I Am Politically Correct & Totally Uninformed on World Affairs:
said the Etsy Seller
Etsy has an abundance of sellers that prefer to put their head in the sand when it comes to international sales. There is such pride to say, “I sell internationally, I will ship anywhere” that they fail to realize things will go wrong, terribly wrong and that one small sale will mushroom into a nightmare with an angry buyer and a frustrated seller.
These are usually the same people who worry whether everyone else is being as politically correct as they are. The ones that jump on any band wagon for a cause and are upset about crimes against humanity. However, when they hear the ‘cha-ching’ on their wonderful fancy phone, they run to the forums to ask advice on shipping to a country like Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan or others. The countries with horrible crimes against humanity, who think nothing of beheading someone on video and posting it on the internet. The countries the USA has sanctioned. The countries that invade others with no regard for human life.
Now, when the USA sanctions a country, we don’t support any trade with them. That means small business or big business. This even means an Etsy shop of one person. The USA has put these sanctions in place for a reason. They have either violated international law by crimes against humanity, failure to follow nuclear weapons guidelines or environmental concerns. Sanctions can easily be found either on the official government site or the United States Postal Service.
When the head-in-the-sand seller does ship to the sanctioned countries rarely does the package get to the buyer. At this point the seller comes dashing into the forums, wringing their hands and wailing that the buyer wants a refund. They want to know how they can find their package, who do they find out information from and do they really need to worry about a chargeback. Yes, Buttercup, you have a problem. BUT, had you checked the USPS site or googled the country for sanctions, you would have found out the package going to the country could be in peril of not arriving. The black market thrives in many of these countries and the item probably never made it out of customs. No one in that country is going to talk to you about your package even if you do speak Russian, Pharisee or whatever. They aren’t really interested in your problem. The USPS will simply shrug their shoulders because they got it to that country, the rest is up to the receiving country, not them. And, hey, on their site they warned you not to ship to sanctioned country.
So, as the righteous people fill the forums with stomping feet and breast beating about how politically correct they are in regard crimes against humanity, the sweat shops, the unwarranted killings and degradation of women and other outrages, the threads grow long and full of self-pride how their careful lives reflect their stellar values as they wait for the sale to happen. And, when they hear that ‘cha-ching’, greed kicks in and all thoughts of being an activist flies out the window and they rush to fill the order. They send it off to the country we have sanctions against, where the postal service is run by crooks and USPS advises us not to ship to and they pat themselves on the back that they ship internationally. As the thoughts of being politically correct and worrying about humanity are put on the back burner while they complete this order. Then the next thread starts in the forum about an outrage in one of the sanctioned countries or here at home and they all jump on board to express their distaste for the events transpiring here or abroad.
However, challenge these sellers in-depth on the real issues and they may not even know what sanctions are, that there is a bungled Fast and Furious campaign which needs investigating, what the actual outcome of the Cadillac Plan means to Obamacare or any other important issue but they can tell you that they campaigned to remove the name Redskins because it wasn’t politically correct. They jump on the bandwagon that the media has created. They vote on what the media presents and never look below the surface. Their heads remain inches above the sand. They preach to the masses about how they are a citizen of the universe while under this façade lurks the heart of a true Daddy War Bucks. “Just give me a sale, Baby, just give me a sale. I’ll worry about my integrity tomorrow.”
meekamayesmarket 