> we can't punish a company for doing unethical things because of all the people who rely on them?

We live in a globalized world where not only every corporation but every individual has economic ties with China. That means if you want to target China, you need to boycott practically every company in the united states thereby grinding the entire economy to a halt.

This has obvious impractical standpoints.

>The fact that evil empire number 2's actions could arguably less terrible than evil empire number 1 is not a defense.

Defense for what? Nothing is being defended here. The only thing that I am stating is that not only is China an "evil" empire. But so is the US so is practically every country. In fact the better way to put it is, practically every country and every person isn't a saint. Most countries are guilty of something.

However due to the rivalry between the West and China, the media over emphasizes China's retaliatory actions towards terrorism. Yes it's wrong. But I can guarantee you, the violent slaughter conducted by the US on the middle east is on a scale far greater than anything China has done; And you didn't boycott any company for this. All companies basically stayed neutral in terms of their political commitment to the war. This is normal, but did you boycott The entire US? No. Your stated behavior and Americas behavior is anything but consistent.

Why so much hate for China? It's obvious. Economic Rivalry. China is well on it's way to possibly being technologically and economically superior to the US. That is the driver behind most of the media bias and your own as well. Anyone taking the crown away from the US has to have a bad side.

>I also completely reject the stance that piracy is theft.

Good. Nothing wrong with this opinion. However piracy does harm software developers, this is irrelevant to the existence of IP. https://www.macgasm.net/news/iphone-news/ios-game-battle-dun...

The money from software doesn't just go to pay a CEO's salary. It pays everyones salary and indeed the above link is an example of a company that went bankrupt because people didn't pay to play the game. The software developers lost their jobs. Consequences occur regardless of your outlook on piracy.

>This whole argument is toxic - we can't punish a company for doing unethical things because of all the people who rely on them?

No this is only toxic to people who see the world in terms of black and white. I'm not saying don't punish a company. I am saying the ethical complexity of the situation is too sophisticated to be solved by just "punishment" alone. Yet we have people like you trying to bend the entire world into a simple game of hammering a nail into a wall. The world isn't a nail, it's a complex diorama made up of millions of pieces and you can't just treat it like a dumb nail.

The point of my post is not to say who's right or who's wrong or whether you should punish a company. The point of my post is to illustrate the complexity of the world so that people stop posting stupid ass statements like "Oh I'm gonna boycott Kodak" Like dude get out of the mob mentality, things are NEVER that simple.

Not only is the morality of "boycotting" Kodak ambiguous and irrational, but the practical consequence of boycotting Kodak only damages our own country.