Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Time To Get Pranky

 The decision in 303 Creative v Elenis is really awful. Not because of its clear abrogation of rights for LGBT folks - though that's obviously bad. It's because the case was complete and utter bullshit. The plaintiff sued without having suffered any damages. It was completely manufactured by a Christian law firm, and yet the Court took it on specifically to reduce the rights or LGBT folks while increasing the "rights" of Christians to be bigots. They didn't have to take this case, they wanted to.

Now, generally speaking, I would not want to mess with gay folks. They are smart, well funded and endlessly creative. And now they are pissed.

So, it seems like now is the time to double down on a strategy we are seeing in other places around culture war bullshit. We saw this in Utah, when a parent leveraged the bullshit book banning rules to ban the Bible

Enter the Pastafarians and the Satanic Temple. Both of these organizations are largely satirical takes on religion, but just because they are "funny" doesn't mean they aren't serious. By creating "religions" that have essentially progressive social values, you can now plausibly create businesses that refuse to serve Evangelical Christians, because you find their worldview antithetical to your beliefs. You could define MAGA or even all Republicans as hate groups that violate your deeply held religious beliefs and refuse to serve them.

The reason why companies engage in greenwashing and Pride campaigns is because young, progressive, urban people have all the money. They aren't doing it from conviction. They are doing it because that's where the money is.

So use that money. Not with performative "boycotts".  Gays weren't headed to Hobby Lobby in the first place. No, create entrepreneurial spaces that exclude culture warrior bigots. 

If the Assembly of Religious Experts wants to create a space for bigotry based on "religious freedom" then let them know that knife can cut both ways.

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