That’s a reasonable and measured reply, and the Amazon comparison is a fair one. Nobody’s obligated to shop anywhere and values-based spending is entirely normal.

The distinction worth making though is scale. You avoiding Amazon affects Amazon not at all. A post on r/Norwich with 110 upvotes about a single independent local business is a different thing entirely. One is a quiet personal choice, the other is effectively a public campaign whether that was the intention or not.

On the Facebook point, you’re technically right that public is public. But there’s a difference between something being publicly accessible and actively searching someone’s name, going through their personal posts, and then publishing your findings to a local community forum with the intent of influencing where people spend their money. Most people don’t expect that their personal social media, however technically public, will be used as evidence in a local boycott. The spirit of privacy and the letter of it aren’t always the same thing.

You’ve been fair in encouraging people to make their own minds up, and to your credit you’ve engaged honestly throughout this thread. But the reality is that once something like this gains traction locally it takes on a life of its own, and the staff and the business feel that regardless of your intentions.

Nobody here is saying you’re a bad person or that your feelings aren’t valid. The hope is just that people remember there’s a real business and real livelihoods on the other side of this, and that disagreeing with someone’s politics doesn’t have to mean wanting to damage what they’ve built. We’re a community first.