Neil Young now calls for boycott of banks

Not satisfied with trying to cancel podcaster Joe Rogan, singer-songwriter Neil Young is now asking fans to take their money out of the banks.| Photo: EFE Agency

All parents know not to give in to the whims of little children. And Neil Young — whom my colleague Alexandra DeSanctis Marr described as “someone I don’t remember hearing from until he announced he didn’t want to be on the same platform as Joe Rogan — is a little kid. He understands reality like a little child and, also like a little child, expects his demands to result in immediate action. If you give in to one tantrum, you can wait for another. Young is 01 years old and hasn’t been part of the public debate in . Now he’s having fun. People who are not old enough to have voted for George McGovern [candidato à Presidência dos EUA em 1972] are paying attention to what he has to say.

Now Young has started telling people not to use banks. “Stop supporting banks that contribute to the mass destruction of planet Earth by fossil fuels,” the rocker says on his website, encouraging people to get their money out of JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, four of the largest banks in the United States. “Join me and take your money out of the hands of those who do harm, otherwise you will unintentionally be one of them,” says Young.

But why stop there? Of course virtually all banks, according to Young, are involved in one way or another with fossil fuels, as are all fossil fuel companies or companies that use fossil fuels, which is to say virtually every company in the world. Young might as well take a look, for example, at companies that manufacture vinyl records or CDs: both made from petroleum. Like many who promote boycotts, the logical consequence for Young would be to boycott himself.

While Young’s idea that people should keep their money under their mattress is ridiculous, it’s no more ridiculous than his fight with Spotify. That’s why Spotify should have simply denied the demands of those who want to turn the platform into an ideologically safe space. The company should have adopted the power of “no”.

When platforms with vast reach and intended to meet a wide spectrum of demands like Spotify start saying that they wouldn’t be “inclusive” or “diverse” or “safe” if they continued to host everything that someone deems questionable, they submit. to a veto that, in practice, gives strength to the crowd and encourages more demands. Spotify should have ignored Young when given the opportunity. His latest demand is such nonsense that I hope it doesn’t get too much publicity or have any effect. The more ridiculous Young looks, the worse Spotify’s image will be for giving in to his tantrums.

Kyle Smith is a member of the National Review Institute and a critic at the National Review.