My, my. I'm an "idiot" for boycotting Kraft for their support of the "Gay Games"
From the comments:
you are an idiot if you think you can avoid every company that supports gay people in one way or another. Your attempt to avoid purchasing products from these companies will do nothing to their bottom line. It's more work for you trying to figure it all out.
Happy shopping moron.
Mike
Ah, the "look-at-us-we're-so-much-more-tolerant-than-you-morons" left shows it's true colors yet again. As I always say, there are none so intolerant than those who caterwaul most for tolerance.
Well, let's look at this person's fallacies, shall we?
First, and most obvious, is the ad hominem - the use of the terms "idiot" and "moron." Doesn't take much to refute such base behavior. In fact, it's best to just point out that it was used in place of intelligent, reasoned arguments.
Second, this person thinks that taking a stand against depravity is useless because there's no way to "avoid every company that supports gay people in one way or another." He's half right. It is true that one cannot entirely avoid every company that supports homosexuality one way or another. But one can target the most blatant offenders - companies supporting the perverse "Gay Games," for example - and that can send a loud, clear message to the lesser offenders.
Third, our friend believes that a boycott of Kraft "will do nothing to their bottom line." If it were just myself boycotting Kraft, he would be correct. But it's not just me. This all started with an email alert from the American Family Association. The AFA has almost 2.3 million members, and all of them can influence through "word-of-mouth" (or blogs) millions more. With 75% of Kraft's profits coming from the Maxwell House, Post, Oscar Mayer and Nabisco brands, millions of people avoiding those brands can make a huge impact upon Kraft's bottom line.
Finally, Mike claims "it's more work for you trying to figure it all out." Not really. (Seriously, how much work is it to NOT buy something?) The Kraft band and brands I mentioned previously are easily avoided. (Admittedly, we had a false-start the first week as my wife was not familiar with all the brands Kraft is behind. That has since been rectified.) Other brands are no problem, either. Let's take a look at a few:
-coffee brands: we don't drink coffee, so no problems there
-Country Time, Crystal Light, Kool-Aid, Tang, Capri Sun, etc.: hardly use them and substitutes are easily found nearby on the shelf
-Oscar Meyer and Louis Rich hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts: easily identifiable, substitutes available
-DiGiorno, Jack's, Tombstone: again, hardly used these and substitutes are available
-Kraft and Velveeta macaroni and cheese: easily identifiable, substitutes available
-products having to do with the word "cheese" (or "cheez"): Kraft and Velveeta are the big brands, so they're easily avoided and, yep, subsitutes are available
-Jell-O and Cool Whip: another couple of big brands, but substitutes are available
-breakfast cereals: look for the word "Post," buy other brands
-snacks and crackers: mostly fall under "Nabisco," so they are easily avoided with other brands available
That's really about it. There are a few minor other items that we don't use much anyway. I wouldn't even come close to breaking a sweat with all the "hard work" (i.e. thinking) I'd have to do. If you really think about it, we could easily avoid the big name brands completely and buy the less expensive smaller name brands and we'd have no worries about whether or not we're buying Kraft products.
Nice try, Mike, but no cigar. You'll have to come up with something better than the lame "you're an idiot and it'll take so much work and you can't avoid them all" attack.
posted by Jay McHue @ 10:50 PM
