Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:34 pm
So yes, this is a thing: #BoycottHamilton. You know, because the audience exercised its First Amendment right of free speech and booed our vice president-elect, Mike Pence, who, by the way, has also been booed at a baseball game in his home state.
So let’s boycott Indiana too, conservatives.
This boycott is rather silly as has been pointed out on that selfsame Twitter.
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Actor/comedian and Twitter wit John Fugelsang scores an excellent point when he tweets,
The irony of the #BoycottHamilton movement is that it's mostly folks who already boycott both hip-hop and knowledge of history.
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) November 19, 2016
Mrs. Betty Bowers provides a helpful Venn diagram to illustrate the problem faced by the boycotters:
A venn diagram of how much Twitter's Anti-First-Amendment #BoycottHamilton tantrum will affect @HamiltonMusical sales. pic.twitter.com/6VFHbgagC1
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) November 19, 2016
There are practical problems to be faced as well, as in how do you boycott something you can’t get tickets for because it’s sold out until next August?
Because this:
Work that math out…oh, wait…math, math Republicans do…never mind.
But hey, there are plenty of people willing to take tickets off the hands of those who no longer want them.
And then, not to be snarky…well yes, to be snarky, there is this not so little consideration:
Gonna be tough for these folks who are gonna #BoycottHamilton now. They'll have to locate NYC on a map, which will be very confusing.
— Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) November 19, 2016
Look, as ideas go, boycotting Hamilton is pretty stupid, for all the reasons given above. For one thing, the president-elect is wrong. People have a right to their opinion. People other than Donald Trump, that is.
For another, the show is wildly popular and a bunch of people who wouldn’t be going in the first place saying they won’t go isn’t going to hurt the play. But have fun with your protest. The rest of us will.
All the cast of Hamilton did was ask Mike Pence to defend our rights, as he will be sworn to do (what were they thinking?). Meanwhile, we’ll be waiting for Donald Trump to apologize to a disabled man for making fun of him.
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.
