Whole Foods Customers Express Tolerance By Boycotting Over CEO's Alternative Health Care Ideas

Commenter JB flags this amusing ABC News story, with the great headline/subhed combo: "Health Care Stirs Up Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, Customers Boycott Organic Grocery Store: Branding Experts Say CEOs Should Stay Quiet When It Comes to Politics."

The lead of the story, which is about fallout from Mackey daring to utter a different prescription for health care reform than one favored by liberal Democrats, is even funnier:

Joshua has been taking the bus to his local Whole Foods in New York City every five days for the past two years. This week, he said he'll go elsewhere to fulfill his fresh vegetable and organic produce needs.

"I will never shop there again," vowed Joshua, a 45-year-old blogger, who asked that his last name not be published.

Fight on, brave Joshua!

This reminds me of a panel I was on with Mackey one month ago, about the legalization of marijuana, of which he is an equally outspoken proponent (much more so than President Barack Obama or the vast majority of elected Democratic politicians, for example). Should he stay quiet when it comes to those politics, too? And does Mackey's legalization position, which I'm guessing is closer to the position of Planet Joshua than Planet Obama, cancel out the CEO's unconscionable support for a different kind of health care reform? Or is it more that you're not supposed to oppose the president?