"The level of hatred, unfounded fear and misinformed people was astoundingly sad."

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/right-wing-chick-fil-appreciation-day-round-intolerance-display?akid=9157.24869.1ZR_WI&rd=1&src=newsletter685908&t=1

Right-Wing Chick-fil-A "Appreciation Day" Round-Up: Intolerance On Display

- snip -

Gay and lesbian employees of Chick-fil-A had perhaps the most disheartening reaction to the day. An Alabama gay staffer named Andrew described the day as “hater appreciation day,” calling it “very, very depressing.” A gay employee at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta heard a customer say, “I’m so glad you don’t support the queers, I can eat in peace.” Another in Colorado had customers telling him, “I support your company, because your company hates the gays.” Many report experiencing homophobia not just from customers, but from fellow employees as well.

The Media Cries Fowl

Unfortunately, much of the media coverage yesterday was simply an open display of anti-gay views without much to rebut them. Still, there were a few notable highlights. For example, Fox News’ Shep Smith, who supports marriage equality, made a quick jab at Huckabee, pointing out that it was “National Badminton Day,” so “forget National Day of Intolerance, let’s just stay with Badminton.”

Journalist Mark Krzos of The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida, wrote on Facebook that covering Chick-fil-A yesterday was incredibly disheartening:

"I have never felt so alien in my own country as I did today while covering the restaurant’s supporters. The level of hatred, unfounded fear and misinformed people was astoundingly sad. I can’t even print some of the things people said."

MORE AT LINK[p]

[Stuart G]

1. In some ways, this country is still stuck in the 50s hate...It is hate, hate and more hate..nt

[yardwork]

2. I'm not surprised. When I phonebanked against the hate amendment in my state

a number of people were happy to tell me "I'm voting for the amendment because I hate gay people."

People's ministers tell them that it is right and Godly to hate gay people.

[whathehell]

10. Jeebus..

do you live in Fred Phelps neighbood?

[awoke_in_2003]

24. That could be anywhere

in the south, and many rural areas in the north. Obama wasn't far off talking about clinging to god and guns.

[whathehell]

46. Maybe..

but I'm talking about coming right out and saying, in a conversational tone,

"I hate gays". In my experience, people will at least try to couch it

in less direct terms.

[awoke_in_2003]

48. Down here they just don't care...

I really miss Cleveland sometimes

[tandot]

3. I feel very bad for these gay employees

to have to experience the hate without being able to fight back.

The media did a bad job ... again

[Lifelong Protester]

4. I'm looking for a place to post this

so I hope here is ok.

I just got a little booklet in the mail, sent to all school admins. from an anonymous donor who is worried about 'abridgement and censorship' of our Constitutionally protected 'freedom of speech and right to religious expression' in the nation's 100,000 PUBLIC schools.
It came from a group called the Liberty Counsel (any group who uses counsel and not council is already suspect to me...)

Any booklet called the Patriot's Handbook...to anything...is suspect to me. I tossed it.

Then I looked the group up online (I'm sorry I did now) and found this (in regards to the Chik-fil-a controversy)...

"In the wake of the Penn State scandal surrounding Jerry Sandusky’s homosexual assault on dozens of young boys, the Boy Scouts of America moved to protect children by re-affirming its prohibition against scoutmasters who live a homosexual lifestyle. Although they didn’t expressly indicate that Penn State influenced their decision, there can be little doubt it did.

As with the Chick-fil-A debacle, libs lost their collective noodle. Apparently, the only thing they hate more than Chick-fil-A is a “morally straight” 12-year-old who strives for integrity and merit.

So here’s my proposal: Don’t let a bunch of uber-obnoxious, loud-mouthed liberal pansies intimidate you. They’re nothing but a wet paper tiger. On Wednesday, Aug. 1, have your kids wear their Boy Scout uniforms to Chick-fil-A. Scoutmasters, bring ‘em all.

I'll put the link, but jeez-o-pete, what a bunch of fundie sickos out there!

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/liberty-counsel


(I had never heard of Liberty Counsel, so if I'm late to the 'show' and this is old news, I apologize.)

[awoke_in_2003]

25. I hate this country sometimes. nt

[savannah43]

32. You're not alone.

I'm ashamed, too.

[SammyWinstonJack]

37. So do I, thanks to these self-righteous 'people'.

[awoke_in_2003]

38. I heard asshats talking about...

the chick fil a thing today at work. I am ashamed, but this time I just walked out of the room. I have so many arguments about marriage equality, I just couldn't have another one. It is like arguing with a brick wall. Oh, and each one of the assholes has at least one divorce under their belt. Sanctity of marriage, indeed. I am surrounded by hatred and stupidity.

[adigal]

39. Assholes. Sandusky is not a homosexual!! He is a married pedophile.

I can't take the stupidity and hatred anymore. It's like the republicans give people a license to unleash their inner monsters, and if I ever put that statement I just made on Facebook, i would probably lose my job.

[Lifelong Protester]

44. I know, that p-oed me too.

The man is a pedophile! But their thought pattern is: "But let's just call it being a homosexual to throw in some deviant spice.
That'll make the argument better, right?"

I hate that kind of crap.

[freshwest]

5. It makes me cry, thinking of their employees having to listen to this. It's like the Jim Crow days,

Some sadistic white pantaloon calling a black man 'boy.'

These people need a wake-up call and for the life of me I don't know what it's going to be.

But I still feel this is all being orchestrated by the Rovian group and Romney to get the populist rage off their candidate.

The heartbreaking thing for the nation is that we let these people divide us, when we should find common cause.

The only hope I have is that Obama is re-elected along with sufficient numbers to overturn all this discrimination from the grass roots level.

[handmade34]

8. +1

"like the Jim Crow days"... "The heartbreaking thing for the nation is that we let these people divide us, when we should find common cause"

Shame! shame of those who still act on, and back self-righteous attitudes and behaviors that hurt and divide us. I am very sad that we still are such a dysfunctional society...

[freshwest]

11. I wish there was something like the Dark Angel scenario where an EMF pulse wipes out the grid.

Not to reduce society or civilization to that, which was so desolate and violent, so inhumane, where the truth was repressed totally. That is what happens when you destroy infrastructure and make chaos. I think it is the Koch plan.

But just something to turn off FOX and hate radio for a month and see if these folks would come back to sanity. Just walk around and look at the world around them, take a deep breath and think about things neutrally.

It doesn't mean we would all agree on everything. But instead of us trying to talk to the voices in their heads when they are in the mob mentality state, just to talk about what's important.

They are being brainwashed with the same techniques, but on a level Goebbels only dreamed of in 1930s Germany.

[nichomachus]

6. Yeah, I'll go there

As someone who has done a lot of research into Germany in the '30s, I find this very reminiscent of the beginning of the campaign against the Jews (not the horror that came later).

The interesting thing is that there weren't that many Jews in Germany at the time -- about 600,000. Most of them lived in the big cities. Germans outside the big cities most likely never met or associated with Jews, yet the Nazis were able to build their whole campaign on hatred of the Jews.

A lot of people who had no reason to developed a visceral hatred of Jews -- then it spread and to fit in you had to exhibit it too, even if you had Jewish friends, neighbors, or relatives.

[handmade34]

9. The "Other"

'irrational fear'... so sad we have not grown up much as a species

The Other is an individual who is perceived by the group as not belonging, as being different in some fundamental way. Any stranger becomes the Other. The group sees itself as the norm and judges those who do not meet that norm (that is, who are different in any way) as the Other. Perceived as lacking essential characteristics possessed by the group, the Other is almost always seen as a lesser or inferior being and is treated accordingly. The Other in a society may have few or no legal rights, may be characterized as less intelligent or as immoral, and may even be regarded as sub-human.
Otherness takes many forms. The Other may be someone who is of...

a different race (White vs. non-White),
a different nationality (Anglo Saxon vs. Italian),
a different religion (Protestant vs. Catholic or Christian vs. Jew),
a different social class (aristocrat vs. serf),
a different political ideology (capitalism vs. communism),
a different sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. homosexual),
a different origin (native born vs. immigrant).
The Other is not necessarily a numerical minority. In a country defeated by an imperial power, the far more numerous natives become the Other, for example, the British rule in India where Indians outnumbered the British 4,000 to 1. Similarly, women are defined and judged by men, the dominant group, in relationship to themselves, so that they become the Other. Hence Aristotle says: "The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities; we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness."
The group which is defining the Other may be an entire society, a social class or a community within a society, a family, or even a high school clique or a neighborhood gang.

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/other.html

[freshwest]

18. +1,000. Thanks for that.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. OMG, don't let the supporters know Chick-Fil-A has employeed any of 'those'

people, or they might burn the place down.

[xxqqqzme]

13. I thought the

creepy owner declared he doesn't hire 'those' and would fire them if he found out.

[Patiod]

14. As MANAGERS

They let the gays and the non-Christians clean the toilets and serve the food (and I'm hoping that a lot of them did both without any handwashing yesterday).

But they only like to have married Christians as managers.

[adigal]

41. That's funny! If I worked there, I would be very tempted to dunk the food in some nasty places and

do some other interesting things to it! Of course, I wouldn't, I would never want to get anyone sick, but the thought of it would make me smile at the haters!

[BlueinOhio]

12. Pay back

Maybe the gay employees should sue chic fil a over the hostile work place they had to endure.

[twizzler]

15. The level of bigotry is sad

As far as I know, my state doesn't have any Chick Fil A, and I hope it stays that way.
We have Kentucky Fried Chicken and Church's Chicken.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. K&R&No Shit. Most of us have no idea what the reality America's tolerance of hatred means.

Everybody has an opinion and a right to it, but all opinions are not equal and nobody has a right to inflict theirs on everybody around them.

[freshwest]

19. +1,000

[CrispyQ]

17. Wrapping your hate in religion so you can justify it.

What a depressing story. I'm glad I clicked the link & read to the bottom:

A Sweet Alternative

A number of restaurants across the country offered alternatives to Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day:

Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen in New York City announced it would donate proceeds from its sales to Marriage Equality USA.

The Sweet Avenue Bake Shop in Rutherford, New Jersey offered “Rainbow Pride” cupcakes with proceeds supporting Garden State Equality.

Lake Worth, Florida held a “Celebrate Community & Diversity Day,” which included a Pajama Party to support diversity and LGBT businesses.

The Chicago-based Hearty restaurant held “Chick-fil-Gay Appreciation Day,” donating 100 percent of sales from its fried chicken breast sandwiches to Equality Illinois.

Chef Art Smith, who was once Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef, held a “Flick-the-hate” Chicken Fry at his personal residence in Chicago, asking guests to donate $100 or more each to support Equality Illinois.

Numbers are still being tallied, but LGBT equality groups raised tens of thousands of dollars yesterday thanks to a Facebook event encouraging people to donate the cost of a chicken dinner for marriage equality.

I missed that last one, but I'm going to do that now.

[freshwest]

21. Thanks! And we have Amazon's CEO donating to keep our same-sex marriage law in place.

At this time, some right wing religionists groups have put a halt to the implementation of the law. The same type of groups as would attend these hate fests are trying to tear it down. I am so tired of people who have nothing better to do with their time than tear other people's lives up.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/amazons-founder-pledges-2-5-million-in-support-of-same-sex-marriage/

[BlancheSplanchnik]

53. Great Post!!

Wish M$M would cover THIS, but the propaganda-meisters don't want messages of progress infecting the populace!

[lpbk2713]

20. I thought the subject line was a preview of the GOP Tampa convention.

SSDD

[gaspee]

22. Lots of people right here on DU

Gleefully supporting them. Some, I think is honest. Some, I think, is a way to be anti-gay without seeming to be. Dog whistling.

But hey, they're just supporting free speech, honest!

[Zoeisright]

40. Isn't that the truth.

And hate speech is not free speech. Whining about people calling them on their hatred is cowardly and disgusting.

[gaspee]

23. Straight people have no idea

Just how much hatred toward the GLBT community is out there.

[awoke_in_2003]

27. My sister is gay...

I know all to well how much hatred there is. Of course, they mess with her and her partner at their own peril- they are cops.

[slampoet]

49. I think a lot of people who are straight know.

My sister is gay and didn't come out until college but I am hetero and experienced a whole lot more gay bashing violence than her or my younger brother.

I have caught my sister's wife buying Chick-Fil-A and tried to get her not to, but my sister said it was okay once in a while. That is not my opinion.

[Initech]

26. The bigots on parade day at that restaurant yesterday was truly disgusting.

[Hestia]

28. Not unlike the 3 Wolf Moon t-shirt, has no one thought that this is one helluva marketing scheme?

Don't get me wrong - the 3 Wolf Moon t-shirt is great (bought one for both DH and myself), but look at who's made out like bandits on all of this - chik-fil-a. It has absolutely nothing to do with Jeebus or anything like that. Yes, it is deplorable that they are climbing on the backs of the LGBT community but take a look - how much money did they make yesterday? How much have they paid Huckabee & Palin? Do you think they are really going to out on a limb for FREE?

I really irritate my mom when she suggests we go there for lunch, and since I'm payin,g I'm like hell no, or Olive Garden or Red Lobster, et al. I push her toward eating local. At least local people have kept their mouths shut (most of them) as to what their political stance is and where their hatred stands, they are too busy trying to keep their heads above water.

[Grammy23]

29. Those who attended yesterday's Chick-Fest

Many of those who attended the Chick-Fest claimed that that they were there showing support for Mr. Cathy's "right to free speech"......pretty much without regard to WHAT He said but his right to say it. I call BS on that notion since I doubt very much that they would have shown up to "show appreciation for FREE SPEECH" if he had announced his personal opinion that he favors Marriage Equality. On the contrary......Chik-fil-A would, no doubt, have had people protesting in front of the place and not buying his famous sandwiches.

The saddest thing to me of about all of this whole mess is that a huge portion of the people supporting Mr. Cathy are getting their marching orders (and opinions about Marriage Equality) from their churches. Instead of learning about the Gospel of Jesus who preached love and compassion for your fellow man, they are getting a heavy dose of hate and distrust of anyone who is not just like them. They cherry pick the verses that support their views and conveniently ignore those that don't. They trust their pastors as the AUTHORITIES (my daughter-in-law referenced her pastor when she posted on FB with a hateful comment) on anything in this arena. They are getting their political marching orders, too. Even though many think Mr. Romney is part of a cult, they will hold their nose and vote for him because that is what they are being told to do by the church. They vote AGAINST Their own best interest, too, since the vast majority are not part of the 1 %.

I really hate the direction this country is moving since it appears we'll all be at each other's throats before the election is over. Between the social issues (Marriage Equality and Abortion) and Economic policies (Taxes), I can safely say we'll all be ready for it to JUST END. What a revoltin' development this is.....to quote a favorite cartoon character.

[backscatter712]

30. This is why I have such a big problem with religion.

Religion is the perfect medium for moral inversion.

Take a morally reprehensible category of acts: bigotry, discrimination, abuse and violence against the LBGT community or some other out-group.

Any normal, clear-headed person would be able to figure out that such acts are not cool.

But shrink-wrap these acts and put a sticker of Sweet Baby Jesus on them, complete with a few quotes out of the Bronze Age Book of Fairy Tales, and suddenly, the evil act becomes righteous in the eyes of the true-believers. People commit acts of horrendous evil while thinking they're good.

Voila. Moral inversion.

It's no coincidence that religion is implicated in so many of the truly monstrous acts in human history: the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, the Holocaust, the wiping-out of Native-Americans, etc. etc. etc. So often, these acts of wanton evil and destruction were justified by the magic words "They're not Christian (or whatever is the in-group religion)."

[adigal]

42. Jesus would hate conservative Christians! I say that to piss off right wing Facebook "friends"

I say Jesus would not only be a liberal today, but he would be a radical, heading up OWS! He treasured the poor, the man had compassion and empathy, unlike today's right wing Christians.

[liberalmuse]

31. It broke my heart.

To do this to your fellow human beings. These people are pathetic, and will be the ones left behind as the rest of the human race evolves, and continues to seek moving foward in love and understanding.

[tanyev]

33. So how many of those fools got heat stroke, or seriously sunburned?

[klook]

51. I don't know, but I guarantee

they all have slightly more clogged arteries and elevated blood sugar levels today. Not only are the politics of the owner garbage, so is the food.

[Jamaal510]

34. I'm starting to finally get what they meant on the Tyra Banks show

about "gay is the new black." At first I didn't believe it, but now I see some truth in it. Much of what gays are going through is what black folks experienced back in the day, whether it's discrimination against employees, being banned from facilities, or being called derogatory names. Conservatives try to make it seem as if both cases are different, but it's all the same. It's discrimination against someone due to factors that they have no control over.
Like "Mudcat" Saunders was saying on the Stephanie Miller show this morning, I wish this issue would be solved so we can quit being divided by wedge issues. The G0Pee loves to use wedge issues to get ahead.

[progressivebydesign]

35. Journalist Marc Krzos apparently has been REPRIMANDED and forced to take down his FB comments.

""I have never felt so alien in my own country as I did today while covering the restaurant’s supporters. The level of hatred, unfounded fear and misinformed people was astoundingly sad. I can’t even print some of the things people said."

Why hide it? Let people know the truth about these good "Christians." Guess his "Editor" has come out and said that the TRUTH Krzos wrote was inappropriate, even on his own Facebook page. Un-fucking-real. According to the comments I saw, the "warrior christians" are launching an attack on the journalist for speaking the truth about what he witnessed there that day. And no doubt Chick-Fuck-A is an advertiser... the giant lobbyist groups of poor, poor persecuted white christians, are going after him for saying anything.

So do they not teach about Hitler's Germany anymore?? How could these people miss that lesson?

[just1voice]

36. "hatred, unfounded fear and misinformed people" is the GOP platform

Add in pro-torture, anti-government and corporate whores and the platform is complete.

[icarusxat]

43. Do it in the name of Heaven...One Tin Soldier-Lambert and Potter, 1969

Only one problem Matt 7:23

[Le Taz Hot]

45. It was front page news this morning.

First off I didn't even know we had a chic-fil-a. Apparently it's in the foo-foo part of town I refer to as Villa de Yup. Needless to say I don't get up there much. Anyway, as everyone else reported there were lines out the door. The first thing I thought was, "Bigotry on display."

[Zorra]

47. Make no mistake. If given the chance these fascist wackos would round us up and gas

us all quicker than you could say Chik-fil-a, and they'd be singing "I'm A Soldier in Christ's Army" while they were doing it.

[Peaceful Protester]

50. 11th Commandment

[KurtNYC]

52. Homophobia is political vehicle -- That's why they use it

What we got Wednesday was a visual display of how many people would open their checkbooks for intolerance. Many groups on the Right already knew this was a cash cow. They create mailings designed to raise money from these same people. And they will keep doing it as long is it brings in the dollars.

An idea: create a non-profit that (only) SEEMS to be anti-gay and target the same people. Use their money to fight them.

[ck4829]

54. This is just disappointing.

[yoyossarian]

55. Disgusting!!!

It's official. From here on in, Chick-Fil-A will ALWAYS make my gorge rise. It will ALWAYS make me wanna puke.
Happy, Mr. Cathy?