Chick-fil-A PR goes Rogue

I feel life is just a little too short to boycott products because they have big bads at the top.
The way I see it, every product is made by a company where you see horrible things happen at the top of the ladder.
The only way to avoid it completely is to pull away from civilization and move to a commune.

 

That's not what TP is used for.

I feel life is a little to short not to try to fuck over the people who are busy fucking you, no matter how tiny and inconsequential the gesture may be.

Revenge, sweet revenge.


Or, if you prefer, you can always sing Kumbayah.

 

I avoid Ben & Jerry's because of its active support for just about every cause I disagree with. Having to limit my milk intake helps .

But I never go to a business and say "you know, I need to know what this place's CEO thinks about what kind of relationships people form and whether they approve or disapprove."

I'm largely indifferent to the gay marriage issue, but the firestorm against CFA was so immediate that it almost seemed like planned outrage waiting for the right time to strike. Dan Cathy never said the "g" word, never said anything about gay marriage. The interview was with a Southern Baptist publication with an audience that is largely sympathetic to that viewpoint.

I have benefited from some of the organizations CFA supports to strengthen my own relationship with my wife. I'm not sure what is "hateful" or "bigoted" about supporting families -- especially given I'm one of the many who have seen how many lives get screwed up when the family splits up. Our rhetoric on this issue has become so ridiculously overblown -- and it's exactly what I feared it would be. There's a simple solution -- have the government draw up a boilerplate contract for consenting adults to form whatever contract relationship they want to be legally recognized, and then let houses of worship perform ceremonies as they so choose, and then let the parties involved call it whatever the heck they want. I think you'd find that most "anti-gay-marriage" people, presented with that option, would be for that. What the fear on the "anti-gay-marriage"/"pro-traditional-marriage" side is exactly what's happening here -- gay marriage is being used as a wedge issue to silence those who have a principled opposition to things that are opposed in the Bible.

Let me throw out another hypothetical. A Muslim business owner, speaking to a Muslim publication, says that he personally believes women should never show their faces in public, is against sex outside of marriage and is also against gay marriage (it is banned in Islam). The mayor of Birmingham says "we're not going to have that kind of exclusionary business in our city, because its owners personally discriminate against women, gays and sexually-liberated people. We don't believe in discrimination in our city." The same people who are now boycotting CFA and applauding Menino & Emanuel would be standing on the door of the Birmingham mayor's office demanding that this kind of racism be stopped right now.

It's selective outrage that is aimed at silencing one part of the population, and it's wrong. Intolerance and religious bigotry in the name of tolerance is not tolerance.

 

The CFA CEO is not supporting families with his stance. It's "arrogant" to state that.

What is he doing to help strengthen families with his public opposition to same-sex marriage? I don't see many opponents of same-sex marriage giving the same amount of money to help keep families together.

Cathy didn't say "gay," but it doesn't take a genius to determine what he means.

 

"We all know what he really means" = we're putting words in his mouth to fit a narrative that we want to use to create faux outrage, largely in the name of sending a message to a significant part of the population that their views should be silenced and are not welcome in the public sphere?

Again, if you really went down to it, what many who are against gay marriage are largely indifferent to whatever other adults do on their own time in their own bedrooms. What they fear is the loss of freedom of conscience -- the systematic public bullying and silencing to those who don't agree or compromise their personal values -- and the fear is the state forcing them and their churches to compromise its values to comply with the state orthodoxy, despite it being a direct violation of the First Amendment's free exercise clause (the wedding photographer getting sued in New Mexico for refusing to shoot a gay ceremony, eHarmony being forced to add gay relationships or be shut down by the state, or the fear of threats to withhold tax exemptions from churches that don't profess full acceptance of homosexuality being held up as Exhibit A).

This is a largely semantic issue, but the semantics are being used as a sword to force those who have principled and well-reasoned opposition to comply or be silenced, or be forced to the point of law to compromise their values.

 

I just hope they don't go too far, such as a billboard with a cow on it that says, "Eat mor vaginas."

 

All this controversy doesn't make their food any less delicious.

 

The COO's views on gay marriage aside, whatever one thinks of that, isn't it still pretty awful that they pretended to be a fake, missing teenage girl on Facebook and lied about the Muppet toys they were no longer allowed to sell being pulled because they care, care so very much about the dangers of a Kermit doll?

This is awful. This is indefensibly awful.

I actually don't care what this guy thinks of gay marriage. I care slightly more that his company's money is being used to support anti-gay causes, but it's still his money and he's one guy.

This, however, is the whole corporation - or at least a segment of its public face that I do not believe for a second isn't supported pretty high up the chain - being a bunch of big lying liars who lie and scare parents and kids into sympathizing with them, and if I wasn't avoiding them before, I damn sure am now.

 

I hope Chik-Fil-A's PR staff didn't create that fake Facebook account because wouldn't liars provoke God's wrath just as much as people who advocate for same-sex marriage?

 

Bottom line - Chick-fil-A is being honest about its opinions (as has been stated many times, its conservative leanings are not a secret), and it also knows that this makes great business sense in the south. Anyone who thinks this will hurt Chick-fil-A is crazy. Southern folks LOVE it -- the food and the politics. For every person it pisses off, it gains two new chicken-chomping customers. My personal feelings don't jive with CFA, but it is what it is. There's a market for these leanings.

 

your god should forgive you because you know not what you speak:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/dan-cathy-chick-fil-a-president-anti-gay_n_1680984.html

 

Disclaimer:
1.] I could care less who people are attracted to, cohabit with or have sex with. [Just consenting adults please.]
2.] I have family/friends/coworkers that are LGBT. Everybody gets along just fine.

To say that this is a "gay rights" or "civil rights" issue reflects a fundamental misapprehension of what "rights" are.
Explain anybody's inalienable right to a state issued marriage license. At present, states issue them under certain circumstances.
If you want to change the way they are issued, we have a mechanism in place to change state laws. Get the votes, it will change.

I realize there are financial implications bound up in a legal marriage, but nobody is keeping anybody from loving anyone,
or living with anyone. Again, if the state issued paper is that big a deal, lobby, petition, vote.

To call this a civil rights issue does a huge disservice to actual civil rights issues. I have African-American friends who resent
the comparisons between LGBTs and the struggles of blacks in this country. Black people tragically were viewed as “chattel” or property.
They were viewed as non-persons and subhuman. They could not vote, own property, start a business, pursue an education,
travel as they pleased or sit where they wanted. At various times and to various degrees, African-Americans had no autonomy
or self-determination. To our nation’s shame, black people had no voice, no seat at the table of society and no cultural capital.
Mercifully, this bares little or no resemblance to the situation that LGBT individuals find themselves in today and this is a very good thing.

LGBT's have all the same rights that come with being a human being and United States citizen.