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February 26, 2024, 7:31 AM ET
On one of my first days at The New York Times, I went to an orientation with more than a dozen other new hires. We had to do an icebreaker: Pick a Starburst out of a jar and then answer a question. My Starburst was pink, I believe, and so I had to answer the pink prompt, which had me respond with my favorite sandwich. Russ & Daughters’ Super Heebster came to mind, but I figured mentioning a $19 sandwich wasn’t a great way to win new friends. So I blurted out, “The spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A,” and considered the ice broken.
The HR representative leading the orientation chided me: “We don’t do that here. They hate gay people.” People started snapping their fingers in acclamation. I hadn’t been thinking about the fact that Chick-fil-A was transgressive in liberal circles for its chairman’s opposition to gay marriage. “Not the politics, the chicken,” I quickly said, but it was too late. I sat down, ashamed.
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link to (paywalled) source: I Was a Heretic at The New York Times
Was going to make a Westside story joke here, but I was beaten to it.
I think this story is a perfect example of lib praxis though. They said the bad thing, and were corrected, like a child. No punishment or investigation, just “don’t say the bad words.”
This could’ve led to a discussion about how awful people can sometimes still produce quality or popular products, and how empty “culture war” virtue signalling doesn’t actually do anything useful. All of the “we shall not speak the Voldemort name of the homophobic chicken sandwich restaurant.” stuff has failed to cause any sort of change, the company is still around, and still homophobic.
But such a discussion would require self-awareness and analytical skills, and none of these people would’ve landed their job at the New Yorker if they had those.
Libs doesn’t want to end suffering and evil, that would just upset the norms and the status quo. Instead they want to bear witness to it and tell themselves and eachother that they are against it. That is why they think it is meaningful to react to someone liking a sandwich made by someone employed by someone taking a franchise from someone who is a raging homophobe.