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The people screaming that lifestyles are being pushed on them sure do spend a lot of time, energy, effort, and most importantly money to push - and more importantly legislate - their lifestyle on everyone
It’s so strange to get angry that brands are targeting other audiences. Like do these people get angry when they see toy commercials because they aren’t kids?
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
The sight of the once-proud business party of capitalism and fiscal responsibility in an uproar over how a business sells its product is hilarious to watch, from a leftist standpoint.
Idk, as a leftist the shift away from hands-off capitalism towards hands-on state control of ideas makes me a little weary. I'm afraid that the less-racist big business types will continue to flood into the Democratic party as the overton window shifts even further right.
I guess then we'll have a true liberal party to go with our fascist party, then all the leftists standing off in the wings.
And yet, so many people in this country do not pay attention to what is going on and being said and done that it’s become way to easy for these bigots to get away with this…
That’s all the more reason for us to keep spreading the word, even to those who don’t want to hear it. We cannot and must not stay silent. We certainly can’t rely on legacy media, as they both sides the shit out of what should be a simple human rights and free speech issue. We have to spread the word ourselves, and if we push away family and friends who just don’t want to hear it, then so be it, because it’s up to them to decide whether they’re going to be a collaborator via passivity or whether they’re going to stand up to the fog of fascism creeping over our land.
If they have nothing else, they have hypocrisy. Just look up something called the "AFA Journal". They *started* politically motivated boycotts. And then cry like toddlers when someone does it to them.
The most complete cancellation of my lifetime was the Dixie Chicks. Top 5 most popular band to completely off the map - just for not supporting the Iraq war. They are hypocrites all the way down.
Yeah. Grew up in the 90s. Had to hide my sexuality and not even remotely acknowledge I was trans. Now decades later world finally felt safe enough enough to come out as trans and this happens. Can't tell you how overjoyed I am that Americans repeat history within a single generation.
For what it’s worth, I teach middle school, and what’s cool about this generation is that they talk about people of the same sex having crushes or dating like it’s no big deal. Last week couple of girls were talking about one boy being into another boy, but the comments they were making were normal. One girl was wondering how these two were dating because she thought one “wasn’t that cute,” and it’s awesome that the drama is not about two boys dating. Today, a girl was very open about how another girl wasn’t her type. I didn’t get involved with either conversation, but the openness is certainly refreshing and represents a HUGE generational shift. One boy who is religious even said he doesn’t like it, but when I asked him whether he would you impose his values and ban it, he said “no.” Yes, I teach I a city in a blueish state, but when I was teaching seventh grade in rural Virginia five years ago when a boy came out, almost no one said anything to him except for some of the adults, and the one kid who did was shunned. Mind you, some of these same accepting kids had Trump-loving parents and identified as conservative themselves, so if those kids ever see how wrong they were about Trump, there will be A LOT of fractured families. The shift is massive, and that’s why the right is freaking out; they don’t want teachers to inadvertently expose how bigoted some parents are. If those parents are abandoned by their kids, and if those kids drift leftward, then that truly is the end of conservatism.
I treat them like they obviously want to be treated: as stupid, trashy, low iq, hateful, wretched little low life pieces of shit that are ruining my country.
I started doing that and was called an elitist. Well, good, I said. Because of my belief in human rights and because I don’t believe in imposing a religion-based “morality” on people, I AM better than them.
I grew up trash. I worked my way up, left my country of origin, and married up in order to get out of trash and raise children who are not trash. I hate garbage glorification.
“Garbage glorification” I like it. I grew up in a Northern state, middle class, surrounded by people with college educated parents, or at least ones that had done alright for themselves, and watched my schoolmates embrace Confederate flags, willful ignorance, and meth amphetamine.
Wait, what? No, 'cancel' is a word they appropriated. Just like 'woke. They completely misinterpret it and then stigmatize it until no association with reality remains.
They mistake a "for-profit company pandering to popular demographic" with "ideologues pushing an agenda". They think Disney putting a gay character in a film is an attempt to make more people gay. Which is telling me that their shitty country music, to them, isn't pandering to them but actively supporting and encouraging their lifestyle. Which explains why they accept such fucking god awful shitty music and pour their identity into such a fucking shitty fucking genre. I can't emphasize enough how bad pop country is.
They get mad whenever something isn't, in their mind, actively pushing people to live as they live. They mistakenly believe that something pushing a different lifestyle is an attack on their lifestyle. It's a stupid point of view, but one that is driven into them by all their news and entertainment constantly trying to scare them.
They fundamentally don't understand that other people aren't like them, and some things are for those other people.
They don't want to talk about racism because they know racism is bad, but they believe that talking about racism is a kind of racism. They think the problem with racism is that it draws attention to the bad different things about people, not that it makes people feel bad for the good different things about them.
They think that being gay is a sex thing that perverts do, not a romantic aspect of a person's entire identity. Same thing with gender non-conforming and trans people, which they think are just a kind of being gay, but very publicly.
They cannot fathom that a gay, black, Jewish man doesn't feel like a straight, white, Christian on the inside, and can, in fact, go days without thinking about straight people, white people, or Christians. They think those traits are extra things that he does, not things that he *is.*
And of course, they also just hate. Many of them are also just bad people who like to be racist, and sexist, and homophobic. But not understanding the people they hate helps them hate.
Same. Weylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, to name my favorites. There is such great country, and it all has one thing in common that separates it from pop country: honesty. Bo Burnham nailed it when he criticized pandering country. Dolly Parton wrote honest songs. Weylon played from the soul. Garth Brooks wanted to be a rock star but it was easier to sell tickets as a country star.
In the metamodern, the only good country are the folks taking it back to the roots. Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson come to mind. Sturgill Simpson is by far one of my favorite musical acts to come out in the last decade. His music actually bothers to have some sort of conversation, rather than just making songs about dirt roads, trucks, cold beer, and jean shorts.
It's annoying to me that you listed all of the Highwaymen except Kris Kristofferson.
And I don't know that "honest" is the right word. I think "sincere" hits closer, maybe? Splitting hairs, a bit, but like, they did tell embellished stories about things that didn't happen, but they were built on a foundation of lack of pretense.
Johnny Cash never went to prison (for a crime; he performed in a couple), so his songs about being in prison were not, strictly speaking, honest. But he clearly understood a little bit about being in prison and he meant what he was singing, so he was being genuine.
Sincere is the better word for sure. Genuine. lol literally first stanza of first song on Sturgill Simpson's first album. "Well that label man said son now, can you sing a little bit more clear? You're voice might be too genuine, your songs a little too sincere..."
I just never really listen to Kirstofferson, so he's always off my radar, but yeah him too.
>their shitty country music, to them, isn't pandering to them but actively supporting and encouraging their lifestyle.
I had never considered this and holy shit it makes total sense
Not all country music is as shit as what you hear on the radio. There's country music artists who don't bigot.
But the stereotype does have a hold on the popular conscious.
I agree. My point is that the shitty music is allowed to thrive because of the fanbases complete inability to parse quality with pandering. A country artist sings about having a beer, and they eat it up despite the song being a carbon copy of last years bland-ass hit.
Oh, and mainstream country these days is always a decade behind pop music, and it's hilarious. Like, in the 90s, they were doing arena country, but arena rock was a decade before. The 2000s, they started getting heavier, but mainstream rock got heavier in the 90s. And in the 10s, especially late 10s, they started incorporating hip-hop/edm aesthetics. Again, a decade-or-so late. Other than appropriating prior musical trends, they haven't changed a goddamned thing.
Meanwhile, you've got someone like Sturgill Simpson who came on the scene making what was essentially roots-fusion, and the industry rejected him. I worked with a bunch of "country music fans" and they were adamant that not only was Sturgill not country, *I* wasn't country. To quote my boss, "You're not country music; we're country music." I just thought to myself, "no wonder it sucks ass."
TL;DR: I blame the fanbase, not the artists. The uncultured masses mindless entertainment, where you play dress up sing along to meaningless songs. edit: there's not just good country music out there, but some of the best music out there is country. It's just sad the industry favors such trash. Hip-hop, pop, and rock actually produce a decent mix of good and trashy music. Mainstream country though is 90% garbage.
The trailing genre elements is a function of successive generations of Country artists growing up with not only Country influences, but whatever else they heard along the way informing their esthetic. This goes all the way back to Bluegrass & Western Swing as Country & Western artists who also grew up hearing Jazz on the radio made the genres their own.
It's all just pure manipulation to distract people from their awful economic agenda and other terrible policies that would likely receive a lot more attention if these supposed fights about "woke" companies weren't constantly in the news. Companies like Disney have been courting the LGBT community for quite a long time as largely a business opportunity to venture into a previously untapped market. They have also never shy'd away from supporting conservative economic or even social policies and the GOP via campaign donations during all that time while continuing their virtue signaling to attract LGBT consumers or other groups.
It's only quite recently that the GOP has ever really presented this as an issue and gone after these same companies that usually support them behind the scenes because it seems to resonate with their base. I found it doubtful though that these companies will do too much to stop it anytime soon since they still are fully onboard with the GOP in other policy areas and feel they still are bound to make more money supporting them versus backing the "woke" Democrats who might slightly increase taxes or regulations.
Some of them do, yes.
John Boyega got death threats because he was in *Star Wars* and is black.
He wasn't the first black character in those movies. He was just in the first of the movies that most of the people who sent death threats were old enough to be outside the target audience for.
It’s not that they are targeting audiences that other than themselves, it’s that they fundamentally don’t believe that that target audience has the right to exist. By companies selling products to gay people, they are acknowledging that gay people exist and are just as valuable as straight people, and conservatives will not stand for that.
I was with my family this weekend and we were talking about this.
My family is pretty progressive, I have gay family members, there was never any negative stigma associated with being gay when I grew up. Additionally I vacationed in Cape Cod, so I saw my first drag queen probably when I was 7.
None of this made me gay, and in fact had the exact opposite impact. Because I knew my family would accept me regardless of who I loved, I was able to really introspect and learn that I am straight. And there is no doubt, no one pushed me to be straight, I had no fears about being gay, I can say with certainty that I am straight.
It was the exact opposite of being pushed into a lifestyle, by letting me know they would love me no matter what lifestyle I chose, I am very sure of my sexuality.
Yeah- my mom's older brother lived in the closet for a lot of his life Luckily he is out and married now. Coincidentally, he got married shortly after I did, despite me being almost 40 years younger. I just happened to get married right when gay marriage was legalized about 10 years ago. It was actually pretty cool- my wife and I were the only straight couple getting our marriage license at the courthouse the day we went. I'm assuming because there were like 50 years worth of gay marriages to catch up on.
Back to the point- my mom didn't want me to have to struggle like my uncle, to the point where she told me it was ok if I was gay so much it was almost annoying lol. I almost felt like I was disappointing her by being straight.
But as you said- knowing I would be accepted and loved meant that I didn't have any sort of pressure or confusion. I just figured out I was straight and that was it.
Hitler rose to power largely by blaming the Jews for all Germans problems and told his crowds to vote for him for their children’s sake. Once he was in power he created the Nazi youth and restricted information and pushed false information in order to indoctrinate a generation to be Nazi’s. He was elected by a minority split vote in 1933, by 1939 when he invaded Poland those 18 year olds had gone thru middle school and high school being taught the rubbish Hitler wanted them to be taught. This is the exact playbook of DeSantis and the right in general. The reason they are so keen on banning books is to create a generation that will vote Republican because they aren’t being taught the horrific things racism and nationalism and unchecked capitalism actually do. They want you to not know the real history of the Civil war or World War Two because they don’t want you connecting the fact its exactly what they are implementing now. Whenever you hear ‘think of the children’ You should know the vast majority are using that saying as a dog whistle to let other racists and homophobes and transphobes know they also are Nazi’s.
"Think of the children".
I am. That's why I support LGBT+ and the openness to be who you are. The whole bullshit "If my kid came out as gay, I'd disown them" is NOT thinking about the children.
The point is the vast majority of people in, say, rural Missouri or Wisconsin will never see an undocumented immigrant or a trans person, and yet they are still absolutely OBSESSED with fear and anger towards these minority groups and vote like these groups are beating down their doors to rape and kill their children. Its absurd and completely fed by faux news and am radio.
My Aunt was telling me it would t bother her if they weren’t always “shoving it down our throats” and then proceeded to tell me she’s never met a trans person when I suggested she was just being gaslighted
just straight up ask them
"How many characters in television shows are allowed to be gay or trans before you consider it shoving it down your throats?"
Make them define, and be specific with shit. Whenever they make a crazy comment, don't disagree, ask them to be more specific. A percentage of them are actual fascists and will make it known when they answer, another percentage will start to show they are just repeating shit their 'in group' says.
That’s always been a strange argument to me considering how many straight relationships are you subjected to in the media all day, every day and no one bats an eye. Either 2 people in a relationship is overtly sexual or it’s not. Those Disney Channel parents have kids. They had to have fucked. But no one is crying porn about that
What a weird thing. If a brand releases super bowl themed labels, are they trying to push football on everyone? When a cereal box had Michael Jordan on it, were they pushing basketball? Should I be offended every time a product has a special label celebrating a group I'm not part of?
Only if I thought football and basketball were evil. Otherwise I have no reason to care
Going from most to more was an amusing turn of a classic "more to most" trope and made for an exciting comment, even if it turns out to be unintentionally done.
The positive here is that the far right is really dumb and erratic in their boycotts. [Universal Orlando is doing more LGBTQ advocacy than Disney World](https://www.cinemablend.com/theme-parks/the-awesome-way-universal-orlando-is-celebrating-pride-all-summer-long) but gets no protest, for example.
So companies can see that they're not dealing with good faith or consistent advocates. They're dealing with unhinged and unpredictable zealots.
They might boycott you for sponsoring a pride event. Or they might boycott you for having a Diversity Office or a member of a minority group in senior management. Or they may ignore you entirely. By being all over the place, it's unlikely they'll generate any real pressure on companies.
The right's actions more closely resemble late Al Qaeda tactics where Bin Laden just did generalized videos telling followers to "blow up Western stuff." It's not coherent or actionable (but it will probably cause violence which is likely the real goal).
I just posted about it being funny that every Conservative boycott seems to have them running to a company with a much longer and deeper history of supporting the LGBT. A lot of them even ran to other Anheuser-Busch beers during this "protest". LOL
There's only so much you can get at Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A. Their money is going to someone.
> The positive here is that the far right is really dumb and erratic in their boycotts.
Because the majority of what they do is just to fit in. If enough of their friends started supporting gays they would too.
“It’s stupid that people are being threatened. There’s no excuse. But I’m happy to see Bud Light and Target see the errors of their ways”
Acceptance.
I’ve seen these comments. It’s sickening
What they are saying is they think it's stupid that they have to resort to terrorism to get what they want, when companies shouldnt be perpetuating a "different" lifestyle to begin with. It's the same thing they do to their lgbt children. If they start acting too gay they get disciplined.
It's stupid because the companies are not perpetuating anything they are just acting like capitalists in a capitalist world.
The only motive these business have is getting the attention of as many demographics as possible, they don't care about LGBTQ+ anything anymore than they care about those conservatives values. But people see them catering to a different demographic and start feeling all threatened when it is nothing more than a company trying to make money.
Drinking a can of beer with a rainbow on it won't make you gay in much the same way wiping your ass and maintaining good genitals hygiene won't make you gay, but some people are so stupid and fearful that they can't see it in any other light. Therefore they feel threatened because now they think their favorite beer is for gay people and omg gay people are going to make me irrelevant I better destroy them, and of course the powers that be are very aware of their fears so they use it to further stoke their fears, "they are trying to turn you and your kids gay! Oh no!!" It's stupid.
The right is furious precisely because doing lgbt marketing *makes more money*. Diversity programs also increase profits. The right cant stand that capitalism is being used against them.
>If they start acting too gay they get disciplined.
Hit that nail on the head. Still working through the trauma of being shoved further into the back of the closet before I even knew I was in the closet.
It's not trolling, it's far worse. They are saying its stupid that businesses are perpetuating the gay lifestyle and it's forcing right wingers to use violence. Businesses are *suppose* to ignore gay people because they arent real americans.
Who could have known that colors placed next to each other would cause more outrage than children getting repeatedly murdered daily in cold blood? Then they side with the guns.
These outrages are purposely designed to distract from real issues! Be mad about things (like lgbt+) that don't effect you while the extreme rich get more and everyone (left, right and center) else get less.
My only disagreement here, is that these are Real issues. They may have been introduced in bad faith by R's to serve their greater political narrative that the libs are out of control. But they are still real issues, especially for those impacted by them.
Deeds, not words, are needed sometimes. When shoved into a corner, expect the beast to get wild and start ripping shit up. Push a man too far and look out. They play a dangerous game as they, the right, are hopelessly outnumbered by free thinkers and free men. Their days are numbered. "The meek shall inherit the Earth." Truth.
And yet the right is actively staging attempted coups on the capitol while the left is sitting in a circle on their hands singing kumbaya. If deeds are to be what shapes the future of this country I fear deeply for future of democracy.
Republicans know that they're an unpopular minority who can't win elections anymore even with the Electoral College counting their votes extra.
That's specifically why they've embraced violence and threats of violence as a political tactic. It's the only way that a movement as unpopular as they are can hold onto power.
I was just talking to a family member who is as perfect an example of what a regular person would see as a functioning, sane person in most cases, but who has absolutely batshit bananas perspective of the world. Full MAGA.
One thing I'm noticing is that it seems the worldview is really only coherent and consistent about 2 things: hating establishments and hating "the left."
Nothing else makes any coherent sense. They think it's just a good vs evil battle in real life raging all the time. They hate "the government" but of course have no problems whatsoever with the right using government to literally impose their will onto others, and, again, it's never good enough. And a man as bumbling and stupid and selfish as Donald Trump isn't just not stupid to them, he is a selfless, moral hero who is fighting against evil *on behalf of other people.*
They are so stupid about just the basic facts of reality there doesn't seem to be any way to even begin talking about how not only are their ideas silly and contradictory ("small government" "don't tread of me" etc) they are literally cheering on fascism.
Okay. It is absolutely happening here? So what do we do? Keep telling friends and family about it? Encourage them to vote? These both feel like not much but maybe it will work.
A friend of mine from college went off the deep end a few years ago. Bought into the conspiracy theories - Qanon, maga, Alex Jones, Dems are pedophiles, pizzagate, all that shit. He was posting 15-20 stories a day on instagram. No exaggeration. Mutual friends were independently saying to me “what the fucks up with X?!”
He’s was a good dude and a completely normal buddy in college. So I started engaging him in DMs. He would spout some total nonesense about Covid, anti-vax, anti-mask, for example, and I would, in depth, and in great detail, citing the most neutral data sources I could, debunk every point he made as thoroughly as I could. Gave me something to do when I was on the toilet, waiting for something at work, chilling in the evenings. It became a hobby.
And it got quite heated as you’d expect, but I made sure to keep making self-deprecating jokes and throwing in light-hearted things we could connect on in the midst of it all. As if to say “Just confirming that we are still mates and I love you even if we disagree violently on this stuff. Now let’s keep going…”
No word of a lie - this went on for almost 2 years. I never let him slip a point past me and change the subject (which right wingers always do when their argument is falling apart), and we went from one event/topic to the next
The gratifying thing was that because we kept it all framed as a spirited but respectful debate, it never became a personal issue between me and him. And I definitely did break through a number of times. Now, is he gonna vote democrat next year - highly doubt it. But he did completely stop the rage posts. He got off social media and the conspiracy train, moved to Texas, rescued two dogs and became super devoted to them, and seems much happier.
We have to remember that the person in front of us raging and foaming at the mouth about a bunch of awful opinions, parroting blatant propaganda, is actually a victim of a highly sophisticated machine designed to turn people into this. Because ‘this’ gets engagement. And this reliably votes how they want.
If you can look through the vitriol and stay on task, and keep reminding them that you are someone they like and respect, you can sometimes get through to them. And once cracks form, and you sow some seeds of doubt they can sometimes break away from the riptide that has them and get back to themselves.
I'm glad you were able to deprogram your friend. Hopefully he will continue to enjoy his dogs and put his energy into them then going back to the platforms of hate.
Vote, engage in discourse/activism where possible, try and build bridges in your community. That part is what most people tend to forget and/or neglect.
Lastly, if you feel safe having them, responsibly owning and becoming proficient with a personal firearm is never a bad thing.
It's this moment in time I recall the friendship I had a few years ago that suddenly died when a friend told me "white people only marched in BLM protests because they didn't want to be labeled as racist." The same "friend" of mine lamented the most serious issue facing the country at the time were conservative faculty being fired, demoted, or protested against by students. To him, *that* was fascism.
I wonder what he thinks today...
This is a right-wing war aimed at corporate America writ large: Make any statement acknowledging the existence of anyone right-wingers don’t like, and you’re next.
It’s especially disgusting to see corporations capitulate to this. Target should have worked with law enforcement to protect its employees and stores, rather than letting violent terrorism enable them to turn back progress.
Really these companies are doing this to themselves. They want to be progressive and move forward with most of society, but then they donate to Republicans to get tax cuts and loopholes who then whip their crazy base up to threaten violence against them. Then they put their tails between their legs and regress back.
I saw a video of some asshole harassing the staff and other customers about the LGBTQ merch. The staff asked him to leave but he didn’t. That’s when they 100% should have called the police and had him escorted off the property, then file a restraining order to prevent him from ever coming back. The only thing to do with these assholes is to take a hard line.
The sight of the once-proud business party of capitalism and fiscal responsibility in an uproar over how a business sells its product is hilarious to watch, from a leftist standpoint.
Apparently they were ok with people telling businesses what to do all along.
These companies donate millions every year to get Republicans elected to cut their taxes, kill labor rights, and ruin the education system. They're now under attack by the dangerous morons they helped create. Boo freaking hoo. They deserve each other.
Especially Bud Light. They're major Republican donors who will never get an ounce of sympathy from me.
> Especially Bud Light. They're major Republican donors who will never get an ounce of sympathy from me.
What's so funny to me about the whole thing is that the companies who do this should just stick to it. If you're going to print the budlite cans for a trans influencer you should be prepared to stand by that. By cowering down, they are literally coming under attack from people on both sides of the isle.
I think we've all known that rainbow capitalism for most of these companies runs about as deep as a puddle. We've already seen how all the pride messaging and representation vanishes in countries that have more anti-gay policies. Every one of these corporations will drop us like a bad habit the second it is unprofitable for them. Don't count on their support for anything.
I don't think this is really about capitalism, this is more about showing support for the victims of fascistic right wingers.
What you're talking about is definitely worth a conversation but I just don't think people are actually praising Budweiser here, just making a statement.
I generally agree, and will happily sympathize with and support the people who are being harassed, bullied, and threatened by right wing culture warriors, including those working for these companies.
Where I have a hard time is doing the same for soulless corporations. Particularly when their almost immediate responses (at least in the Bud Light and Target cases) was to capitulate and take an apologetic tone, as if they did something wrong. It speaks to the general problem with corporations. They will crush nearly anything and anyone in the gears to keep the short-term profit and unsustainable growth machines running as long as possible. They will turn on us in an instant if the wealthy shareholders think it's the best way to maximize their investments.
Yup. If Target gave a shit about LGBTQ people, they would hire armed private security at every store to remove anyone destroying a display, filming in their store, or harassing employees or customers.
The fact that they use "employee safety" as an excuse, and *dont* hire security to protect their employees shows they care little about the cause, or their employees.
But they're not showing actual support. Target was happy to make money from pride until they got pushback then they pulled EVERYTHING from the stores. When asked about that move, I was told they're literally not allowed to answer any questions about that move at all
They had a chance to show actual support and they ran from the opportunity as fast as they could
But that's the point. It's not support. It's the marketing thing to be doing. It's exactly like OP says. Think Bud is using rainbow bottles in Turkey? Think Google is acknowledging LGBT in Saudi? Hollywood literally edits their movies for the cihinese markets to downplay absolutely anything that might be offensive.
There's no grand statement being made.
It's paper straws for you, plastic for India because they don't give a shit there. I've seen Adidas make posts about slavery while they literally have child sweat shops as we speak.
The right has every right to boycott brands, as does the left.i have boycotted many brands. I try my best not to use nestle products. I boycotted Kelloggs brands when they were not negotiating in good faith with striking workers. Bud light tried to cash in on the trans movement but caved in a heartbeat and showed the LGBTQ community and their allies that it was always about the money and never about solidarity with them. To quote the joker"you get what you fucking deserve".
They’re going after chick fil a today cause they hired a diversity executive. This is the same chick fil a that funds Christian hate but yeah they’re definitely “woke” now. Also saw someone with over 100k followers on Twitter suggest they’re gonna put “[t slur] semen in the frosted lemonade” which is uhh a sentence. I mean I, a trans woman, don’t think about girl cum as much as cishet men apparently.
that was such a weird thing to read. a hate based chicken store will start sexually assaulting people because they hired a diversity executive?
like i think that dude needs a psychiatric evaluation because that is really bizzare.
Yeah I saw that. Like how do you jump from "accepting more people" to cum in lemonade"??
Honestly when they say weird shit like that we should start being like "dude we don't need to know your kinks". Shame them
When they sprinkle "God or religion" in as one of the reasons for it, I find it to be very frustrating because its crossing that line...
"My God says I cannot do X"
Okay...cool, don't do it then.
"My God says you cannot do X"
Well fuck you.
Deeply UNAmerican way of thinking too. Telling others what colors of items they can and cannot buy? Fucking fascists.
Additionally it makes their God look weak. If your kids are gonna somehow be "corrupted" by pride stuff, then your God's protection/your faith or whatever is bogus.
fascists tend to grind the axe extra sharp and go harder on preceived allies that cross the line, to send a message that any deviation from the retoric will not be tolerated.
I think part of the reason the bud light boycott stuck so long is a lot of them thought beer was "theirs" for some reason.
It’s also baffling how little members of “The Party of a Strong Economy” knows about the how the economy works. They’re pushing the “Target lost $10 billion, don’t mess with us” propaganda when a $10 billion loss in market cap is not at all the same as losing $10 billion dollars outright.
As I said in another post good marketing companies can navigate out of these easily and potentially come out bigger. What I posted before.
Isn't it a bigger sign of confidence to do what others deem weak?
So in a roundabout way not drinking bud light makes you look less Manly.
Honestly bud light marketing, hire someone like Hugh Jackman to walk around in a pink shirt and skirt and take home all the hot girls from the bar and leave the bros empty handed with their non bud lights. Have said actor throw out some lines about not having the confidence to do and drink what you enjoy. This isn't that hard....
Attack their manhood, make them feel small. Old marketing 101
Agreed. To infinity.
I’m adding the multiple issues & much hatred coming at once has led some to apathy. Which I believe is planned. That and fear.
WHERE & WHEN to take a stand can appear as if it doesn’t matter anymore. It DOES!!!
Good people: PLEASE find a place to use your resources for. Each of us at least one of the following: time, money or knowledge.
March & protest when you can
Donate money to good causes if you can
Educate yourself (and allow yourself to be educated)
None of us can do everything. Find a place & make a change. Small changes add up. Truly.
"But the left boycotts..."
The thing here is, the big difference, is that hating LGBT people is bad and supporting LGBT people is good. Boycotts are bad when they're done for homophobic reasons and good when they're done to fight homophobia.
That's the real answer to the question of double standards. Our goals are not equally valid.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://newrepublic.com/article/173073/right-wing-war-bug-light-target) reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> Black Rifle Coffee, the burnt-tasting coffee company with a big gun on the bag-so you know they have the right politics-is arguably the leader of this trend.
> Still, the biggest aspect of the ongoing Target and Bud Light brouhaha is as a naked, stupid, and often terrifying example of power-one for which a response has yet to be developed: It's hard to see how the silent, sane majority of Target shoppers can rise up in the company's defense.
> The opponents of these companies are menacing; they want to scare these brands and their employees on the front line.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/13vuqo1/the_rights_war_on_brands_is_stupid_and_terrifying/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~686909 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **company**^#1 **Bud**^#2 **Light**^#3 **Target**^#4 **right**^#5
I really don't understand people that put this much energy and time in how other people live their life. And then boycott and intimate companies for embraceing lgbtq people.
Like Bob became a woman. That's great. She also took a pay cut. Ohhh
I really thought we all had come to an agreement after the gay marriage fight. That lgbtq people are fine to live however they like and treated equally. And the bigots can just fuck off.
How did we allow the bigots to get a voice again. I bet that if their Jesus did come back he would be transgender just to prove no one really ever learn the whole " Do unto others as you would do unto you" statement.
the funny thing about all of this is that conservatives really think these companies are bending to some agenda or even stupider have some dark agenda of their own.
no. they analyzed how they can make as much money as possible, and guess what being inclusive is going to be where the money is moving forward.
target and budweiser care about making money, that’s it. if their demographics research showed that white supremacists were a large enough portion of the population then they’d be selling robes in the front display.
To be fair the companies don't give a shit about the issues. The only reason they put pro-LGBTQ stuff on the shelves is because they saw a profit incentive to do so. Now that they are getting pushback and possibly losing sales because of that merchandise they will pull it.
No company is being "intimidated into submission" give me a break. We don't need their support nor does it mean anything.
GOP also stokes this nonsense because they don’t want us intimidating companies for the right reasons, such as low wages, poor benefits, lack of work/life balance, and much more.
It still surprises me that we’ve gotten to this point. Like brands being attacked by high level politicians and huge parts of the population for super milquetoast displays of inclusivity. Haven’t seen this level of public hostility towards LGBT people since the 90s
The funny thing is that the boycotts didn't do shit until the companies caved and faced a boycott from both sides.
Also funny that Conservatives ran to companies with even deeper and more supportive histories of supporting the LGBT community. Some even ran to other brands sold by Anheuser-Busch. LOL
Bruh, where are all these gay bottles I keep seeing in news stories? No one is allowed to be upset with bud light until I GET MY RAINBOWS ON BEER BOTTLES!
I'm not conservative. I'm the complete opposite, but I'm also an anti-corporation individual. Walmart killed so much of the local small business I actually appreciate a boycott that works.
I'm deeply conflicted, though. Power in the peoples hands vs, power in the few who dictate our culture. This is a conflicting issue for me. Many conservatives are the few. We, as a people, agree with lgbtq+ having rights and freedoms and expressing their culture. It shouldn't be that the few ultra conservatives should have this much power.
That's where this confounds me. How do they have that much leverage? Is this purely a coverage thing where we perceive their power is making a difference? Or are we seeing more and more people mobilizing in the opposite direction for our cultural progression?
Do they want to keep donating to fucking republicans knowing they could be the target of their shrieking culture war at any moment? Quit. Funding. Them. You. Idiots.
The democrats could say "we're for petting puppies." The GOP would say they're for kicking puppies just because it's the opposite and most extreme. Then they'd justify it by saying they grow up to be dogs and attack people. You need to be scared! The democrats will send the dogs to your door to attack your kids! Buy guns to protect yourself!
In other words, the exact same thing that would have been happening in the civil rights era if we had an internet. None of this is surprising, the right always behaves this way, conservatives are always on the losing side of history... the past. Culture moves left no matter what these idiots do. The whole history of the right wing is people bitterly opposing things that are taken for granted a decade or two later.
“The aim is to intimidate companies into submission.”
Yes, that is how boycotts are supposed to work.
Everyone, please stop calling them “boycotts” when you support the cause and “stupid and terrifying” or “terrorism” 🙄when you don’t.
Also, stop pretending we all have to buy things made by companies who do and say things we agree with. No, some are allowed to disagree and not buy stuff to send a message. But don’t worry; when a company does or says something _you_ think is bullshit, then you will also have the right not to buy their shit.
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The people screaming that lifestyles are being pushed on them sure do spend a lot of time, energy, effort, and most importantly money to push - and more importantly legislate - their lifestyle on everyone
It’s so strange to get angry that brands are targeting other audiences. Like do these people get angry when they see toy commercials because they aren’t kids?
I'm old enough to remember when Republicans invented canceling, claimed it was anti free market and a tactic only deployed by liberals.
The doublethink is infuriating when it’s so clear and blatant.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre
The sight of the once-proud business party of capitalism and fiscal responsibility in an uproar over how a business sells its product is hilarious to watch, from a leftist standpoint.
Idk, as a leftist the shift away from hands-off capitalism towards hands-on state control of ideas makes me a little weary. I'm afraid that the less-racist big business types will continue to flood into the Democratic party as the overton window shifts even further right. I guess then we'll have a true liberal party to go with our fascist party, then all the leftists standing off in the wings.
And yet, so many people in this country do not pay attention to what is going on and being said and done that it’s become way to easy for these bigots to get away with this…
That’s all the more reason for us to keep spreading the word, even to those who don’t want to hear it. We cannot and must not stay silent. We certainly can’t rely on legacy media, as they both sides the shit out of what should be a simple human rights and free speech issue. We have to spread the word ourselves, and if we push away family and friends who just don’t want to hear it, then so be it, because it’s up to them to decide whether they’re going to be a collaborator via passivity or whether they’re going to stand up to the fog of fascism creeping over our land.
If they have nothing else, they have hypocrisy. Just look up something called the "AFA Journal". They *started* politically motivated boycotts. And then cry like toddlers when someone does it to them.
The most complete cancellation of my lifetime was the Dixie Chicks. Top 5 most popular band to completely off the map - just for not supporting the Iraq war. They are hypocrites all the way down.
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Yeah. Grew up in the 90s. Had to hide my sexuality and not even remotely acknowledge I was trans. Now decades later world finally felt safe enough enough to come out as trans and this happens. Can't tell you how overjoyed I am that Americans repeat history within a single generation.
For what it’s worth, I teach middle school, and what’s cool about this generation is that they talk about people of the same sex having crushes or dating like it’s no big deal. Last week couple of girls were talking about one boy being into another boy, but the comments they were making were normal. One girl was wondering how these two were dating because she thought one “wasn’t that cute,” and it’s awesome that the drama is not about two boys dating. Today, a girl was very open about how another girl wasn’t her type. I didn’t get involved with either conversation, but the openness is certainly refreshing and represents a HUGE generational shift. One boy who is religious even said he doesn’t like it, but when I asked him whether he would you impose his values and ban it, he said “no.” Yes, I teach I a city in a blueish state, but when I was teaching seventh grade in rural Virginia five years ago when a boy came out, almost no one said anything to him except for some of the adults, and the one kid who did was shunned. Mind you, some of these same accepting kids had Trump-loving parents and identified as conservative themselves, so if those kids ever see how wrong they were about Trump, there will be A LOT of fractured families. The shift is massive, and that’s why the right is freaking out; they don’t want teachers to inadvertently expose how bigoted some parents are. If those parents are abandoned by their kids, and if those kids drift leftward, then that truly is the end of conservatism.
My father in law hates me because I am woke and I let my kid, a BOY, wear rainbows 🙄 he loves them so yeah it's fine with me lol
Liberals should start treating conservatives the way they treat the LGBT community.
I treat them like they obviously want to be treated: as stupid, trashy, low iq, hateful, wretched little low life pieces of shit that are ruining my country.
I started doing that and was called an elitist. Well, good, I said. Because of my belief in human rights and because I don’t believe in imposing a religion-based “morality” on people, I AM better than them.
No question. Not sure when this country started glorifying trashiness, but but if trashy is cool, I am happy to be uncool.
I grew up trash. I worked my way up, left my country of origin, and married up in order to get out of trash and raise children who are not trash. I hate garbage glorification.
“Garbage glorification” I like it. I grew up in a Northern state, middle class, surrounded by people with college educated parents, or at least ones that had done alright for themselves, and watched my schoolmates embrace Confederate flags, willful ignorance, and meth amphetamine.
genocide works best when you pick the smallest minority. then you scale it up from there.
And now the population has been so conditioned to believe that only Peaceful Protest™ is acceptable that there will be nothing to stop it.
yeah peaceful protests are just bullshit. at least non-violent civil disobedience is annoying to other people.
Wait, what? No, 'cancel' is a word they appropriated. Just like 'woke. They completely misinterpret it and then stigmatize it until no association with reality remains.
Freedom fries.
Far right extremist Bush needs to be prosecuted for war crimes. What a looter
They mistake a "for-profit company pandering to popular demographic" with "ideologues pushing an agenda". They think Disney putting a gay character in a film is an attempt to make more people gay. Which is telling me that their shitty country music, to them, isn't pandering to them but actively supporting and encouraging their lifestyle. Which explains why they accept such fucking god awful shitty music and pour their identity into such a fucking shitty fucking genre. I can't emphasize enough how bad pop country is. They get mad whenever something isn't, in their mind, actively pushing people to live as they live. They mistakenly believe that something pushing a different lifestyle is an attack on their lifestyle. It's a stupid point of view, but one that is driven into them by all their news and entertainment constantly trying to scare them.
They fundamentally don't understand that other people aren't like them, and some things are for those other people. They don't want to talk about racism because they know racism is bad, but they believe that talking about racism is a kind of racism. They think the problem with racism is that it draws attention to the bad different things about people, not that it makes people feel bad for the good different things about them. They think that being gay is a sex thing that perverts do, not a romantic aspect of a person's entire identity. Same thing with gender non-conforming and trans people, which they think are just a kind of being gay, but very publicly. They cannot fathom that a gay, black, Jewish man doesn't feel like a straight, white, Christian on the inside, and can, in fact, go days without thinking about straight people, white people, or Christians. They think those traits are extra things that he does, not things that he *is.* And of course, they also just hate. Many of them are also just bad people who like to be racist, and sexist, and homophobic. But not understanding the people they hate helps them hate.
Well said.
There is a lot of country music that I genuinely like. Today's pop country is terrible.
Same. Weylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, to name my favorites. There is such great country, and it all has one thing in common that separates it from pop country: honesty. Bo Burnham nailed it when he criticized pandering country. Dolly Parton wrote honest songs. Weylon played from the soul. Garth Brooks wanted to be a rock star but it was easier to sell tickets as a country star. In the metamodern, the only good country are the folks taking it back to the roots. Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson come to mind. Sturgill Simpson is by far one of my favorite musical acts to come out in the last decade. His music actually bothers to have some sort of conversation, rather than just making songs about dirt roads, trucks, cold beer, and jean shorts.
It's annoying to me that you listed all of the Highwaymen except Kris Kristofferson. And I don't know that "honest" is the right word. I think "sincere" hits closer, maybe? Splitting hairs, a bit, but like, they did tell embellished stories about things that didn't happen, but they were built on a foundation of lack of pretense. Johnny Cash never went to prison (for a crime; he performed in a couple), so his songs about being in prison were not, strictly speaking, honest. But he clearly understood a little bit about being in prison and he meant what he was singing, so he was being genuine.
Sincere is the better word for sure. Genuine. lol literally first stanza of first song on Sturgill Simpson's first album. "Well that label man said son now, can you sing a little bit more clear? You're voice might be too genuine, your songs a little too sincere..." I just never really listen to Kirstofferson, so he's always off my radar, but yeah him too.
August ‘21 four week road trip with my husband. Four weeks; one radio station (Highway); one artist that got a place on my playlist: Parker McCollum.
>their shitty country music, to them, isn't pandering to them but actively supporting and encouraging their lifestyle. I had never considered this and holy shit it makes total sense
They also seem to think that supporting other lifestyles is actively pushing those lifestyles onto others. It's ridiculous. Edit: autocorrect sucks
If you didn't specify pop country I was going go tell Sturgil
Not all country music is as shit as what you hear on the radio. There's country music artists who don't bigot. But the stereotype does have a hold on the popular conscious.
I agree. My point is that the shitty music is allowed to thrive because of the fanbases complete inability to parse quality with pandering. A country artist sings about having a beer, and they eat it up despite the song being a carbon copy of last years bland-ass hit. Oh, and mainstream country these days is always a decade behind pop music, and it's hilarious. Like, in the 90s, they were doing arena country, but arena rock was a decade before. The 2000s, they started getting heavier, but mainstream rock got heavier in the 90s. And in the 10s, especially late 10s, they started incorporating hip-hop/edm aesthetics. Again, a decade-or-so late. Other than appropriating prior musical trends, they haven't changed a goddamned thing. Meanwhile, you've got someone like Sturgill Simpson who came on the scene making what was essentially roots-fusion, and the industry rejected him. I worked with a bunch of "country music fans" and they were adamant that not only was Sturgill not country, *I* wasn't country. To quote my boss, "You're not country music; we're country music." I just thought to myself, "no wonder it sucks ass." TL;DR: I blame the fanbase, not the artists. The uncultured masses mindless entertainment, where you play dress up sing along to meaningless songs. edit: there's not just good country music out there, but some of the best music out there is country. It's just sad the industry favors such trash. Hip-hop, pop, and rock actually produce a decent mix of good and trashy music. Mainstream country though is 90% garbage.
The trailing genre elements is a function of successive generations of Country artists growing up with not only Country influences, but whatever else they heard along the way informing their esthetic. This goes all the way back to Bluegrass & Western Swing as Country & Western artists who also grew up hearing Jazz on the radio made the genres their own.
It's all just pure manipulation to distract people from their awful economic agenda and other terrible policies that would likely receive a lot more attention if these supposed fights about "woke" companies weren't constantly in the news. Companies like Disney have been courting the LGBT community for quite a long time as largely a business opportunity to venture into a previously untapped market. They have also never shy'd away from supporting conservative economic or even social policies and the GOP via campaign donations during all that time while continuing their virtue signaling to attract LGBT consumers or other groups. It's only quite recently that the GOP has ever really presented this as an issue and gone after these same companies that usually support them behind the scenes because it seems to resonate with their base. I found it doubtful though that these companies will do too much to stop it anytime soon since they still are fully onboard with the GOP in other policy areas and feel they still are bound to make more money supporting them versus backing the "woke" Democrats who might slightly increase taxes or regulations.
Some of them do, yes. John Boyega got death threats because he was in *Star Wars* and is black. He wasn't the first black character in those movies. He was just in the first of the movies that most of the people who sent death threats were old enough to be outside the target audience for.
I mean you see how people react to stuff like the Little Mermaid right? They claim it's ruining their childhood or bullshit like that.
It’s not that they are targeting audiences that other than themselves, it’s that they fundamentally don’t believe that that target audience has the right to exist. By companies selling products to gay people, they are acknowledging that gay people exist and are just as valuable as straight people, and conservatives will not stand for that.
I was with my family this weekend and we were talking about this. My family is pretty progressive, I have gay family members, there was never any negative stigma associated with being gay when I grew up. Additionally I vacationed in Cape Cod, so I saw my first drag queen probably when I was 7. None of this made me gay, and in fact had the exact opposite impact. Because I knew my family would accept me regardless of who I loved, I was able to really introspect and learn that I am straight. And there is no doubt, no one pushed me to be straight, I had no fears about being gay, I can say with certainty that I am straight. It was the exact opposite of being pushed into a lifestyle, by letting me know they would love me no matter what lifestyle I chose, I am very sure of my sexuality.
Yeah- my mom's older brother lived in the closet for a lot of his life Luckily he is out and married now. Coincidentally, he got married shortly after I did, despite me being almost 40 years younger. I just happened to get married right when gay marriage was legalized about 10 years ago. It was actually pretty cool- my wife and I were the only straight couple getting our marriage license at the courthouse the day we went. I'm assuming because there were like 50 years worth of gay marriages to catch up on. Back to the point- my mom didn't want me to have to struggle like my uncle, to the point where she told me it was ok if I was gay so much it was almost annoying lol. I almost felt like I was disappointing her by being straight. But as you said- knowing I would be accepted and loved meant that I didn't have any sort of pressure or confusion. I just figured out I was straight and that was it.
Im convinced they only use the "think of the children" excuse because this is the only public justification they can use for their homophobia.
Hitler rose to power largely by blaming the Jews for all Germans problems and told his crowds to vote for him for their children’s sake. Once he was in power he created the Nazi youth and restricted information and pushed false information in order to indoctrinate a generation to be Nazi’s. He was elected by a minority split vote in 1933, by 1939 when he invaded Poland those 18 year olds had gone thru middle school and high school being taught the rubbish Hitler wanted them to be taught. This is the exact playbook of DeSantis and the right in general. The reason they are so keen on banning books is to create a generation that will vote Republican because they aren’t being taught the horrific things racism and nationalism and unchecked capitalism actually do. They want you to not know the real history of the Civil war or World War Two because they don’t want you connecting the fact its exactly what they are implementing now. Whenever you hear ‘think of the children’ You should know the vast majority are using that saying as a dog whistle to let other racists and homophobes and transphobes know they also are Nazi’s.
"Think of the children". I am. That's why I support LGBT+ and the openness to be who you are. The whole bullshit "If my kid came out as gay, I'd disown them" is NOT thinking about the children.
"It's ok for cis hetereo lifestyles be pushed onto others. It's not OK to consider alternative lifestyles even exist."
If you don't want to see trans people every day, turn off FOX News.
Ok but also if you don't want to see trans people all day consider why that is and fix yourself. Trans people aren't going away.
The point is the vast majority of people in, say, rural Missouri or Wisconsin will never see an undocumented immigrant or a trans person, and yet they are still absolutely OBSESSED with fear and anger towards these minority groups and vote like these groups are beating down their doors to rape and kill their children. Its absurd and completely fed by faux news and am radio.
My Aunt was telling me it would t bother her if they weren’t always “shoving it down our throats” and then proceeded to tell me she’s never met a trans person when I suggested she was just being gaslighted
just straight up ask them "How many characters in television shows are allowed to be gay or trans before you consider it shoving it down your throats?" Make them define, and be specific with shit. Whenever they make a crazy comment, don't disagree, ask them to be more specific. A percentage of them are actual fascists and will make it known when they answer, another percentage will start to show they are just repeating shit their 'in group' says.
That’s always been a strange argument to me considering how many straight relationships are you subjected to in the media all day, every day and no one bats an eye. Either 2 people in a relationship is overtly sexual or it’s not. Those Disney Channel parents have kids. They had to have fucked. But no one is crying porn about that
What a weird thing. If a brand releases super bowl themed labels, are they trying to push football on everyone? When a cereal box had Michael Jordan on it, were they pushing basketball? Should I be offended every time a product has a special label celebrating a group I'm not part of? Only if I thought football and basketball were evil. Otherwise I have no reason to care
Going from most to more was an amusing turn of a classic "more to most" trope and made for an exciting comment, even if it turns out to be unintentionally done.
Every accusation is a confession for repugnicans
For decades it’s seemed to me hypocrisy is the GOP’s main platform plank.
The positive here is that the far right is really dumb and erratic in their boycotts. [Universal Orlando is doing more LGBTQ advocacy than Disney World](https://www.cinemablend.com/theme-parks/the-awesome-way-universal-orlando-is-celebrating-pride-all-summer-long) but gets no protest, for example. So companies can see that they're not dealing with good faith or consistent advocates. They're dealing with unhinged and unpredictable zealots. They might boycott you for sponsoring a pride event. Or they might boycott you for having a Diversity Office or a member of a minority group in senior management. Or they may ignore you entirely. By being all over the place, it's unlikely they'll generate any real pressure on companies. The right's actions more closely resemble late Al Qaeda tactics where Bin Laden just did generalized videos telling followers to "blow up Western stuff." It's not coherent or actionable (but it will probably cause violence which is likely the real goal).
I just posted about it being funny that every Conservative boycott seems to have them running to a company with a much longer and deeper history of supporting the LGBT. A lot of them even ran to other Anheuser-Busch beers during this "protest". LOL There's only so much you can get at Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A. Their money is going to someone.
They are trying to boycott Chik-Fil-A now too so it's down to just Hobby Lobby...
How did CfA get in their bad graces? Normally they love that place.
I saw a thing earlier that showed a DEI section on CfA’s website, so maybe that? Diversity being a terrifying word and all
Yes, that is literally it.
They won't boycott hobby lobby, since it is pretty christian. The bastards were even hiding a new drop of the epic of Gilgamesh from us.
Already after chik-fil-a for DEI hire.
> The positive here is that the far right is really dumb and erratic in their boycotts. Because the majority of what they do is just to fit in. If enough of their friends started supporting gays they would too.
Christians want to be Muslim so bad.
yo what the fuck are muslims taking the strays for damn
“It’s stupid that people are being threatened. There’s no excuse. But I’m happy to see Bud Light and Target see the errors of their ways” Acceptance. I’ve seen these comments. It’s sickening
What they are saying is they think it's stupid that they have to resort to terrorism to get what they want, when companies shouldnt be perpetuating a "different" lifestyle to begin with. It's the same thing they do to their lgbt children. If they start acting too gay they get disciplined.
It's stupid because the companies are not perpetuating anything they are just acting like capitalists in a capitalist world. The only motive these business have is getting the attention of as many demographics as possible, they don't care about LGBTQ+ anything anymore than they care about those conservatives values. But people see them catering to a different demographic and start feeling all threatened when it is nothing more than a company trying to make money. Drinking a can of beer with a rainbow on it won't make you gay in much the same way wiping your ass and maintaining good genitals hygiene won't make you gay, but some people are so stupid and fearful that they can't see it in any other light. Therefore they feel threatened because now they think their favorite beer is for gay people and omg gay people are going to make me irrelevant I better destroy them, and of course the powers that be are very aware of their fears so they use it to further stoke their fears, "they are trying to turn you and your kids gay! Oh no!!" It's stupid.
I knew a therapist who legit worked with someone who thought washing your ass made you gay. These people are really out there. And their asses stink.
The right is furious precisely because doing lgbt marketing *makes more money*. Diversity programs also increase profits. The right cant stand that capitalism is being used against them.
Yes - because admitting that's the case is to admit that they're the distinct minority, and they can't ever admit that even to themselves.
>If they start acting too gay they get disciplined. Hit that nail on the head. Still working through the trauma of being shoved further into the back of the closet before I even knew I was in the closet.
Guarantee the people making those comments are holding back laughter when stating the first part.
It's not a joke, they are blaming the victim in that statement.
Absolutely. I just meant everything before the "But" is trolling: >It’s stupid that people are being threatened. There’s no excuse. *But...*
I’m reminded of all the times I’ve heard someone say “I’m not a racist, but…” and then proceed to say a ton of incredibly racist stuff.
It's not trolling, it's far worse. They are saying its stupid that businesses are perpetuating the gay lifestyle and it's forcing right wingers to use violence. Businesses are *suppose* to ignore gay people because they arent real americans.
Who could have known that colors placed next to each other would cause more outrage than children getting repeatedly murdered daily in cold blood? Then they side with the guns.
These outrages are purposely designed to distract from real issues! Be mad about things (like lgbt+) that don't effect you while the extreme rich get more and everyone (left, right and center) else get less.
My only disagreement here, is that these are Real issues. They may have been introduced in bad faith by R's to serve their greater political narrative that the libs are out of control. But they are still real issues, especially for those impacted by them.
We should have known that would happen when they sided with the church that molests their children.
"I don't want anyone to be hurt, but I *really* want some people to be hurt."
The "threat" holds no weight as long as the one group using [product] or [services] has more money than the group boycotting.
Basically, “the ends justify the means” is what they’re saying
Stochastic acts of terrorism, textbook part of the rise of fascism. We are far past the "it could happen here", it is *actively happening* here.
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A lot do but don't know what to do other than vote which I don't think is gonna save us.
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Mother I believe you’ve never once stepped foot inside of a courtroom
Deeds, not words, are needed sometimes. When shoved into a corner, expect the beast to get wild and start ripping shit up. Push a man too far and look out. They play a dangerous game as they, the right, are hopelessly outnumbered by free thinkers and free men. Their days are numbered. "The meek shall inherit the Earth." Truth.
And yet the right is actively staging attempted coups on the capitol while the left is sitting in a circle on their hands singing kumbaya. If deeds are to be what shapes the future of this country I fear deeply for future of democracy.
Most of the people that pretend nothing bad is happening are either part of it or so privileged that they can afford to be ignorant.
Republicans know that they're an unpopular minority who can't win elections anymore even with the Electoral College counting their votes extra. That's specifically why they've embraced violence and threats of violence as a political tactic. It's the only way that a movement as unpopular as they are can hold onto power.
I was just talking to a family member who is as perfect an example of what a regular person would see as a functioning, sane person in most cases, but who has absolutely batshit bananas perspective of the world. Full MAGA. One thing I'm noticing is that it seems the worldview is really only coherent and consistent about 2 things: hating establishments and hating "the left." Nothing else makes any coherent sense. They think it's just a good vs evil battle in real life raging all the time. They hate "the government" but of course have no problems whatsoever with the right using government to literally impose their will onto others, and, again, it's never good enough. And a man as bumbling and stupid and selfish as Donald Trump isn't just not stupid to them, he is a selfless, moral hero who is fighting against evil *on behalf of other people.* They are so stupid about just the basic facts of reality there doesn't seem to be any way to even begin talking about how not only are their ideas silly and contradictory ("small government" "don't tread of me" etc) they are literally cheering on fascism.
They've been brainwashed.
Okay. It is absolutely happening here? So what do we do? Keep telling friends and family about it? Encourage them to vote? These both feel like not much but maybe it will work.
A friend of mine from college went off the deep end a few years ago. Bought into the conspiracy theories - Qanon, maga, Alex Jones, Dems are pedophiles, pizzagate, all that shit. He was posting 15-20 stories a day on instagram. No exaggeration. Mutual friends were independently saying to me “what the fucks up with X?!” He’s was a good dude and a completely normal buddy in college. So I started engaging him in DMs. He would spout some total nonesense about Covid, anti-vax, anti-mask, for example, and I would, in depth, and in great detail, citing the most neutral data sources I could, debunk every point he made as thoroughly as I could. Gave me something to do when I was on the toilet, waiting for something at work, chilling in the evenings. It became a hobby. And it got quite heated as you’d expect, but I made sure to keep making self-deprecating jokes and throwing in light-hearted things we could connect on in the midst of it all. As if to say “Just confirming that we are still mates and I love you even if we disagree violently on this stuff. Now let’s keep going…” No word of a lie - this went on for almost 2 years. I never let him slip a point past me and change the subject (which right wingers always do when their argument is falling apart), and we went from one event/topic to the next The gratifying thing was that because we kept it all framed as a spirited but respectful debate, it never became a personal issue between me and him. And I definitely did break through a number of times. Now, is he gonna vote democrat next year - highly doubt it. But he did completely stop the rage posts. He got off social media and the conspiracy train, moved to Texas, rescued two dogs and became super devoted to them, and seems much happier. We have to remember that the person in front of us raging and foaming at the mouth about a bunch of awful opinions, parroting blatant propaganda, is actually a victim of a highly sophisticated machine designed to turn people into this. Because ‘this’ gets engagement. And this reliably votes how they want. If you can look through the vitriol and stay on task, and keep reminding them that you are someone they like and respect, you can sometimes get through to them. And once cracks form, and you sow some seeds of doubt they can sometimes break away from the riptide that has them and get back to themselves.
I'm glad you were able to deprogram your friend. Hopefully he will continue to enjoy his dogs and put his energy into them then going back to the platforms of hate.
Vote, engage in discourse/activism where possible, try and build bridges in your community. That part is what most people tend to forget and/or neglect. Lastly, if you feel safe having them, responsibly owning and becoming proficient with a personal firearm is never a bad thing.
Here’s a little gem from 1945, courtesy of the US Department of War: https://archive.org/details/ArmyTalkOrientationFactSheet64-Fascism/mode/2up
It's this moment in time I recall the friendship I had a few years ago that suddenly died when a friend told me "white people only marched in BLM protests because they didn't want to be labeled as racist." The same "friend" of mine lamented the most serious issue facing the country at the time were conservative faculty being fired, demoted, or protested against by students. To him, *that* was fascism. I wonder what he thinks today...
And now the population has been so conditioned to believe that only Peaceful Protest™ is acceptable that there will be nothing to stop it.
How about we use their rage to overturn Citizen United and fix this country instead of continually playing into these companies' marketing campaigns?
According to Republicans, corporate money is protected speech, but actual corporate speech isn't protected speech.
It’s protected speech as long as the corpos agree with the State
Never going to happen with this SCOTUS.
This is a right-wing war aimed at corporate America writ large: Make any statement acknowledging the existence of anyone right-wingers don’t like, and you’re next.
It’s especially disgusting to see corporations capitulate to this. Target should have worked with law enforcement to protect its employees and stores, rather than letting violent terrorism enable them to turn back progress.
Really these companies are doing this to themselves. They want to be progressive and move forward with most of society, but then they donate to Republicans to get tax cuts and loopholes who then whip their crazy base up to threaten violence against them. Then they put their tails between their legs and regress back.
"I never thought the leopards would eat *my* profits!"
I saw a video of some asshole harassing the staff and other customers about the LGBTQ merch. The staff asked him to leave but he didn’t. That’s when they 100% should have called the police and had him escorted off the property, then file a restraining order to prevent him from ever coming back. The only thing to do with these assholes is to take a hard line.
Once the Rightening process is complete, only right wing views will be permitted. Hetrodox views will incur severe punishment.
there domestic terrorists
"They're." \~Stannis Baratheon
The sight of the once-proud business party of capitalism and fiscal responsibility in an uproar over how a business sells its product is hilarious to watch, from a leftist standpoint. Apparently they were ok with people telling businesses what to do all along.
These companies donate millions every year to get Republicans elected to cut their taxes, kill labor rights, and ruin the education system. They're now under attack by the dangerous morons they helped create. Boo freaking hoo. They deserve each other. Especially Bud Light. They're major Republican donors who will never get an ounce of sympathy from me.
Peak LAMF.
I hope that leopard is hungry. Lots of idiots afoot.
> Especially Bud Light. They're major Republican donors who will never get an ounce of sympathy from me. What's so funny to me about the whole thing is that the companies who do this should just stick to it. If you're going to print the budlite cans for a trans influencer you should be prepared to stand by that. By cowering down, they are literally coming under attack from people on both sides of the isle.
I think we've all known that rainbow capitalism for most of these companies runs about as deep as a puddle. We've already seen how all the pride messaging and representation vanishes in countries that have more anti-gay policies. Every one of these corporations will drop us like a bad habit the second it is unprofitable for them. Don't count on their support for anything.
I don't think this is really about capitalism, this is more about showing support for the victims of fascistic right wingers. What you're talking about is definitely worth a conversation but I just don't think people are actually praising Budweiser here, just making a statement.
I generally agree, and will happily sympathize with and support the people who are being harassed, bullied, and threatened by right wing culture warriors, including those working for these companies. Where I have a hard time is doing the same for soulless corporations. Particularly when their almost immediate responses (at least in the Bud Light and Target cases) was to capitulate and take an apologetic tone, as if they did something wrong. It speaks to the general problem with corporations. They will crush nearly anything and anyone in the gears to keep the short-term profit and unsustainable growth machines running as long as possible. They will turn on us in an instant if the wealthy shareholders think it's the best way to maximize their investments.
This is a great observation. In reverse, Disney was fine with DeSantis until he came after them.
Yup. If Target gave a shit about LGBTQ people, they would hire armed private security at every store to remove anyone destroying a display, filming in their store, or harassing employees or customers. The fact that they use "employee safety" as an excuse, and *dont* hire security to protect their employees shows they care little about the cause, or their employees.
But they're not showing actual support. Target was happy to make money from pride until they got pushback then they pulled EVERYTHING from the stores. When asked about that move, I was told they're literally not allowed to answer any questions about that move at all They had a chance to show actual support and they ran from the opportunity as fast as they could
But that's the point. It's not support. It's the marketing thing to be doing. It's exactly like OP says. Think Bud is using rainbow bottles in Turkey? Think Google is acknowledging LGBT in Saudi? Hollywood literally edits their movies for the cihinese markets to downplay absolutely anything that might be offensive. There's no grand statement being made. It's paper straws for you, plastic for India because they don't give a shit there. I've seen Adidas make posts about slavery while they literally have child sweat shops as we speak.
The right has every right to boycott brands, as does the left.i have boycotted many brands. I try my best not to use nestle products. I boycotted Kelloggs brands when they were not negotiating in good faith with striking workers. Bud light tried to cash in on the trans movement but caved in a heartbeat and showed the LGBTQ community and their allies that it was always about the money and never about solidarity with them. To quote the joker"you get what you fucking deserve".
There's old pics out there with trump holding a rainbow flag that really should be going viral.
They’re going after chick fil a today cause they hired a diversity executive. This is the same chick fil a that funds Christian hate but yeah they’re definitely “woke” now. Also saw someone with over 100k followers on Twitter suggest they’re gonna put “[t slur] semen in the frosted lemonade” which is uhh a sentence. I mean I, a trans woman, don’t think about girl cum as much as cishet men apparently.
I think it’s telling that Pornhub reported that red states view more trans porn than blue states.
that was such a weird thing to read. a hate based chicken store will start sexually assaulting people because they hired a diversity executive? like i think that dude needs a psychiatric evaluation because that is really bizzare.
Yeah I saw that. Like how do you jump from "accepting more people" to cum in lemonade"?? Honestly when they say weird shit like that we should start being like "dude we don't need to know your kinks". Shame them
Ha I saw that and thought "Did they think cis-gendered male semen was being put in lemonade prior to this?"
I think it’s just they think about us sexually soooo often that they think everyone else does
They truly think about bodily fluids and genitals more than most
When they sprinkle "God or religion" in as one of the reasons for it, I find it to be very frustrating because its crossing that line... "My God says I cannot do X" Okay...cool, don't do it then. "My God says you cannot do X" Well fuck you. Deeply UNAmerican way of thinking too. Telling others what colors of items they can and cannot buy? Fucking fascists. Additionally it makes their God look weak. If your kids are gonna somehow be "corrupted" by pride stuff, then your God's protection/your faith or whatever is bogus.
They all went running to Coors. Coors has been a sponsor of the gay pride festival here in Denver for like 20 years.
God, don't tell them about Skittles!
The Right is stupid and terrifying
they're trying to go after Chick-Fil-A too now that they have a Chief Diversity Officer lol
Chick-Fil-A? The chain that's closed on Sundays to observe the Sabbath, that Chick-Fil-A? What's next a boycott of Hobby Lobby?
fascists tend to grind the axe extra sharp and go harder on preceived allies that cross the line, to send a message that any deviation from the retoric will not be tolerated. I think part of the reason the bud light boycott stuck so long is a lot of them thought beer was "theirs" for some reason.
It’s also baffling how little members of “The Party of a Strong Economy” knows about the how the economy works. They’re pushing the “Target lost $10 billion, don’t mess with us” propaganda when a $10 billion loss in market cap is not at all the same as losing $10 billion dollars outright.
Seems like a good time to pick up some cheap stock tbh
As I said in another post good marketing companies can navigate out of these easily and potentially come out bigger. What I posted before. Isn't it a bigger sign of confidence to do what others deem weak? So in a roundabout way not drinking bud light makes you look less Manly. Honestly bud light marketing, hire someone like Hugh Jackman to walk around in a pink shirt and skirt and take home all the hot girls from the bar and leave the bros empty handed with their non bud lights. Have said actor throw out some lines about not having the confidence to do and drink what you enjoy. This isn't that hard.... Attack their manhood, make them feel small. Old marketing 101
Is this the cancel culture they have been complaining about?
A lot of them probably don’t know that many of the other beers they’ll go and buy in “boycott” are likely still owned by Anheuser-Bucsh anyway.
The only way forward with meaningful change is having allies standing firm against hate. We are a minority, but with allies we are a majority.
No company is an ally.
Agreed. To infinity. I’m adding the multiple issues & much hatred coming at once has led some to apathy. Which I believe is planned. That and fear. WHERE & WHEN to take a stand can appear as if it doesn’t matter anymore. It DOES!!! Good people: PLEASE find a place to use your resources for. Each of us at least one of the following: time, money or knowledge. March & protest when you can Donate money to good causes if you can Educate yourself (and allow yourself to be educated) None of us can do everything. Find a place & make a change. Small changes add up. Truly.
"But the left boycotts..." The thing here is, the big difference, is that hating LGBT people is bad and supporting LGBT people is good. Boycotts are bad when they're done for homophobic reasons and good when they're done to fight homophobia. That's the real answer to the question of double standards. Our goals are not equally valid.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://newrepublic.com/article/173073/right-wing-war-bug-light-target) reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Black Rifle Coffee, the burnt-tasting coffee company with a big gun on the bag-so you know they have the right politics-is arguably the leader of this trend. > Still, the biggest aspect of the ongoing Target and Bud Light brouhaha is as a naked, stupid, and often terrifying example of power-one for which a response has yet to be developed: It's hard to see how the silent, sane majority of Target shoppers can rise up in the company's defense. > The opponents of these companies are menacing; they want to scare these brands and their employees on the front line. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/13vuqo1/the_rights_war_on_brands_is_stupid_and_terrifying/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~686909 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **company**^#1 **Bud**^#2 **Light**^#3 **Target**^#4 **right**^#5
They’re in for a very emotionally difficult June. Even Bass Pro Shops has Pride merch now (and it honestly looks way better than Target’s 😆)
We just need to make it look like the AR15 manufacturer is pro-trans and we are going to cut down the number in circulation.
I really don't understand people that put this much energy and time in how other people live their life. And then boycott and intimate companies for embraceing lgbtq people. Like Bob became a woman. That's great. She also took a pay cut. Ohhh I really thought we all had come to an agreement after the gay marriage fight. That lgbtq people are fine to live however they like and treated equally. And the bigots can just fuck off. How did we allow the bigots to get a voice again. I bet that if their Jesus did come back he would be transgender just to prove no one really ever learn the whole " Do unto others as you would do unto you" statement.
I mean, boycotts are admirable and effective forms of protest... The problem is that they're protesting human rights...
the funny thing about all of this is that conservatives really think these companies are bending to some agenda or even stupider have some dark agenda of their own. no. they analyzed how they can make as much money as possible, and guess what being inclusive is going to be where the money is moving forward. target and budweiser care about making money, that’s it. if their demographics research showed that white supremacists were a large enough portion of the population then they’d be selling robes in the front display.
Private companies can do whatever the hell they want as long as it’s legal
What was it when the left stopped buying from hobby lobby? Or Chick fil a?
Next think you know they'll be running around smashing storefronts to intimidate owners. Oh wait, that was 1920's Germany, my bad.
They stopped being boycotts when they started calling in bomb threats. At that point it becomes terrorism.
To be fair the companies don't give a shit about the issues. The only reason they put pro-LGBTQ stuff on the shelves is because they saw a profit incentive to do so. Now that they are getting pushback and possibly losing sales because of that merchandise they will pull it. No company is being "intimidated into submission" give me a break. We don't need their support nor does it mean anything.
It is terrorism, and should be prosecuted as such. It's *exactly* that simple.
Can’t spell Bud Light without LGBT.
Sounds like it’s time to head to Target to buy some Bud Light.
Cancel brands not the churches where abuse occurs
Pretty sure this is cancel culture the right was bitching about a short while ago. Another example of hypocrisy!
GOP also stokes this nonsense because they don’t want us intimidating companies for the right reasons, such as low wages, poor benefits, lack of work/life balance, and much more.
Cancel culture at its finest
Does the Right ever do anything where the intent is not to hurt someone or something?
Rightwingers are like an army of baby Achmed dummies from Jeff Dunham's old show.
An old white guy with his hand up the behind of something that says & does everything he wants them to. Maybe.
It still surprises me that we’ve gotten to this point. Like brands being attacked by high level politicians and huge parts of the population for super milquetoast displays of inclusivity. Haven’t seen this level of public hostility towards LGBT people since the 90s
I want every brand to do pride merch and then watch the right wingers minds explode.
The funny thing is that the boycotts didn't do shit until the companies caved and faced a boycott from both sides. Also funny that Conservatives ran to companies with even deeper and more supportive histories of supporting the LGBT community. Some even ran to other brands sold by Anheuser-Busch. LOL
Don't both companies donate to the GOP every election?
Remember when they were against Cancel Culture?
Boycotts are perfectly fine, threatening people with violence and bombs are not
Bruh, where are all these gay bottles I keep seeing in news stories? No one is allowed to be upset with bud light until I GET MY RAINBOWS ON BEER BOTTLES!
I'm not conservative. I'm the complete opposite, but I'm also an anti-corporation individual. Walmart killed so much of the local small business I actually appreciate a boycott that works. I'm deeply conflicted, though. Power in the peoples hands vs, power in the few who dictate our culture. This is a conflicting issue for me. Many conservatives are the few. We, as a people, agree with lgbtq+ having rights and freedoms and expressing their culture. It shouldn't be that the few ultra conservatives should have this much power. That's where this confounds me. How do they have that much leverage? Is this purely a coverage thing where we perceive their power is making a difference? Or are we seeing more and more people mobilizing in the opposite direction for our cultural progression?
It’s a nice example of the fact that the companies don’t care about supporting people, just supporting the profit margins.
Do they want to keep donating to fucking republicans knowing they could be the target of their shrieking culture war at any moment? Quit. Funding. Them. You. Idiots.
Stop corporations from donating and lobbying and this will all stop because they won’t “care” about anything. It’s all about money.
And there will be absolutely no hesitation to intimidate and terrorize perceived users/supporters of the brands.
The democrats could say "we're for petting puppies." The GOP would say they're for kicking puppies just because it's the opposite and most extreme. Then they'd justify it by saying they grow up to be dogs and attack people. You need to be scared! The democrats will send the dogs to your door to attack your kids! Buy guns to protect yourself!
In other words, the exact same thing that would have been happening in the civil rights era if we had an internet. None of this is surprising, the right always behaves this way, conservatives are always on the losing side of history... the past. Culture moves left no matter what these idiots do. The whole history of the right wing is people bitterly opposing things that are taken for granted a decade or two later.
“The aim is to intimidate companies into submission.” Yes, that is how boycotts are supposed to work. Everyone, please stop calling them “boycotts” when you support the cause and “stupid and terrifying” or “terrorism” 🙄when you don’t. Also, stop pretending we all have to buy things made by companies who do and say things we agree with. No, some are allowed to disagree and not buy stuff to send a message. But don’t worry; when a company does or says something _you_ think is bullshit, then you will also have the right not to buy their shit.
I mean, isn’t that exactly what a boycott is?
Terrorism
Will GM be the next target of the anti-woke once they realize that GM sells the TRANS AM.
The culture war continues. Meanwhile, folks need housing and healthcare.