Originally Posted by
Adam1222
He chose to write a blog post about the risk of imprisonment for speaking. He didn't have to do so.
As for what business purpose it would have served for him to express any sort of thought about how that is wrong? I have more respect for businesses led by people with a moral compass. And I patronize them more. Of course, your post presupposes that Ben is not a travel writer, with any responsibility to objectivity or the truth, but9 rather a purely self-motivated businessman.
I agree I misspoke with my reference to totalitarianism instead of authoritarianism, which makes no difference. People with audiences have a moral obligation to condemn injustice. If Bens business relies on his systematic silence and acquiescence to significant human rights violations, then that is sad. It's not like Ben's business is something like a food or energy producer where you can argue there's an inherent value. He blogs about getting treated nice by airlines and hotels.
Sometimes you do things because they are right, even if they aren't good for business. That's kind of a sign of a good human being.
Do you expect miles/points and travel bloggers and all those writing about the US (as part of such) to publicly, loudly, explicitly and repeatedly condem the death penalty, police brutality and mass incarceration in the US when the US federal government and various US states participate in such acts that are considered significant human rights violations by many too? If so, does that mean that we should be flagging down as a "bad human being" anyone (with an audience) who mentions an airline based in Texas or Georgia or talks about flying to/within the US, or on a US carrier, without engaging in the vociferous motions of engaging in a politicized monologue of sorts critical of such perceived injustice?
I have been provided no evidence that OMAAT's founder is a bad human being. I do find that a lot of the personal criticism speaks poorly of the critics as it seems to be but an attempt to bully someone to act in a way that isn't necessarily all that natural to a person. Perhaps bullies are all great human beings?