Scott Altman observes that people organizing a boycott tend to imagine themselves participating in the Montgomery bus boycott. Their targets tend to imagine a McCarthy-era purge.
Scott joins me and student co-host Linnéa Selendy to discuss boycotts, shunning, and shaming. His examples reach well beyond consumer decisions: leaving a religious community, losing employment over political activity, and becoming the target of public humiliation.
He argues that social pressure can serve important purposes while also threatening people’s ability to live according to their convictions. We explore where he draws the line, and the difficulties he sees in his own account.