By R.C. Seely
AMERICA IS THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY, if you aren’t afraid to get to your hands dirty and work for it. That’s not good enough for some people. Not only do they disagree with the idea of “equal opportunity” being fair, they believe we need “equal results” and in the world of safe spaces and free speech zones, they can end up suppressing the discussion.
In come the opportunists–proponents of the progressive agenda–to aid them by further reinforcing their feelings of social inadequacy and impotence. You are the victim and due. There‘s even a social buzzword for it: Microaggressions. Besides the clear violation of freedom of speech, as an entrepreneur, I find this repulsive and insulting.
Here’s why: I went to trade school, while working during that year. It also included about 600 clinical hours and having to take both a national and state exam, which required going out of state to take. That was only the beginning–after that the work of building a clientele list and my career began. It wasn’t easy, and it didn’t go as planned. Because of the local market, I abandoned the job after putting my all into it.
Since then, I have picked myself up and tried this writing thing. It’s unclear if it will pay off or not, but at least I’m trying it. I’m making sacrifices and paying my dues, because that’s the responsible thing to do. But it’s what I enjoy doing and has prospects. There’s no safety net however, so if it fails, it means getting up again and trying something else. That’s what an entrepreneur does, but when working for others it could still be necessary to pay your dues.
There are days that you get discouraged and consider throwing in the towel and sticking with that day job. It offers a degree of security but also the risk of being terminated. The risks if occupational self-sufficiency is worth it for those who possess the grit to see it through to the end. The euphoria felt after each accomplishment does outweigh the feeling of defeat from the failings. And each time you falter you will learn from it.
This acquiescence to the wave of Microaggressions is hurting this country, not only is encumbering speech but in discouraging others from even trying. Why go through the heartache of entrepreneurship, when you can have the same thing guaranteed without the effort? Because the effort is what truly matters. It’s what makes the results worth it.
The land of opportunity is still alive in the USA, despite the Microaggressions. It’s made the road a little rockier and unfortunately disenfranchises others who will now be less inclined to start a business. Thing is that they are needed as much–if not more, thanks to the information age economy. The traditional businesses have proven to not be “too big to fail” and have been shrinking instead of growing.
The economic impact from Microaggressions has been covered, now on to the censorship. The era of Microaggressions have made sure to make everyone dependent on government, while silencing its opponents. Even saying the phrase “Land of Opportunity” is considered hurtful and a Microaggression. And since what’s deemed offensive is subjective, it’s difficult to have an open discussion on any subject. Many people are sensitive to social pressure, and being called out as culturally insensitive or politically incorrect is all it takes for them to concede, it’s an effective plan of attack.
It’s a problem that is rampant in the two-party system, Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly are as bad–or worse–than any of their “tolerant” progressive counterparts.
Progressive groups called to have Last Man Standing pulled and the Media Research Center petitioned to have Dan Savage’s sitcom The Real O‘Neal‘s canceled. Both were in the wrong. A petition from progressive groups was sent to MSNBC to have the conservatives formerly from Fox News fired; while they pushed for Net Neutrality, which would force them to hire progressive commentators.
Microaggressions are having a detrimental effect on our nation–both in the area of free speech and economics. It’s not worth trading freedom for security, because whether it’s in a battlefield across the ocean or in a classroom across the road or a political discussion across the room, security is at best fleeting and can be used against us when the individual relinquishes control. Security can be achieved with Freedom, but Freedom is generally suppressed with security.
R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has also written books about pop culture the most recent Victims of White Male: How Victim Culture Victimizes Society is available at Amazon.
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Fast Food Activism
Posted: April 11, 2018 in Political, Social CommentaryTags: activism, americanus libertae, bullying, business, censorship, cyberbullying, net neutrality, net nuetered, online activism, rc seely, technology
By R.C. Seely
IS BURGER KING THE king of burgers? Hard to say since the Burger industry has so many choices. And the king has decided to go social activists rather than focus on their product.
Starting with a misleading video on Net Neutrality, the chain now introduced an anti-bullying PSA.
Now what’s wrong with that? You might be asking. It could be nothing, but it gives the impression that they care more about social justice than their customers.
Take the new ad, they have teen actors pretend to bully another teen and send their customers “bullied” burgers, and record the reactions. Will the customers be more upset about the burgers or the bullied? If it were me, I’d be furious that they care more about catering to activists than to paying customers.
I don’t go to Burger King often, so losing my business would be imperceptible to their bottom line but that they value their customers, so little is troubling. Especially when the market has so many options and burgers, are not their only competition. Fast food and restaurants are a demonstration of the success possible in the free market.
If examined, there are probably already signs of distress within the company because this. Keep in mind this merely speculation on my part.
Besides the willingness to dismiss their customers, the causes they are advancing, and the marketing campaigns are baffling. So far, Net Neutrality and bullying are their causes. And both campaigns have issues; the Net Neutrality one is blatantly wrong in their analogy and the bullying one is inviting a lawsuit.
Either they don’t understand Net Neutrality, or they are on the wrong side. To do their concept accurately it would have to be, the customers getting more than the asked for. Net Neutrality using their burger analogy would be the customer orders a a burger and they are served the burger and a chicken sandwich, fries, a chocolate shake, a dessert and everything else off the menu. Or they never get the burger at all and only get everything else that you don’t want.
As for the other ad, I’m confused exactly what they were expecting the customers in their establishment to do. Verbally confront the “bullies?” But what if the patrons turned violent on the actors? That’s not even all that unlikely given how passionately people have gotten on the issue. Or worse what if one of the patrons were armed? Is the little impromptu theater worth the life of one of these actors? It’s not the patrons’ responsibility to make and keep a safe environment, it’s the business owners.
However you look at it, this idea by Burger King management is asking for trouble, starting with that it appears both ads are online only. The chain could have put these ads online and on TV, a plan that would make more sense. Maybe it’s just my skeptical nature, but when things don’t add up, it generally is because of the worst case scenario. In this case, I suspect they are trying to reach a specific demographic, the youth. Those passionate youth, that will cause “the next social revolution” and won’t question these causes. Can we just get the fries and hold the social justice, please?
R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture and has an upcoming new release–Confused Yet?: Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible.