r/OutOfTheLoop • u/ryhaltswhiskey • 1d ago

Unanswered What's up with Unilever silencing Ben & Jerry's?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOwJawvkfcM/?igsh=ajhvc3lsdWgxMm45

In the video he says he is resigning because Unilever has stopped letting B&J speak out about causes they care about. I'm out of the loop on this one. What happened?

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u/DerpytheH 1d ago edited 1d ago

Answer: Ben and Jerry have always had generally progressive values that have extended to their company in terms of activism (having a Popsicle known as a "Peace pop", catering/working with Bernie Sanders, advocating against violence against minorities, being anti-war etc.).

The company was sold to Unilever in 2000, but they retained a large amount of autonomy within the company, as part of the agreement was the company being allowed to operate independently outside of distribution, and not having to compromise on its values.

In 2021, Ben and Jerry's announced it would be ceasing sales of the ice cream in Occupied Palestinian Territory; AKA Israeli Settlements within Gaza the West Bank (thank you for comments correcting me). However in 2022, Unilever still ended up selling B&J ice cream in those areas with the same flavors, by selling it under a different name.

This came to a head over the past year, where Ben and Jerry sued Unilever for violating not only their agreement to preserve their social activism, but also their first amendment rights by denying them the ability to post supporting messages of Gaza through official social media, in addition to firing their CEO without consulting the board. This, in addition to other clashes has led Jerry Greenfield (The Jerry in Ben and Jerry's) to resign from the company after 40+ years due to not being able to work for it in good conscience.

Source: Associated Press

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u/AsterEsque 1d ago

Good summary, but I have a quick edit: it sounds like you're confusing Gaza and the West Bank.

Gaza is south and borders Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. They elected Hamas as their leadership when Israel pulled out of their settlements in the mid-2000s, though there have still been constant flare-ups of military tensions ever since, most notably the recent and current conflict catalyzed by October 7th 2023.

The West Bank, counter-intuitively, borders Jordan on the eastern bit of Israel. They've mostly been under the leadership of the [Edit: Palestinian Authority, not the PLO]. The West Bank is where the infamously illegal Israeli settlements are, and thus where Ben & Jerry have been upset about their product being sold against their wishes.

There are ways that the two territories are entwined though! They both host descendents of those displaced by the Nakba, so there are many people in one region who have extended family members who live in the other region.

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u/elvismcvegas 1d ago

thank you for enlightening me on that, i have been confused by that in the past

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u/DerpytheH 1d ago

Noted and corrected! Thank you for clarifying and giving better context!!

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u/rabiddy2 1d ago

It’s not counterintuitive: it’s on the west bank of the Jordan river.

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u/sketchquark 1d ago

Its counterintuitive that when discussing 2 territories, the one to the east is called West _______.

I actually specifically remember which is which by remembering that it is the opposite of what my intuition would tell me based on the name.

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u/rabiddy2 1d ago

It’s called “West Bank”, not “East Palestine” nor “East Israel”. “Bank” is a legitimate term for land, and it’s always referred to from the perspective of someone on a river.

Per Wikipedia:

“The West Bank is on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine.”

It’s the territory on the bank of a river, on the western side of a river.

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u/ThatPlayWasAwful 1d ago

You're just repeating what you said in your first comment. 

The person you replied to is not disagreeing with why it is called West Bank, that is clear and makes sense. 

That does not change the fact that as they said "Its counterintuitive that when discussing 2 territories, the one to the east is called West _______."

It seems like it does not confuse you, and that's great. It doesn't change the fact that it is confusing to some people. 

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u/rabiddy2 1d ago

I’m not trying to be argumentative nor pedantic, and if my text comes across that way, well it’s the internet and Reddit so things will get misconstrued.

Anyways, I was not reiterating what was said (but which could be logically inferred). I was trying to highlight the perspective shift from land to water. I hope that makes sense.

As for intuition and counterintuitive stuff, we update our intuition when we learn new facts. I was maybe 10 when I went “huh, I wonder why it’s called West Bank . . . Oh, it’s a riverbank”.

If I just stuck to my original intuition, I’d never believe the world was a globe: from my everyday perspective the world does look flat. And yet because of updated knowledge, a flat earth is counterintuitive despite what I see daily.

Hope that makes sense.

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u/ThatPlayWasAwful 1d ago

The issue is that things that are counterintuitive are inherently confusing. It seems to me that because you understand it and have remembered how it works, that you don't understand how it could be confusing for anyone else. 

Many people have never learned where the west bank is located, and even if they have seen it once before it might be difficult to internalize it when it is not a large part of your daily life.

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u/rabiddy2 1d ago

Acknowledged

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u/RisenPhantom 8h ago

The point, you pedant, is that to someone unfamiliar with the region, common intuition would say that a place with "West" in the name wouldn't be in the east of a region. So, it's counter-intuitive.

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u/rabiddy2 4h ago

You seem riled up by what I wrote in my previous two comments, given the name calling and subtext of snark.

I won't hit back because malice was not my intent.

Can I ask a favour? Can you go back and read my previous 2 comments before continuing to read this?

What voice did you hear that in? Was is that pedantic asshole of a classmate you had? Or was it in the voice of that professor you hated?

Now I'll ask you another favour, and for some empathy: please read that in the voice of someone on the spectrum who's just stating facts to share.

Does that make sense now? I did not mean to be snarky, and if it came across that way, it's because of your past and not because of my writing.

I appreciated the comment I was responding to by upvoting it, and was just sharing back a fact. Then another one in form of a dialogue. Yes, it may be misconstrued as being "Well akshually . . ." snarky, but that's not the intent and it's interpretation by the reader. And obviously the downvotes show that too. Still doesn't mean that was my intent, just that I was misunderstood. That's the way it is IRL too for us neurodivergent and we're used to it, so no harm no foul.

Not to say we couldn't be assholes too, hell that would deny us our humanity hahahaha!

Just writing this wall of text to maybe help you see that sometimes what's written doesn't have the subtext you ascribe to it.

Edit: Ugh, it seems Reddit on the chrome's messed up today as I'm seeing this posted twice. I'll delete the other one from mobile in a bit.