Totally agree. But the article seems to say that you should always acknowledge and support, even if you disagree. And I think that could come off as dishonest in some cases.
That's a fair point. I think the article is assuming that, in these cases, the companies are in the wrong.
This is actually interesting. I think there's probably a huge opportunity to communicate with your customers in this case. There's got to be a way to engage while respectfully disagreeing.
That would depend greatly on who you are engaging with. If you're dealing with your customer base, there absolutely is. They can and should be engaged as customers.
If you're dealing with a number of people who aren't your customers and were never likely to be, then you have a different problem as the presumed customer relationship isn't there. In this scenario you're dealing with people who don't care about your product and wouldn't buy anyway but mostly want to see you knuckle under. Engaging them as customers is a fundamentally misguided decision.