Seriously - you're embarrassing me

Wednesday, August 1, 2012
I'm a liberal. I'm a pretty liberal liberal, actually, holding the distinction of being the most liberal member of my family. I want a single payer healthcare system. I think university level education should be paid for by the government (with tougher entrance requirements). I oppose the death penalty on principle. I think social justice is important, and that our society fails at it miserably. I think gay people should be able to marry. Like Andy Borowitz, I think Romney's a douche.

See? LIBERAL.Liberal, liberal, liberal, that's me.

So when this whole "The Chick-Fil-A Corporation conducts themselves like bigoted asshats" came up, I was all, "It's about time other people saw it! I've been boycotting them for years!" And I'll continue to boycott them. Any group that donates money to the Family Research Council is NOT getting a single penny of my money, period. Exposing the political priorities of the corporation and encouraging consumers to "vote with their wallet" is the right thing to do. As Ken over at Popehat notes, expressing your beliefs in your behavior is as natural as breathing air, and a power we all possess.

But that doesn't give you license to be a dumbass, or propose solutions that are worse than the disease.

The Mayor of Boston made some seriously ridiculous comments about how Chick-Fil-A should "stay out of Boston," and those were bad enough. But now a NYC Council Speaker is also on the bash CFA bandwagon, and is rightfully being called to task for it.

Protip: "Equal protection under the law" applies to everyone, not just liberals, not just Democrats, not just conservatives, not just Republicans. EVERYONE. My fellow liberals' grandstanding only serves to feed the completely bogus trope that Christians are somehow a persecuted minority in this country, which they are most definitely not. 

 
Following the law, even when it's inconvenient, even when it protects those whose views you find abhorrent, is the hallmark of our system. It must apply equally to everyone, or it means nothing.

So fellow liberals - just shut the fuck up about running CFA out of town on a rail. If they are accused and convicted of discrimination against gay people, or Muslim people, or Atheist people, THEN you can call for punitive measures. Because then they would be guilty of breaking the law. Right now the only thing they're guilty of is Level 10 Douchebaggery, which, last time I checked, was not a reason to discriminate against them, although it's an excellent reason to stop eating their chicken. Seriously - you're embarrassing me.

9 comments:

Anne C. said...

Amen, sistah.

vince said...

"Don't be a dick" applies across the board.

Eric said...

As I said under Jim Wright's Facebook comment re: the NYC Council Speaker--I'm not sure she is rightfully being called to task. She shouldn't have written the letter on NYC stationary or used her title in a way that gave the imprimatur of authority, but NYU is a private educational institution with an absolute right to take Chick-fil-A's politics into account when deciding whether or not to contract with CFA as a food court vendor.

The Mayor Of Boston, on the other hand, made a total ass of himself. This is part of the difference between public and private spheres.

(As I tried to note under Jim's post: if NYU were a public university, there's an interesting legal question, there. One that sort of ties into the whole dispute over military recruiters on public university campuses and the extent to which the university's general right to establish policies incidental to its mission are overriden by the public university's position as a state actor. Of course, the military recruitment issue was made moot by Federal statute, so I don't know how useful an analogy it really is. Still....)

Warner said...

"This changed on January 16, 2003, when New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) went into effect, making it illegal across the state for anyone to be discriminated against in employment, housing, credit, education and public accommodations because of their real or perceived sexual orientation." http://www.prideagenda.org/Issues-Explained/Sexual-Orientation-Non-Discrimination-Act.aspx

What they, Chick-fil-a, are doing is easy to perceive as discrimination; which happens to not be legal here.

Eric said...

I'm not sure CFA has been shown to engage in discrimination in employment or public accommodation; anecdotes aren't evidence, but what I hear is that CFA doesn't seem to discriminate in employment or accommodations, that their discriminatory activities take place at the executive level as far as their political and charitable contributions are concerned.

In short: I don't actually have any evidence CFA engages in actual discrimination, but I will no longer spend my money there so long as they seem to be actively promoting causes I find reprehensible.

Janiece said...

Warner, I disagree. What they're doing is supporting PACs and other political organizations that promote legalized discrimination against the LGBT community. Reprehensible, to be sure, but not illegal.

I have not heard of a single accusation of employment or service discrimination based on sexual or religious orientation. If you know of such a case, please let me know, but not liking how they perceive the world is not discrimination, nor is it actionable, regardless of horrifying it is.

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Janiece said...

*TONG*