The unconfirmed allegation is raising concerns that the coffee chain is the latest corporation to cave to far-right attacks on LGBTQ people.
lots of people here seem to be indicating that target and starbucks are doing this because it’s not profitable to do rainbow capitalism. it still is, as much as rainbow capitalism is kinda revolting conceptually. nothing has changed except the following:
far right nazis, emboldened by the increasing political power of nazi homophobes like trump, desantis, and like 60% of gerrymandered state legislatures, are sending death threats to places that put up pride decorations and products. they’re also showing up to harass and scream at employees about it.
it’s terrorism. this is what conservatives do. and starbucks and target are full of cowards for letting terrorists dictate their behaviours.
quickly editing in sources since some homophobe in other replies tried to lie about it:
target receiving bomb threats about LGBTQ+ merch: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/12/target-bomb-threat-pride/
starbucks internal comms and rumours specifically mentioning target bomb threats as rationale for removing decorations: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/starbucks-denies-unions-accusation-banning-pride-decorations-rcna89043
DHS warning about far right terrorism targeting LGBTQ+ and Jewish folk, for context and validation: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/dhs-warns-terror-threats-lgbtq-jewish-migrant-rcna59426
Reminds me of the cowardice shown by national movie theater chains when they refused to screen The Interview many years ago.
I understand why a domestic beer company would sympathize with the far right-- that’s pretty much their customer base. But why are companies like Starbucks and Target doing it? Doesn’t seem like a smart financial move.
More proof that corporations are nobody’s “friends.” When they latch onto a community it’s purely for profit and marketing motives.
this is fundamentally true
but rainbow capitalism still works for profit. the reason they’re backing away is terrorist threats from the far right, and harassment of staff and management. they’re literally scared that the death threats they get over this stuff is going to result in a mass shooting. and thanks to accelerationists in US nazi politics, it realistically eventually will
that’s no excuse to cave to these people. but that’s the reason it’s happening.
Oh please companies don’t give a flying fuck if their employees suffer, the only logical explanation for companies stopping being on board with the LGBTQ crowd is that the profits aren’t big enough to be worth the trouble of supporting them.
do the research yourself you lazy lying scum, target directly explained why they pulled merch and there’s no reason to believe we’ll find anything different if starbucks talks to the media about it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/12/target-bomb-threat-pride/
also re: far right domestic terrorism, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/dhs-warns-terror-threats-lgbtq-jewish-migrant-rcna59426
re: starbucks, nothing is clear bc starbucks corporate isn’t even admitting that they’re pulling decorations yet, but internal communications and rumours specifically mention the threats against target
to summarize, you’re perfectly and completely wrong about everything, and fuck you, you homophobic rube.
As a left-of-center BT, the vast majority of companies indeed don’t actually care about these causes. Unless it’s like Ben & Jerry’s where the founders and leaders love to do activism and change the world with their business, which is not the norm.
This thread is the perfect example why this site is toss.
toss?
Why?
I’m a few weeks late in replying to your comment, but we didn’t have moderation when you posted this. A few of us have just started moderating, literally today, so please give us a bit to catch up.
Please check out the stickied thread about what kind of rules and guidelines you would like to see, if you haven’t already. We don’t have those guidelines to work with yet, but blatant bigotry, trolling, and spamming are our first targets while we work out the details.
Honestly, even as a bi trans person, I’m horribly concerned and quite mad at how exponentially shamelessly sexualized LGBT (especially Q) merch has gotten over the years. It just feels tacky and like it wants to paint all LGBT people as hypersexual fetishist nymphomaniacs.
Do you think Starbucks is selling dildos? We’re talking about rainbow coffee cups. I’d like to see a coffee cup that paints an entire group of people as “hypersexual fetishist nymphomaniacs”
@HaleyHalcyon absolutely, your post reminds me of this too: https://youtu.be/fiOMbqPHFwo?t=29s
Oh, so we’re gatekeeping which bi trans people get to be LGBT people just because they don’t agree with everything the mainstream does? I thought we agreed that it wasn’t an okay thing to do.
“Why can’t people let me tell others I don’t want them to express themselves”
Also since when are Starbucks LGBT decorations even remotely sexual?
impostor alert lmao
- 10A ( @10A@kbin.social ) 0•1 year ago
It’s about time. Corporations are finally starting to realize the vast majority of their customers are not onboard with the increasingly radical leftist agenda. Go woke and go broke.
shut the fuck up nazi, gay people receiving healthcare and existing in public is not radical. nor is starbucks at any risk of going broke
they’re just scared, like target was, that you chud braindead ass nazi terrorists are going to show up and scream at their staff or shoot someone.
Lol at this guy thinking he can shut up people off the internet
Lol where did they even say they think they can run people off the internet.
You nazis are dumb as fuck.
shut the fuck up
Maybe learn to read?
Saying shut the fuck up doesnt equate to “im going to run you off the internet” does it?
I didn’t say “run you off the internet”, i said “thinking he can shut up people off the internet”
Shutting people up off the internet and running people off the internet are 2 separated statements with different meanings.
Still though telling someone to shut up doesnt mean that you think that they will. just that you would like it if they did.
And
thinking he can shut up people off the internet
Kinda implies shutting people off of the internet but what do I know
ay just checking in to say, shut the fuck up and get the fuck off of the internet you loser antisocial nazi pieces of shit
- 10A ( @10A@kbin.social ) 0•1 year ago
How do I give gold on this thing?
i think your fox news commercials can tell you where to get gold
“We should stop marginalising gay and trans kids, people have the right to live their own lives” = RADICAL LEFTIST AGENDA.
You MAGA morons do love your little slogans though, beats independent thought I guess.
Social movements like equality and abortion are extremely popular, both amongst the voting population and the public in general.
Why do you think massive corporations jump on this stuff? They want the free PR so they can make more money! Corporations do not have political ideologies unless they are privately held and run by individuals–any company that has public investment is legally obligated to increase profits above all else.
Look up “rainbow capitalism” and you’ll realize that the actual activists, the real leftists you are so scared of, don’t like what they see any more than you do, but because of the empty slogans and meaningless marketing gestures. Because it’s not real progress!
Why do you think massive corporations jump on this stuff? They want the free PR so they can make more money! Corporations do not have political ideologies unless they are privately held and run by individuals–any company that has public investment is legally obligated to increase profits above all else.
Just a minor point here… corporations absolutely do have political ideologies. those ideologies are dictated, as you mentioned, by seeking profit. Which is why they interfere in politics so much- it’s less expensive for them to create a favorable regulatory frame work in place than it is to actually not be assholes. For example, one of the things that directly lead to trump’s victory in 2016, was an episode where the Koch plant in Corpus Christi, TX got dinged by the EPA back around 2000. (technically for not reporting benzene leaks. unofficially, they removed monitoring equipment and were letting that shit go. because the EPA relies on self reporting… they actually have no proof at all that they were leaking shitloads of benzene.)
this lead the Koch brothers to back republicans basically everywhere, including Trump, where some of the stuff he actually did… involved deregulation of environmental protections. Yeah. Because not leaking freaking toxic pollution into the air, directly harming residents in the area is too expensive and too burdensome.
edit to add: on the other end of the spectrum, you have companies taht are definitely afraid of things like climate change (and whose business won’t be adversely impacted by those regulations) absolutely lobbying for things to reduce the impact of climate change. (or, because their business is predicated on building solar or windmills, and such like.)
Very good points! I should have been more specific that corporations are usually not motivated by the social side of most political issues. Anything that impacts them financially, though, is certainly fair game from that perspective.
Mostly trying to clarify that Target almost certainly didn’t have trans-oriented swimming suits for adults because the corporation or even the CEO cares about that issue in an ideological, philosophical or moral sense. They had those products because there was a market for them and they saw a way to meet that demand. That’s it.