Fox News’ Eric Bolling Says Progressive Boycotts are Economic Terrorism

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:07 pm

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Freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion – you know, those things only conservatives have. Any level of hate and bigotry can be excused by invoking freedom.

We have seen conservative countless boycotts against various companies – Target and Angie’s List have been recent targets – against movies and television shows, based on various objections, and one conservative group even wanted to boycott Labor Day.

Yet if someone other than conservatives call for a boycott, it is “economic terrorism,” says Fox News’ Eric Bolling.

The progressive-hating gang on Fox News’ The Five absolutely lost it when New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city is now reviewing its contracts with Donald Trump because of his “offensive and disgusting” comments about Mexican immigrants, that “When Mexico Sends Its People … They’re Bringing Drugs. They’re Bringing Crime. They’re Rapists.”

De Blasio’s actions – not Trump’s – left The Five co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle asking, “should government really be in the business of bullying over political correctness?”

Greg Gutfeld continued his over-the-top portrayal of a irascible truth-teller, saying de Blasio “is such an ass, he’s 45 percent crack,” and called the mayor a “barnacle of capitalism” who can only exist thanks to heroic figures like Donald Trump.

That’ when Bolling chimed in, complaining that, “MoveOn.org is petitioning to boycott Donald Trump’s products. They are economic terrorists.”

Freedom is not uni-directional. If Trump has freedom of speech, so too do the recipients of that speech. If Trump says bigoted things, people have a right to respond by calling him out for it, or by refusing to buy his products, or by watching his shows.

If it is bad business to continue a professional relationship with him, other companies have a right to refuse to do business with him – like Univision, or NBC, or Macy’s, which ended their relationship with Trump on Wednesday – because it will hurt their bottom line.

These other corporations are, after all, in the business of making profits. And Republicans – and Fox News in particular – always defend corporations.

That is, unless corporations do something they don’t like, as when they championed LGBT rights over Indiana’s business-killing RFRA.

It asked if boycotts are economic terrorism, then what is refusing to serve gays? That is a case of a store owner boycotting the customer, rather than the customer boycotting the store. Isn’t that then also a form of economic terrorism?

Guilfoyle asked, “Should government really be in the business of bullying over political correctness?” but that question can be expanded too, to ask if government should be in the business of bullying over gender or sexual preferences? Fox News is fine if the latter is the case.

In many ways, The Five is a worthy successor to Glenn Beck, whose replacement it was when it first aired. It is certainly designed to attract the same niche, that is, viewers who don’t care about facts, who want bombast over content. Like Beck, it’s got Roger Ailes’ hands all over it.

The Five’s gang of crack-heads are just continuing what Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity, Steve Doocy, and Bill O’Reilly have begun by leaping to The Donald’s defense. It is worth noting here that Bolling’s name belongs right up there.

This is the guy who said in 2011 that “I Don’t Remember Any Terrorist Attacks On American Soil” Between 2000 And 2008. This is the guy who said in February this year that there aren’t any examples of recent right wing terrorism in this country, despite the fact that right wing terrorist attacks are pretty much the only kind of terrorist attack we get in this country.

Just a couple of weeks ago (June 17) Bolling got caught out by Dana Perino, who used to lie professionally for the Bush administration but has apparently found she still has an ethic or two, and the triggering topic was Bolling’s bromance with Trump:

PERINO: And covering up for him is actually wrong. And I understand that you have a deal that you’re trying to work on with him. I saw the Twitter last night. I just don’t see how that’s any different than how another journalist is actually pandering when you said you’ve been trying to close the deal for years for you to be on Celebrity Apprentice.

BOLLING: Oh, my god. You actually think that I — I’ve been friendly with Donald Trump for 15 years.

PERINO: You’re the one that was shouting it from the rooftop yesterday.

BOLLING: Are you actually saying you’re going to accuse me of saying that Donald Trump has some good ideas that are resonating with America because I want to be on Celebrity Apprentice? Please tell me that’s not the case.

PERINO: I am saying it.

She said it. But that should be the beginning of the dialogue, not its end.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.