Huckabee calls for national bigots eating fatty foods day at Chick-fil-A!
by Don Lacey on Aug. 04, 2012, under Atheism, AZ Politics, Christian Self-Righteous Arrogance, Christianity, Critical Thinking, Economics, Ethics, Faith, Freethought, Fundamentalism, Gay Marriage, God & Bible, Government, History, Libertarianism, Logic, Question of the Day!, Reason, Religion, Responsible Government, Sanity, Separation of Church & State, Skepticism, That's Life!
Jim Wilson’s views on the boycott of Chick-fil-A:
A friend of mine recently asked: Do you think Chick-fil-A throws all the left wings in the trash? Or maybe they sell only right wing meat?
I avoid fast food when I can. It’s unhealthy; it cost money I’d rather spend elsewhere; and the industry has a nasty habit of cynical marketing targeting children. I am unlikely eat at Chick-fil-A. So, they are not losing my business by promoting bigotry and government intrusion into people’s personal lives. If I was a customer, I would boycott them.
I predict that ultimately Chick-fil-A’s decision to become politically active will hurt them. People do not want their fast-food choices to have political ramifications. The last thing we want to think about is the culture war, when we order a sandwich. Politicized businesses are annoying, and scare off at least half of their would-be customers, especially when the activism has nothing to do with the product being sold. Time will declare Chick-fil-A to be on the losing side of the culture war. After all the general trend is that Americans are becoming more sexually open and more embracing of personal freedom than ever. Religious conservatives hate this. The traditionalist old guard is not getting any younger, and won’t be around forever and ironically, eating at Chick-fil-A won’t help with them live longer.
Despite the long-term prospects, promoting bigotry has worked to the company’s advantage today. Mike Huckabee an advocate of Bronze Age idiocy has declared August 1st, National Chick-fil-A appreciation day. Sarah and Todd Palin and many other politicians from the socially interventionist wing of the Republican Party have made a point to show support for the restaurant and got nice photo-opts in the process. This has attracted long lines of ignoramuses willing and ready to hand over their money to the company that donates to hatred and bigotry.
There is irony in this. In most contexts, self-proclaimed conservatives are fans of shrinking or limiting government. Why do they support government being in the business of regulating marriage? Why should conservatives be so anxious to support an organization that wants to make government’s burdensome role of regulating marriage permanent? Government promotion of marriage and “traditional values” is a form of social engineering. Shouldn’t conservatives who are friends of personal freedom and limited government oppose this? As far as I am concerned, what consenting adults do in their own home is none of government’s business no matter how much Chic-fil-A lobbies for it. Hat’s off to the Libertarian Republicans, who refuse to support Chick-fil-A and the New Hampshire franchise owner who still participates in gay pride events.
Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy says his company’s political stance is motivated by his concern that we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, “We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.” He makes God, sound like a petty vindictive twelve year old who wishes harm upon those who question him. His company has contributed lobbying efforts for government to have a bigger role in promoting his values. Government is here to protect our freedoms not enforce the religious prohibitions of an apocalyptic business-man. The fact that government prevents two men from marrying means it is doing a terrible job at protecting our freedoms. How can you say this is the land of the free when two men or women, or three or four people cannot all be married? At least marriage to multiple people was allowed in the Bible and it just wasn’t always voluntary. On a related note, one of the organizations Chick-fil-A supported also, spent thousands of dollars trying to prevent congress from denouncing Uganda’s horrendous “Kill the Gays Bill”, which is what it sounds like!
I support the bigots, reactionaries, religious dogmatists and general low-lifes that run Chick-fil-A the freedom to hold their beliefs and express them but I won’t support them with my very hard earned money. I support the ACLU’s fight against the city governments of Chicago and Boston as they attempt to block the opening of Chick-fil-A locations in their cities. I do not think bigotry should be rewarded with business but I also think using the government to penalize free expression is wrong. Free speech is one of the few things I come close to holding sacred. I stand equally for your right to say stupid and ignorant things and my right to tell you how stupid and ignorant they are. It’s the free market of ideas. Banning a company only legitimizes its cause and allows the opportunistic, self-righteous, Christo-fascist at Chick-fil-A to play the victim card. It’s annoying enough when reactionaries whine about how persecuted they are. Let’s not give them a legitimate reason to do so. This goes for other despicable species of walking excrement like neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. I support the ACLU for protecting their rights to free expression despite my complete and utter loathing for every disgusting thing they stand for. Allowing them to discredit themselves on the market place of ideas has done more has made much more of a positive impact than any government repression could.
Some people claim that they are supporting Chick-fil-A as a way of standing up for their right to free speech. That’s all well and good. I wonder if they would also support an openly racist establishment for exercising its free speech. Frankly, if you want to support free speech heroes, why not buy a Playboy or Hustler magazine? These have done more to promote the rights to free expression than any bigoted restaurant chain could ever dream. Others are there because they share the organization’s bigoted worldview, and think it would be great if the government did too. I am staying away. I can’t stand long lines and crowded restaurants especially when the lines and crowds are filled with the type of loud-mouth, self-righteous, ultra-religious, ignorant bigots that something like an “Appreciate Chick-fil-A Day” would attract. Hopefully the chicken gives them heartburn!
