Things that can strike a nerve

Certain issues push people's buttons.  One non-scientific measure of what pushes people's buttons are the number of comments people post regarding news articles.  On the LA Times website; as I write this, here are a few examples:

Federal judge declines to order an end to the Obama-era DACA program - 14 comments

Homeless people at almost every LA landmark illustrates the depth of the problem - 9 comments

El Salvador says 3 migrant children separated from their parents were sexually abused at US shelters - 1 comment

US and Canada fail to meet White House-imposed deadline to settle NAFTA disputes - 17 comments

Vegas' salute to the cannabis culture: a 24-foot-long fully functional bong - 11 comments

ER actress Vanessa Marquez shot and killed by police making a wellness check - 114 comments

Where is the collusion (regarding the Russia probe) - 142 comments

Democratic leader's call for In-N-Out burger boycott meets its own resistance - 363 comments

* * *

When it comes to In-N-Out, Californians have some strong beliefs.  The call for the boycott came from Eric Bauman, head of the California Democratic Party.  He learned from a story in LA Magazine that stemmed from a tweet from a Washington DC-based journalist.  Gabe Schneider tweeted out this:

In-N-Out added a new item to their secret menu. https://t.co/VtaCOuiNRp pic.twitter.com/tCRYqFGDEB

— Gabe Schneider 🗞 (@gabemschneider) August 29, 2018

He followed up with this "clarification"

Just some clarity: this statement from @innoutburger is misleading. The company donated to a pro-business PAC that supports Democrats and the CA Republican Party. They did not donate to the CA Democratic Party. pic.twitter.com/O2Kxd2dQsL

— Gabe Schneider 🗞 (@gabemschneider) August 31, 2018

There is just one problem with his clarification.  There isn't a single record of the pro-business PAC, Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy making a contribution to the CA Republican Party.  As you can see from this list of the contributions made by that pro-business PAC, they did not give a dime to the CA Republican Party in the current cycle.  Or the last cycle.  If you can find a Republican officeholder or candidate on that list, please let me know.  I gave up searching for one after checking 20 of them.

* * *

Facts matter.  Claiming something is a fact doesn't make it so.  

Boycotts can matter.  I don't care who calls for a boycott of whom, as long as the call includes the actual facts and not a misinterpretation of the facts.  

When there was a call for a boycott of Chick-Fil-A, I didn't care if people did or didn't join in.  Just as I didn't care years earlier when the support of anti-abortion groups and the Briggs Initiative
by Carl Karcher of Carl's Jr. fast food restaurants led to boycotts of the chain.  I engaged in a personal boycott of them for a long time.  

We are free to engage in boycotts.  We are free to call for boycotts.  But we shouldn't be free to call for boycotts with misinformation.