BrewDog: yet another hip company using 'rebel' language to sell its stuff

[Cerv]

out yesterday evening I spotted cans of Brewdog's Hoppy Xmas in the bar back fridge. that have presumably not shifted in 6 months.
from which we can conclude consumer boycott due to their shitty business practices is going strong, and so the company is doomed.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I hope so.

 

[billy_bob]

Nah. It just makes you slightly less of a hypocrite than many others posting on this thread

Actually, the point I haven't quite leant on as much as I meant to above is that absolutism itself is a lazy excuse for doing nothing.

Boycotting some terrible companies and supporting decent ones instead is better than doing nothing, even if there are many other terrible companies you're not boycotting. Boycotting Amazon is far from impossible, but it is increasingly difficult given their near monopoly in so many areas, and one of the big reasons I can avoid them is that I can afford to pay a couple of quid more on most things I buy purely to get the same item from somewhere less shit - not everyone can. But Brewdog products aren't particularly cheap anyway and it's easy enough to avoid them without being out of pocket. So if you boycott Brewdog and not Amazon, maybe you're not 100% ethical in every choice you make*, but you're still incrementally improving the situation more than someone who glibly dismisses the point of boycotting anyone because they're supposedly all as bad as each other.

* oh, and boycotting a company's products obviously isn't the only method of trying to work towards a better model of doing business. Plenty of people who don't boycott Amazon are doing loads more than I am in other ways to challenge their shitty practices.

 

[Serge Forward]

Why oh why do workers ever go on strike? After all, don't striking workers know that under capitalism, all bosses are bad? So just carry on, do nowt and knuckle under, cos that's capitalism. That's the logic if ElizabethofYork - only I don't think it is really, it's more likely a load of shit trolling.

 

[editor]

I don't buy Huawei products, because of the company's links to the Chinese state and role in the genocide of the Uyghurs. No doubt many people who do buy them know little to nothing about those reasons not to - you could argue they bloody should, but that's not the same as saying they're actively choosing to support something they know is doing harm. Many more people do know about those reasons not to buy Huawei but do it anyway. Are they culpable? To some extent yes - there are other tech companies making the same products. If this thread was about Huawei and those customers were on here defending their choice, I'd try to convince them with information about what Huawei is actually up to, but in the end it's their choice. But don't fucking dress it up as a consequence-free choice without ethical implications just because 'they're all as bad as each other'. That's pathetic.

Oh, and I don't buy from Amazon either. No doubt the same people calling anyone who does buy from Amazon but not from BD a hypocrite will be along any minute to call me a virtue-signalling wanker for mentioning that

Well said.

I'll never buy a Huawei product again, but anyone trying to establish some sort of holier than thou moral high ground because they use an Apple/Samsung whatever smartphone is a blazing hypocrite. They're all knee deep in worker exploitation, environmental rape and abuse.

Anyone using mainstream tech gear has got blood on their hands, and we're all guilty as fuck one way or another, but until I see people ignoring those concerns and urging people to buy those products because they're a cool happening punky brand or whatever, the comparisons are totally erroneous.

 

[JimW]

Actually, the point I haven't quite leant on as much as I meant to above is that absolutism itself is a lazy excuse for doing nothing.

Boycotting some terrible companies and supporting decent ones instead is better than doing nothing, even if there are many other terrible companies you're not boycotting. Boycotting Amazon is far from impossible, but it is increasingly difficult given their near monopoly in so many areas, and one of the big reasons I can avoid them is that I can afford to pay a couple of quid more on most things I buy purely to get the same item from somewhere less shit - not everyone can. But Brewdog products aren't particularly cheap anyway and it's easy enough to avoid them without being out of pocket. So if you boycott Brewdog and not Amazon, maybe you're not 100% ethical in every choice you make*, but you're still incrementally improving the situation more than someone who glibly dismisses the point of boycotting anyone because they're supposedly all as bad as each other.

* oh, and boycotting a company's products obviously isn't the only method of trying to work towards a better model of doing business. Plenty of people who don't boycott Amazon are doing loads more I am in other ways to challenge their shitty practices.

Yes, exactly. A boycott is an attempt to make things a bit better within the framework of capitalism as it's about all we have at the minute, no-one ever said it was a substitute for turning the whole lot over as is obviously needed.

 

[editor]

At last. Some sensible discussion on this thread, notably none of it coming from the hollering fanboys.

 

[Spymaster]

Actually, the point I haven't quite leant on as much as I meant to above is that absolutism itself is a lazy excuse for doing nothing.

Boycotting some terrible companies and supporting decent ones instead is better than doing nothing, even if there are many other terrible companies you're not boycotting. Boycotting Amazon is far from impossible, but it is increasingly difficult given their near monopoly in so many areas, and one of the big reasons I can avoid them is that I can afford to pay a couple of quid more on most things I buy purely to get the same item from somewhere less shit - not everyone can. But Brewdog products aren't particularly cheap anyway and it's easy enough to avoid them without being out of pocket. So if you boycott Brewdog and not Amazon, maybe you're not 100% ethical in every choice you make*, but you're still incrementally improving the situation more than someone who glibly dismisses the point of boycotting anyone because they're supposedly all as bad as each other.

* oh, and boycotting a company's products obviously isn't the only method of trying to work towards a better model of doing business. Plenty of people who don't boycott Amazon are doing loads more I am in other ways to challenge their shitty practices.

This is obviously arrant nonsense.

 

[Spymaster]

My word, there's some bollocks being trotted-out on this page!

 

[billy_bob]

At last. Some sensible discussion on this thread, notably none of it coming from the hollering fanboys.

This is obviously arrant nonsense. [end of argument]

Proving editor 's point there, thanks.

 

[Spymaster]

Proving editor 's point there, thanks.

See what I mean? Thoughtless guff.

 

[JimW]

My word, there's some bollocks being trotted-out on this page!

Take your contrast with Huawei - your chances on impacting a multinational backed by the Chinese state are minimal and still less through that influencing that state's policy in its ethnic minority regions; by contrast, a hipster beer company operating in an environment where reputation will impact their bottom line is much more susceptible, which is why they're green washing away and commissioning fake unions to absolve them.

 

[billy_bob]

Spymasterof course you think it's guff - that's to be expected - but it's not thoughtless. Your content-free smirking much better fits that bill.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Boycotting Amazon is far from impossible, but it is increasingly difficult given their near monopoly in so many areas, and one of the big reasons I can avoid them is that I can afford to pay a couple of quid more on most things I buy

I'm going slightly off topic here, but recently I have taken to finding out who is selling on amazon and offering them a deal outside of amazon. Quite often they have a physical store (or at least an Internet one) and are selling the same products, just not as easy to search for as amazon. I assume they are paying amazon fees. I called someone recently, asked if they would do something £10 cheaper than normal price if I didn't go though amazon and didn't get the 'free' amazon postage (collected it myself).
Ideally I wouldn't be asking for £10 off I suppose, but I think we both came out of it better off than an amazon sale.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

Why oh why do workers ever go on strike? After all, don't striking workers know that under capitalism, all bosses are bad? So just carry on, do nowt and knuckle under, cos that's capitalism. That's the logic if ElizabethofYork - only I don't think it is really, it's more likely a load of shit trolling.

That's not my logic at all. In the face of capitalism it's extremely important to be able to strike and take other industrial action.

 

[teuchter]

Please can I have some advice on the most ethically sound course of action, if I go into my local shop wanting some non alcoholic beer and the choice is between Brewdog's Nanny State (which I quite like) and Beck's Blue (which is slightly better than nothing).

I have to weigh up my definite preference for one beer over the other, against an essentially unknown difference in degrees of terribleness between the two companies.

 

[JimW]

Please can I have some advice on the most ethically sound course of action, if I go into my local shop wanting some non alcoholic beer and the choice is between Brewdog's Nanny State (which I quite like) and Beck's Blue (which is slightly better than nothing).

I have to weigh up my definite preference for one beer over the other, against an essentially unknown difference in degrees of terribleness between the two companies.

Glass of water. Preferably rain you've collected yourself.

 

[teuchter]

That's not my logic at all. In the face of capitalism it's extremely important to be able to strike and take other industrial action.

Indeed. I don't think Serge Forward was employing much logic at all in that post.

 

[Spymaster]

That's not my logic at all. In the face of capitalism it's extremely important to be able to strike and take other industrial action.

He's spouting testicles. You can always tell the degree of hogwash of a post by who "likes" it, and that one's got some proper doozies on it!

 

[ElizabethofYork]

At last. Some sensible discussion on this thread, notably none of it coming from the hollering fanboys.

"Sensible"

 

[billy_bob]

Come on, trolls. Can't we at least have bad-faith arguments that you've taken the trouble to form into sentences, instead of all this sniggering like the kids at the back who think calling everyone and everything lame proves how worldly they are? I don't think anyone's feeling quite as cut down to size by these cry-laughing emojis as you presumably think they are.

 

[krtek a houby]

Hmmm.

Really have to wonder what some of the participants on this thread are doing on urban.

It's all good letting off steam and having a wheeze, but there's something tired, broken and desperate about the forced hilarity and/or doubling down from some here.

It's akin to the trolling on FB or Twitter. It's gone beyond piss taking.

Cliché, but urban is better than this.

 

[Funky_monks]

I drink Brewdog relatively frequently just because they are so often the only decent non-alcoholic option available. Where there's an alternative, I'll usually always go for it instead, partly because of the issues with Brewdog that get raised on this thread. Of course, I'm never that confident that other companies are much better.

In the end though, if you want to avoid giving financial support to things that cause harm, you're much better off boycotting alcoholic drinks altogether, than a single brewer.

Deciding to be mostly teetotal is a much more meaningful and significant life choice to make, than deciding to not buy products from one particular company, and then make a big song and dance about it on the internet.

Ah, some neo puritanism, just what we need.

Perhaps you'd like to don a hairshirt whilst you are there....

 

[teuchter]

Ah, some neo puritanism, just what we need.

Perhaps you'd like to don a hairshirt whilst you are there....

I don't really understand how any of this has got anything to do with Puritanism. Can you explain?

 

[Serge Forward]

That's not my logic at all. In the face of capitalism it's extremely important to be able to strike and take other industrial action.

So shit trolling it is then.

 

[Serge Forward]

He's spouting testicles. You can always tell the degree of hogwash of a post by who "likes" it, and that one's got some proper doozies on it!

Playing the man, not the ball... guilt by association, etc, etc. You've got nothing beyond your usual tired old wank.

 

[Serge Forward]

Indeed. I don't think Serge Forward was employing much logic at all in that post.

As you're using the logic of Fraggle Rock, I'll wear your criticism like a crown

 

[xenon]

This is obviously arrant nonsense.

Oh go on then, how so?

 

[equationgirl]

Rubbish post. I demand you make the next one better.

We've been demanding adequate posts from you for years but you've never delivered, so not quite sure why you think you're entitled to demand more from everyone else...

 

[ElizabethofYork]

So shit trolling it is then.

Explain please.