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David McElroy

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Chick-fil-A boycott misguided; tolerance has to run both ways

By David McElroy · July 26, 2012

When most people demand “tolerance” of others, they really mean they insist that others accept their own positions — and then they’re outraged if positions contrary to their own are actually tolerated.

I keep thinking about that when I read about the gay activists who are leading obsessive boycotts of the fast food chain, Chick-fil-A. For decades, these same gay activists have demanded that everyone show toleration of their sexual orientation. There was a time when gays and lesbians were horribly mistreated by the law. We’re not living in that day, and it’s silly to pretend that we are. (I’ve argued that the state has no business defining marriage and dictating who can marry, so I’m not in a camp that wants to legally define marriage in any particular way.)

Activists are angry with Chick-fil-A because the private company’s owners have given money to Christian groups, some of which have favored efforts to legally define marriage as being between a man and a woman. The activists say this isn’t just a disagreement. No, it’s “hate,” they say. They don’t give any evidence that Chick-fil-A hates anyone. They simply define disagreement with their view as hatred. It’s hard to imagine a more insane twisting of what words really mean.

Politicians pandering to the activists — some of whom are probably genuinely outraged personally by the company’s stance — have started promising to use the power of law to stop Chick-fil-A, all because those politicians disagree with a political stance of a company’s owners. Who exactly are the “intolerant” people these days?

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino sent an angry letter to Chick-fil-A and has promised to use zoning tricks to stop the company from opening locations in the city. In Chicago, a city alderman is trying to deny Chick-fil-A a business permit to open in his district, and he openly says it’s because of the company owners’ stance on gay marriage. And Thursday morning, it was reported that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is also attacking the company and trying to prevent it from opening in the city — all because he disagrees with the political views of company management.

Politicians using the force of law to punish companies which hold sincere political views different from their own are vile. They’re asserting the right to use the power of the state to enforce their own views, which is exactly what they’re complaining about the other side doing. Let’s be honest, though. The people who want state control of everything — whether it’s marriage or safety or anything else — aren’t really worried about principles or rights. They’re interested in outcomes. The politicians who are grandstanding here don’t care about rights. They merely care about their views being enforced by law. Isn’t that what they complain about the Religious Right trying to do?

And even if you aren’t trying to use the force of law to compel compliance, do you really want to live in a world where everyone only does business with others who they agree with?

If I go to a restaurant, I’m interested in whether the place serves food I want at a price I’m willing to pay. I’m interested in how I’m treated there. I’m interested in whether I like the people who serve me. On all of those points, Chick-fil-A shines. They have excellent fast food. They’re obsessive in insisting that employees treat customers well. Their training is legendary in this regard, and they’re better than any other chain I know of at getting rid of problem employees in order to deliver a consistently good experience. They’re not perfect, but I know of no other place that comes close.

(I’ll especially give credit to the Chick-fil-A locations in Trussville, the Birmingham suburb where I live, and in Leeds, just a bit south of me. It’s hard to see how anybody could beat the service that these two stores routinely provide for their customers.)

If I go to a dry cleaner, I care about whether the folks there can clean my clothes. When I go to get a haircut — from a gay guy, by the way — I’m interested in whether he cuts my hair well, not with what he does on his own time or what his political views might be. If I go to a grocery store, I’m interested in whether the place has the products I want to buy and prices I can afford, not whether the company management might disagree with me about foreign policy or taxation (both of which I consider moral issues).

I’m treated well at Chick-fil-A and I like the service and the people. In addition, one of my very favorite people happens to be a manager at the Chick-fil-A in my neighborhood — and he’s gay. Everybody there knows that. It’s never been an issue. He’s not treated any differently than anybody else. And customers are treated the same whether they might be gay or not. It’s a well-run company that treats its employees and customers well. Whether you agree with the company owners’ position on marriage or not, Chick-fil-A is an excellent company.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Southern Baptist Convention — the nation’s largest protestant denomination — participated in an eight-year boycott of Disney over the company’s pro-gay and alleged anti-Christian stance. The boycott was spearheaded by a Religious Right group called the American Family Association and the Baptists followed. In 2006, the groups finally ended the boycott, making vague noises about it having been effective. Nobody really believed that — and it was a terrible idea from the start.

If you want to boycott a company because you disagree with the company’s management on political or religious issues — and you demand that other people do the same — I think you’re the one who’s being intolerant.

Note: The Atlantic had an article last week that I also recommend on the issue of the Chick-fil-A boycott. In addition, Glenn Greewald has an excellent article today on the free speech implications of Rahm Emanuel’s political attack.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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