Bud Light's woke and broke

By the standards of a mature beer business these numbers are near insane:

The owner of Bud Light has revealed a steep drop in US sales after the beer’s collaboration with a transgender social media influencer sparked a backlash.

The world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, revealed that US revenues dropped by 10.5pc in the second quarter of the year.

Inflation makes that YonY comparison worse of course.

On the specific issue we are, of course, the liberals that we always are. The entire aim of the liberal project is that consenting adults get to adult consentingly. As long as we’ve no breaches of Mill’s fist/nose interface problem then get on with life as you wish. We do only get the one pass at it after all so make it a good time by your lights.

This does indeed mean blokes in frocks - or, a different description, trans rights. Use whichever you prefer. The duty of everyone else is to allow and tolerate.

But we also illuminate a more general point here too. Who actually has the power in a capitalist and free market economy? Quite clearly it’s us as consumers. Even something - as here - as trivial as an ad for a beer can lead the capitalists, the producers, losing substantial amounts of money. Billions off the market capitalisation in fact. And all just because some of us consumers decide to switch where and how we’d like to spend our money.

That is, it’s us out here with the power over what gets produced. We’d even go so far as to insist that we have a duty to use it too. Maybe Lush and their greenie vibes do it for you - then spend your money there. Maybe the use of a trans influencer is right up your street - Bud Light’s pretty cheap at present so buying by your principles might even save money. Or, of course, the opposite could be true. Your values are met by some other combination of acts, influences and claims. So, go for it.

It’s the market part of the system that gives us the power over the capitalist part. So, yes, we should use that. Boycott, or buy by preference, according to your desires and views about life, production and everything. No, not according to our, but to your. The end result will be that liberal society we so desire - one designed and made by the revealed preferences of the 8 billion people around us.

And that is, in the end, what the liberal ideal is. The world that results from everyone having the freedom to, well, to be free.