Originally Posted by
bellweatherman
Umm, yes it is. You use politics as your backbone for purchasing decisions. And those decisions are as flawed as your political reasoning. The great thing about travel is that you learn about other cultures and open your mind to how other people do things. Many parts of the world have customs, traditions, AND political ideology different from the USA. Your holier-than-thou attitude smacks of it own mental totalitarian system for which you want to impose on others by speaking so negatively of others buying decisions. I'm buying from China. And proud of it! Maybe it is you who needs to take a trip?
Of course I'm making a political statement by preferring democracy to totalitarianism. We each have to come up with some reason for preferring one product over another and mine isn't simply quality or price, but the behavior of the people who are selling it and what they will use their profits for. At the end of the day, they can do whatever they want, but it's my right to decide if I want to support them financially or not. I can't see why you should have a problem with that. We're allowed to have personal preferences, you know.
And as for your travel recommendations, I've been there, done that and gone you one further. I've been abroad, including China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and lived in Asia for many years, both of my kids were born there. I'm a guy who has seen enough to figure out what he likes. And I'm not a fan of totalitarianism and don't consider it bigotry to disapprove of it anymore than it would be bigotry to be against pedophilia.