Ben & Jerry's Founder Is 'Top Donor' of Group Campaigning Against U.S. Military Support for Ukrai

[Xandric]

Source: The Daily Beast

A group funded by Ben & Jerry’s founder Ben Cohen is running a media campaign against U.S. military support for Ukraine.

The organization—Eisenhower Media Network (EMN)—has been reaching out to reporters to push claims that the U.S. is spending too much money trying to help Ukraine fight off Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/ben-and-jerrys-founder-ben-cohen-funds-campaign-against-ukraine-military-support

[turbinetree]

1. Well this makes me not to want to buy their ice cream .....

I guess they haven't been reading what has transpired in the last 5 years......

[FSogol]

5. Except that Cohen retired in 1994 and Unilever bought it in 2004.

Cue the next twitter outrage!



Gee, an antiwar group came out against war.

[paleotn]

9. That's why I generally don't like ideological zealots of any stripe.

The world is so black and white to them. Lets just give Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini whatever the hell they want. You know, peace and all that.

Cohen is a moron.

[betsuni]

26. +1

[yagotme]

59. "Peace in our time."

There's an oldie...

[speak easy]

27. Except Cohen is still involved in B&J

Ben & Jerry's co-founder announces new Bernie Sanders-inspired ice cream

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen is using ice cream to send a political message – again.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2019/08/02/bernie-sanders-ice-cream-ben-jerrys-co-founder-unveils-new-flavor/1906334001/

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. No, he's not - that's "Ben's Best" , a different company

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen is using ice cream to send a political message – again.

Cohen has created a limited edition flavor called "Bernie's Back" for his favored presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. It's a hot cinnamon ice cream with a chocolate disc on top and a butter toffee backbone going down the middle.
...
A longtime Sanders supporter, Cohen also created "Bernie's Yearning" in 2016 under the "Ben's Best" label, which is not affiliated with the Ben & Jerry's brand.

But this ice cream won't be sold in stores. Forty pints are being given away through a contest hosted by Sanders' campaign website and www.justiceinallitsflavors.com.

Link to tweet

[speak easy]

37. No. Cohen IS still involved with B&Js

[sl8]

38. What was Cohen's involvement with that flavor?

Google turns up a lot on the introduction of the flavor, but I'm finding nothing so far about any involvement by Ben Cohen.

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. How does a picture of a Ben & Jerry's flavour show that Ben Cohen is still involved in 2023?

It was (is?) an anti-Trump move, in 2018: https://www.benjerry.co.uk/whats-new/together-we-resist

Are you saying that the only way they could be anti-Trump is if Cohen drove it?

[betsuni]

35. +1

[bucolic_frolic]

2. B&J's pushed the Russian/socialist angle in their early days with Russian Nesting Dolls

I think it was sort of a VT thing, community, cooperation, wood heat. You really could buy Ben & Jerry's Russian Nesting Doll Sets. I still own one.

[markodochartaigh]

23. One of the few things that the old Soviet Union

has in common with Putin's authoritarian Russia is an expansionist foreign policy. I find it bizarre that so many well-educated and well-traveled US citizens think that Putin's Russia is a communist country, but that belief is very common.

[Beakybird]

3. Tucker Carlson Ice Cream. Fuck them!

[BidenRocks]

4. This would be on a par with

Elon!
Way to kill a brand!

[OMGWTF]

11. I've been driving an electric car (Chevy Volt) for nine years and I love it.

I aspired to own a Tesla Model S, but not any longer. I'd be embarrassed to drive one now.

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. Can you even name the correct brand?

This is a test.

[SunSeeker]

6. WTF I guess people tend to go nuts when they become super rich. nt

[LudwigPastorius]

7. All wars are hell, but all wars are not the same...

Most of the world is trying to help stop the Ukrainians from being slaughtered. If Mr. Cohen can't discern the righteousness of that cause then he doesn't have to contribute to it.

Instead of running an isolationist PR campaign, how about if he stopped paying his taxes that fund the arms going to support Ukraine. I thought old hippies were down with H.D. Thoreau.

[AZ8theist]

8. I don't buy their products. Now I don't need to start.

Slava Ukraini!!!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. I will change brands of ice cream

[CTyankee]

12. Me too. I love B&J's ice cream but there are lots of brands in our stores now so I'm good.

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. You're boycotting the wrong brand (nt)

[CTyankee]

41. OK. Tell me which is the "right" brand (altho I don't care very much)...

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. "Ben's Best" - see #28

Though it's hard find anything about "Ben's Best" since 2020. It may have just been his personal support for Sanders in the 2020 primary.

https://people.com/food/bernie-sanders-ben-and-jerrys-ice-cream/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Cohen_%28businessman%29

But if you don't care, why announce you're boycotting anything?

[CTyankee]

46. Well, I'm not boycotting anything. Just sayin' there are alternatives.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. OK - I took "me too" in reply to "I will change brands of ice cream"

in a thread about the bad ideas of Ben Cohen to mean a boycott.

[CTyankee]

55. Yep, I can see how confusing that sounds. Let's just say "avoid" his ice cream.

But, it's all the same I guess...

[NullTuples]

20. He hasn't been part of the company for *decades*

[ProfessorGAC]

54. 29 Years

He stopped running B&J 29 years ago. Unilever bought 10p% of equity 23 years ago.

[Javaman]

13. Meh. Another rich moron who thinks he understands

Foreign policy because he sells ice cream. Right

Wealth is a type of sociopathy.

[GoneOffShore]

53. Yeah, he's a 'tankie'.

[Mosby]

14. Ben Cohen just gave a journalism award

To a guy who defends Putin and Assad, and promotes Russian propaganda like Biden is trying to overthrow Putin, and Russian interference in the US political system is a lie.

Link to tweet

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. Haven't bought Ben & Jerry's for while

Looks like it's going to be quite a while longer before I do.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Wrong brand (nt)

[Crowman2009]

16. Thank gawd the local pizza joint sells gelato & sherbert!

buh-bye B&J.

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. Wrong brand (nt)

[Crowman2009]

17. Guess I'll have to make my own ice cream then.

Did the same with pizza not to long ago, with the dough being the hard part at first. I make a pretty tasty herb crust pizza.

[womanofthehills]

49. It's so easy if you have a Vita Mix or strong blender

I use frozen peaches, cream & sugar - blend for a minute and you have delicious ice cream with zero chemicals.

[blue-wave]

18. I remember he campaigned against

NATO membership for Poland, the Baltic’s and others. Send him to Russia, he obviously hates the west.

[Red Mountain]

19. I get it...

the guy might just be anti-war. All war. It is, after all, a waste of human potential at the most basic level.

I don't agree with the premise that defending yourself is bad. It is, in my opinion, a basic human right. Doesn't mean it will result in the best outcome in terms of minimizing the loss of human life but that's a calculation that we all have to make in accordance with our beliefs.

That said, I wonder what he thinks will happen if it comes to this:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/polish-ambassador-france-poland-forced-201021342.html

Poland’s Ambassador to France Jan Emeryk Rościszewski said in an interview that a situation could arise in which Poland would have to enter the war. The embassy urged audiences to refrain from sensationalising his words.

Quote from Rościszewski: "It is not NATO, Poland or Slovakia that are mounting ever more pressure, but Russia, which has invaded Ukraine. Russia, which is seizing its territories. Russia, which is killing its people. And Russia, which is abducting Ukrainian children.

Therefore, either Ukraine will defend its independence today, or we will have to enter this conflict. Because our main values, which were the basis of our civilization and our culture will be threatened. Therefore, we will have no choice but to enter the conflict."




Poland is a member of NATO.

[NullTuples]

21. That philosophy is okay with not stopping bullies or abusers. I just can't abide by it.

[blue-wave]

25. It's pretty basic actually.

Russia has no right to impose their dogma on any country or any people. No one and no country has that right. We are all born with free will as God's children and have every right to pursue our own path in life. The powers that be in Russia seem incapable of conceptualizing basic human dignity and freedom. That is their mistake and possibly to their demise.

Frankly, I don't think the B&J guy gets it either.

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. He is no longer part of B&J (nt)

[blue-wave]

51. Even if he's no longer actively engaged with

B&J, he will always be connected as on of the founders and long time promoters. I hope Unilever included a contract clause when they purchased B&J concerning the destruction of the brand by past principles.

[muriel_volestrangler]

52. He would no doubt argue that doing something in his own name is not "destruction of the brand"

And it's not as if he's been shouting from the rooftops "I, Ben Cohen, am funding this crappy 'media network' and its messages". I don't think a contract in the USA could say "the former owners can never take dubious political positions in the rest of their lives".

He may be "connected" in some people's minds, but that doesn't mean a boycott of the brand for his current actions makes an iota of sense.

[PortTack]

22. No more B&J for me!

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. Wrong brand (nt)

[SouthernDem4ever]

36. Maybe so but he's cashing in on his brand notoriety

so it's game on.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. So boycott HIM, not the unconnected brand

Have a go at him on Twitter and social media - tell everyone Ben Cohen is an arsehole. But why go after someone else's ice cream brand?

"Game on" - you make it sound like virtue signalling, to be frank. But you're aiming at the wrong target.

[SouthernDem4ever]

48. He doesn't care how it looks, why should I?

I retired from a company. If it was widely known, I would expect blow-back to affect my previous affiliation if I put myself in the middle of the political fray, especially on an issue of democracy over fascism. Also, I assume he made his fortune on that company as well.

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. This is about the flow of time

He had a stake in the company in the past; he is doing the things we don't like now. Trying to affect the company now will not affect the money he made from the company in the past. That's how time works.

He won't know what you do with the company now. If you did something like confront him now, then he would. He probably still wouldn't care, but at least you'd being doing something that might have an effect, rather than something guaranteed to have no effect on him, while punishing the workers at the company.

[ShazzieB]

58. I've got to agree with this.

For all the reasons you just laid out, I can't see any sense in boycotting a brand that belong to someone else, just because some guy who is no longer involved with it is an arsehole.

[DENVERPOPS]

24. Makes me think of

"First they came for Ukraine, and I did nothing, because I was not Ukrainian",
ETC

[Wonder Why]

45. I don't buy B&J products

I can't stand it when companies charge much more than others and donate a "portion" to charity. They are donating your money, not theirs, and the publicity makes them rich under false pretenses. Charge me less and let me get the "credit" for my donations.

I don't like it when someone sells me a $1 product for $1.25 and donates $.15 to charity. But if anyone wants to overpay me for any products, I'll be happy to give part of that overpayment away. Perhaps, if you pay me $2 for my $1 product, I can then donate $.50 to charity. Then I'd be really generous.

The same goes to places that allow you to round up your payment and give that to charity. They get the credit for being generous on your money.

That reminds me that there is a difference between a philanthropist and a thief. The thief steals from the poor. The philanthropist steals from the poor and gives half of it back.

I wish someone would give me a billion or so. Then I can live the life of luxury and when I get old, give most of it away so everyone remembers how wonderful I am and honors me for my "charity". After my death, the remainder can endow an institution so they erect a building or wing of one in my honor. Meanwhile, while I am younger, I can avoid the "unwashed masses".

[Joinfortmill]

56. Oh, boy, good luck selling your ice cream, dude.

[brooklynite]

57. Its a good thing he doesn't

Ben & Jerry's was sold to Unilever years agoi.