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Republican attorneys general issue warning letter to Target about Pride merchandise
(www.cbsnews.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Theres the real reason
They also highlighted merchandise with "anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products."
How pathetic can you get? Your entire religion is threatened by a printed tshirt? Weak.
Ribbit
Was that actually merchandise in the store? I just thought they found the designer for Target’s merch, looked up his website, and found the Satanic stuff there. Not that it should matter either way.
It's extremely easy for an evangelist to make something into a satanic symbol. I don't remember exactly how she did it but my grandma managed to make "zoso" (which if you're not familiar with led zeppelin, each band member had a symbol and that was page's) into some anti Jesus bs and used Bonham's trinity symbol to justify it somehow.
I had an old grazy relative in the 90s (she's since died, praise Kaballah Monster) who refused to go to one of our cousins' homes because they had a "thriving fig tree" in their yard, which, as you know, is an affront to Jesus, because he cursed a fig tree. So, naturally, having a fig tree that is doing well is like, insulting Christianity everywhere.
We scheduled as many events as possible at said cousin's home.
I remember my mom watching TBN back in the 80's. They had someone on who claimed that the Care Bears were Satanic because if you squint just right and pronounce some of it wrong, it sounds kinda sorta like "Cerberus."
They get offended by the number 666. What's 667-1? Somebody get the AG to issue a cease and desist to math!
I think Florida schools are way ahead of you.
It wasn’t. They stalked one of the artists and found that other designs (which weren’t released at Target) had some of that imagery. Absolute insanity.
I look forward to their next attack- on Spencer's Gifts and Hot Topic.
It’s so funny to me when Christians get upset at horned skulls, pentagrams, and such. Who the hell decided these things were anti-christian? I’m fairly certain that no creator god would be scared of horns (it’s on many mammals he supposedly created), geometric patterns, or the like. It’s so stupid and exclusionary.
There's a reason I call Christianity fanfiction.
It has all of the hallmarks of a successful media franchise.
OG Jewish Christianity: The one-off movie that unexpectedly took off.
Pre dogmatic canon: That time you let Sony try to make a CD ROM version.
Post dogmatic canon: Bought out by a major corporation. Maintaining continuity becomes compulsory.
Islam: Darker! Edgier!
Gnosticism: A writer attends a cocaine party with his Neo Platonist buddies.
Crusades and Inquisition: DMCA for a different millennium.
Reformation: Fan fic writers rejoice!
Counter Reformation: Nuh uh!
Anglican Schism: What if we made this into a light hearted cartoon?
Mormons: Somebody tells a producer's son, an aspiring writer, that there is no such thing as a bad idea. As it turns out, this is incorrect.
Modern Evangelicalism: Judge Dredd and The Punisher make tender love.
Its insane. Also I didn't realize the government can control what a business can sell when it came to religious/spiritual merchandise. Freedom of religion and all that. Party of small government my ass.
Worse yet, there were no products with pentagrams etc. There was a supplier that had a website with Satanic-esque products and Target was contracting for two items from their line that weren't Satanic. They pulled those products before they ever hit the shelves. There also was an AI generated fake series of photographs of clearly Satanic merchandise that was, well.. fake. I bet these fools took that fake story at face value.
There was a supplier that had a website with Satanic-esque products
I bought the pin in question. It says "Satan respects pronouns". I'm gonna turn it in a fridge magnet.
Edit:
I bet these fools took that fake story at face value.
These are the morons who believed there are cat litter boxes in schools for students who identify as cats. They absolutely took it at face value.
Their entire religion is threatened by modern times changing and people no longer caring about a fairy in the sky. This is just a dying beast lashing out.
Brb gotta run to target to buy some Satanic products.
Conformity and order is how they live their lives. These darn "woke libs" keep allowing people to break the mold and to live a life that is different than the conformity and order they live by.
I have a fb friend who is convinced KFC is satanic because of their Diablo game marketing campaign. True story.
Your entire religion is threatened by a printed tshirt? Weak.
I saw a car today with christ messages painted on the windshield, sides, and back hatch. I thought, "how insecure or fanatical do you have to be about your religion to do that?" The license plate said GOD [Heart emoji] [Person's name]. I wanted to leave a note saying, "Lemme tell ya, [Person's name]," but that'd be a waste of time and paper.
They just won a case without any standing whatsoever that they can discriminate against lgbtqia+ people. Now they're trying to make it so that retailers can't even be welcoming to them.
I also see that the next "then they came for" on their list involves bringing back Satanic Panic.
I was in South Texas a few months ago (not my idea).
At a local H.E.B. There was a rack of Pride merchandise including t-shirts and bumper stickers that said "Y'all includes 'all'"
They were on clearance so my cynical brain leapt to the conclusion that nobody was buying them. Nooope. They were being destroyed and otherwise vandalized while on the shelf. This was happening so often that the manager decided that it was costing more to keep them on the shelves than the goodwill of the queer community was worth to him.
Wake me up when a corporation does more than the absolute minimum during Pride. Otherwise it's just more sociopathic virtue signaling from organizations that would happily sell Khmer Rouge branded glasses if they thought it would increase shareholder value.
I was in South Texas a few months ago (not my idea).
I live in South Texas, and know that when I say this to people who have never had a breakfast taco, the most common response is "Like, San Antonio?" So for the interest of clarity, how far south are we talking? Given your story, I'd like to know which community to be wary in if not avoid entirely if possible. (If it doesn't already confirm one of my guesses.)
More directly in response to your comment, I am aware of the existence of rainbow capitalism. That doesn't mean Republicans should get a pass for, say, calling in bomb threats to target, which has already happened. Nor should they get a pass for trying to prevent the sale of pride merch.
Republicans believe in a free market until they don't. It's the endless hypocrisy that gets me.
Seriously.
The attorneys general also said they believed Target's Pride campaign threatened their financial interests, writing that Target leadership has a "fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company" and suggesting that company officials "may be negligent" in promoting the campaign since it has negatively affected Target's stock prices and led to some backlash among customers.
I didn't realize the government needed to step in if a business makes decisions that hurt their profit. That doesn't sound like a free market at all.
It's more insidious than you think. They're using the "we've got a financial interest in how the company performs" argument in the same way they did in the recent Supreme Court case allowing businesses to discriminate against gay people.
As stakeholders, if Target continues to offer LGBTQ+ merchandise for sale, these Attorneys General will argue that the financial losses Target might suffer is enough to sue them, to force them to stop selling that merchandise.
It's fucking evil. We should not stand for it.
Being a shareholder means having partial ownership of the company, so company owners telling the company what they can't do sees pretty free-markety to me. Just weird seeing a republican government using their shares as leverage to control companies, but given republicans really never cared about free markets, its not that surprising.
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I’m getting really tired of this timeline.
Make sure you read the letter. It takes about how LGBT stuff is not appropriate for children. Cause you know, being included in society and appreciated for who you are is only for adults, and all kids are born straight and should be raised straight, right?
Imagine being upset about rainbows
So the Supreme Court just ruled that businesses can discriminate against a protected class. Now they are trying to force/scare businesses that don’t, into doing it.
Welcome to fascism.
Satanism is another religion whether they like it or not. Anyone can sell satanic shit, you don't get to claim it's "anti Christian" when y'all are the ones that invented Satan
They forget that the first amendment doesn't just apply to their own speech.
So they won't defend corporations from right wing terrorism but they'll threaten to sue them for being victimized by right wing terrorism?
They have been emboldened. It is not going to end until they are out of power.
Disclaimer: I'm not advocating murder with this statement, so whatever you take from it is on you.
They won't stop until they can't act. Power or not, they have influence and will wield it. The only people who have no influence are dead.
The only people who have no influence are dead.
A true fact.
Fucking Fascism right there! Those Attorney Generals are unAmerican assholes. I hate the bullshit culture wars that Republicans put so much energy into. Imagine if they tried to actually use that energy to make this a better country for everyone.
"a comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children,"
They keep using words that they don't even understand well, come on.
Honestly, as someone that grew up in an ultra conservative Christian cult, this makes me want to join the Satanic Temple movement. We need to provide a challenge to this nonsense from a different direction using the same rules.
For the last few years I’ve been working inside Targets, and they’ve had pride displays every June. This year is the first time they had major backlash. The boycotts are real. Traffic is down. And as someone who makes commission based on sales, it’s had a pretty big effect on my paychecks.
Even though the pride displays have been taken down, foot traffic still hasn’t recovered. When the boycott started I was happy that the bigots didn’t want to shop here. But now I’m struggling to pay rent.
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