Posted on 06/17/2020 4:42:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
In yet another slap in the face from far-left tech giants to conservatives, Amazon.com recently doubled down on its policy that prohibits customers from donating proceeds from their purchases to well-established conservative nonprofits like the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
While Amazon customers can use the AmazonSmile program to donate a portion of each purchase to left-leaning organizations like Planned Parenthood, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the Center for American Progress (and to be fair, to many right-leaning organizations, too), Amazon has decided to single out a few well-known conservative organizations like FRC and ADF from receiving part of the tens of millions of dollars the program raises each year from customers.
That’s because the company uses the radical, left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as the standard-bearer to decide which nonprofits customers are allowed to direct their contributions to.
SPLC has labeled some of the mainstream conservative organizations it disagrees with as “hate groups” and publishes their names in a directory alongside real hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. Amazon won’t allow any group that’s on SPLC’s “hate list” to participate in AmazonSmile.
The SPLC itself is a completely discredited organization. It bills itself as being on the front lines in the fight against racial inequality and injustice, yet last year, its own staffers accused its leadership of years of racial and gender discrimination and of widespread sexual harassment. Whistleblowers said that the organization had a “systemic culture of racism and sexism within its workplace.” As a result, its cofounder and president were both forced out.
With all this baggage and SPLC’s known bias against conservatives, one has to wonder why Amazon is using the center to determine which nonprofits are acceptable and which are not. Yet, recently, at the urging of Amazon’s board of directors, shareholders defeated a resolution that would have ended the use of SPLC’s defamatory list.
That means long-established, venerable organizations like the Family Research Council continue to be excluded from receiving contributions because the SPLC considers an organization that adheres to traditional Christian teachings about marriage a hate group.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a respected organization of Christian lawyers dedicated to defending religious liberty and free speech rights, was also designated an anti-LGBT hate group because of its defense of traditional marriage in the courts. SPLC also considers groups like the Center for Immigration Studies that advocate for stricter border enforcement as anti-immigrant hate groups.
The people at SPLC certainly have a right to disagree with these groups’ policy positions; but it’s unconscionable that they would label decent people as hateful and consider them on equal footing with neo-Nazis and the Klan.
It’s also unconscionable that Amazon would legitimize SPLC’s list. In doing so, Amazon is telling millions of its customers who share the same traditional Christian or conservative beliefs that they are hateful, too.
A piece of free advice for Amazon’s board of directors: I’ve served on several corporate boards during my career, and it’s just bad business to alienate upwards of half of your customers.
When Amazon’s board recommended that shareholders reject the resolution, it said, “The policies and procedures we have in place for our employees, sellers, and customers are intended to foster diversity and inclusion and promote respect for all people.”
How ironic. Amazon wants to show it is diverse and inclusive – just not diverse and inclusive enough to include religious groups that espouse traditional Christian beliefs or immigration groups that believe in protecting the nation’s borders.
While Amazon is within its rights as a private company to conduct its business the way it wants, consumers also have a right to complain to Amazon and to ultimately decide not to do business with the retailer if their complaints aren’t taken seriously.
In the wake of COVID-19, there are plenty of local businesses that need our support to help bring the U.S. economy back. Perhaps that fact, combined with Amazon’s refusal to change its ways, will provide the impetus for people to shop locally more often. Local business owners may have their own political opinions, but most are smart enough not to insult half of their customers by injecting those opinions into the shopping experience.
I have Amazon Prime and inquired about getting a pro-rated refund. Don’t think you can.
amazon CHEATS in taxes and pays no postage
but elects to help one side in its monopoly.
the monopoly exists because of the corrupt Congress
owning stock and getting kickbacks.
CW2 needs Robespierre. Please pick up the red phone, now.
I just thought of a question: yes the Left is totally hypocritical. But, isn’t there any legal basis the feds could go after these companies for discrimination to sell services to individuals based on their lifestyles?
“Southern Poverty Law Center” did a very clever thing when they selected their name... makes it harder to go after a bunch of thugs when they have ‘Poverty’ in their name.
I have Amazon Prime and watch the movies often. Noticed yesterday when I went to the movie list, they added a new section at the very top labeled:
Black Lives Matter.
Pathetic.
Well there goes another company I will no longer buy from. I am signed up to help support Wounded Warriors Project through my Amazon account. I will now support them all directly from now on. Forget Amazon, shop locally!!
Just about every major corporation has bowed down in submission to the great god of hate-America/hate-Whitey. There is nowhere left to take our business to.
You can donate to Judicial Watch.
Bake the cake
These days, I buy almost everything other than food and health products on the secondary market (I.e. used). I try to limit my interaction with PC corporations.
Not too shabby for just using Amazon Smile and directing your donation to the cause of your choice.
Many people will boycott Amazon, but I comparison shop, and when it is in my interest to use Amazon I will, if not I go with the best choice, where ever that may be.
As a Amazon Prime member for years, you cannot beat their return policy, which is if you want to return it in the first 30 days, just do it, no hassle and no charge and no bullshit.
Yeah, Bezos is a billionaire, but if Amazon didn't satisfy it's customers, it would just be eBay or so and so's list.
I use Amazon Smile when I have to and my donations are sent to Terri Schiavo’s Light And Hope Network. It stinks about SPLC calling the shots, but maybe consider choosing that charity as your choice?
ping.
Thanks. Just signed up to do this.
Received from Amazon today.
This is your quarterly AmazonSmile donation notification. Your charity, Judicial Watch, Inc., recently received a quarterly donation of $13,195.50 thanks to customers shopping at smile.amazon.com.
To date, AmazonSmile has donated a total of:
$86,161.66 to Judicial Watch, Inc.
$183,120,221.33 to all charities
Thank you for supporting Judicial Watch, Inc. by shopping at smile.amazon.com. You can track your impact throughout the year at your My Impact page.
Nice. A grown-up take on the issue.
Hardly. The Nazis passed laws banning the doing of business with Jews. The legal system has always been used by socialists to otherize people.
Some of us are smart enough to see where this is going, and some of us have to wait for the camp doors to slam to realize something went wrong.
No imagine you own that echo chamber, it's the only one, and you use it to artificially suppress one side and amplify the other? Scary what they are doing to our culture so quickly.
First, before you delete your Amazon customer accounts, show your displeasure with Amazon in public comments on the Amazon site. Then wipe your customer accounts.
Find the individual vendors wherever you can, and order directly from them or their dealers.
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