
the
implied
market
capitalization
effect,
but
are,
nonetheless,
also
obviously
worth
avoiding
(I
will
provide
a
link
directly
to
Galloway’s
website
in
the
final
paragraph
so
you
can
easily
access
the
full
list
of
companies
along
with
convenient
“unsubscribe”
links).
Well,
I’m
a
little
late
to
this
party.
I
also
don’t
have
many
services
that
I
can
unsubscribe
from
to
begin
with
(two,
to
be
precise).
Nevertheless,
in
the
spirit
of
solidarity,
I
just
jettisoned
50%
of
my
subscriptions.
Goodbye
Netflix,
and,
hopefully,
hello
to
a
future
where
we
all
have
something
more
concrete
to
look
forward
to
than
the
next
season
of
“3
Body
Problem.”
The
Resist
and
Unsubscribe
campaign
runs
(at
least)
through
the
end
of
February.
If
this
is
the
first
you’re
hearing
of
it,
let
me
be
the
first
to
welcome
you
aboard.
I
have
friends
everywhere
(if
you
need
something
to
watch
now
that
you’ve
completed
your
unsubscribing
mission,
check
out
“Andor”
on
Disney+,
that
one’s
not
on
Galloway’s
list).
As
to
whether
or
not
this
is
working,
well,
all
I
can
say
for
now
is
that
as
of
market
close
on
February
24,
the
NASDAQ
and
the
S&P
500
are
definitely
down
for
the
month.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].