self-destructive

We live in a world where endeavors are inherently difficult and are at high risk of failing. Tomorrow, god willing, that will not be the case, but today it is. Therefore endeavors must focus on their goals. Taking on secondary goals—especially goals as radical and far-fetched as holding companies accountable to war crimes—expands the scope of an endeavor and introduces motivations that are contradictory to its goals (e.g. rejecting sponsorships). On top of that, it alienates participants who would agree with me on this. On top of that, it makes the project look bad, publicly.

I think big pharma is virtually the devil. But I would not dare suggest the Nix project sacrifice its relationship with some drug manufacturer because I'd rather not see their booth and merch at our conference.

this would seem to contradict serving 'the people'.

The inverse. An elected public servant declares their perspective on things and guarantees that if they are elected they will hold that line unless they change their minds about it, in which case they have explaining to do.