Commentators on the left had plenty to say about Starbucks' #RaceTogether plan to address the complex issues of racism with your cup of coffee. Even Starbucks' baristas weighed in on what a misplaced idea it was. There have been plenty of good points raised, and some bad ones too. Particularly when we start to look at the right-wing reactions -- that's when things get really interesting.
I've written before about the GOP's successful tactic of dehumanizing and degrading the working poor. If you listen to conservative commentators for any length of time, the pattern is pretty hard to miss. Certain groups -- minorities, the LGBT community, non-submissive women, non-religious people, liberals, etc. -- are cast not just as being on the other side of an ideological divide on an issue, but as lazy, worthless, and useless. If you're not white, Christian, upper middle class or wealthy conservatives, you're one of the enemies, fools, criminals, and/or monsters. There is language specifically reserved for these "others": Thug. Baby-killer. Slut. Un-American. Moocher. Taker. Welfare queen. God-hater.
Young people are just one of these sets of people that conservatives seem to hate. And not coincidentally, conservative policy is either agnostic to, or downright hostile toward, young people. Republican apathy to student loan debt, attacks on higher education and healthcare access, silence on or opposition to minimum wage, etc., are good indicators that the problems facing millennials at best aren't on the radar of the Republican Party. Often, though, they're the direct result of conservative policy and action.
So how do you convince your base of middle-aged and older voters to support you as you destroy their children and grand-children's prospects? By convincing them that young people are narcissistic, ignorant, clueless, selfish, entitled and lazy. Hell, they even party wrong!
Sound familiar? It's the playbook they've been working from for quite awhile now. Which brings me back to Starbucks and #RaceTogether. On a topic where almost everyone, except the upper echelons of Starbucks' management, can agree that it's a bad idea, or at least poorly implemented, how could this possibly end up an opportunity to bash young people, you ask?
Well, I encourage you to turn to the dark underbelly of conservative social media. Like that intellectual cesspool Right Wing News, which shared this image earlier today:
Arrogant.
No real-world experience.
Condescending.
Sneer.
Lecture.
And if these descriptors weren't enough to make you hate the hapless purveyor of your morning coffee, keep in mind that this arrogant judgey liberal kid wants to "treat you like an ignorant hillbilly" -- as well as imply that you have pedestrian tastes in coffee! What's a Real American© Conservative (but I repeat myself -- is there any other kind?!) to do?
For many of RWN's commenters, the solution was simple: reveal to the world just how ignorant, racist and plain old crazy they actually are. And they managed that all on their own, with zero input from any "arrogant 20-something".
Like Jason, who decided to share this gem:
Or these people, who are truly concerned about racial victimization in this country...of white people, of course.
Then there's the Real Americans © who are worried about the real problem in this country: liberals. These patriots know what's wrong in this world. Michael, for instance, points out just how elitist baristas are; like Donna, he has a solution: don't drink Starbucks coffee. Sean, though, has a dream.
Vincent is just tired of it all. It must be overwhelming, after a while, to put up with people having different ideas than you.
Brandon, meanwhile, has a message for the "libtard" behind the counter. And David is worried about the spiritual implications of purchasing from Starbucks.
Worried enough to comment more than once, in fact.
That's a good point, really. Supporting Starbucks is basically saying this:
To Satan, you godless sickos.
But lest we lose sight of the more tangible aspects of this travesty, Bob is there to bring us back around to the main point: young people are ignorant know-it-alls, who are just waiting to get in the face of a Real American ©. Oh, and, let's bash low-wage workers for good measure. Because, why not, amirite?
Now, it's worth noting that businesses that actually fight for legal sanction to discriminate against their customers are heroes to these same hateriots. But when a business puts forth a widely criticized (but well-intentioned) policy to get people to think about racism, all of a sudden businesses have no reason to take a moral stance on issues. Indeed, it's outrageous that they'd even contemplate it!
What's more interesting to me is that they feel they are, personally, under attack because people want to end racism...and promptly drop a boat load of racist language to protest the perceived attack. That's pretty telling.
But the way it's framed as an attack by ignorant, judgey young know-it-alls against Real Americans © is also telling. This wasn't a move put in place by the working "20-somethings"; it was put into action by corporate businessmen. And, still, conservatives manage to make it about them damned arrogant kids.
It's not like youth-bashing is a new thing. Curmudgeons have been complaining about the latest generation pretty much since forever. Conservatives have figured out how to seize onto that generational resentment, and turn it into a major part of their political movement. They've managed to convince some people to hate their children and grand-children's generations, to see young people as lazy, entitled, ignorant and contemptuous. So contemptuous, apparently, that they're lingering in coffee shops and sneering at their elders' coffee choices. And, now, just waiting to accost those elders, and chew them out over race relations. It's a tough life for Real Americans©, courtesy of them damned whippersnappers.
Men in suits (typically, the heroes of any conservative narrative) coming up with a bad idea really doesn't fit the conservative world view in the same way that arrogant-kids-judging-real-Americans does. And if you're going to convince Republican parents to support a party that wants to subject their kids to a future where education is out of reach, employers pay as little as they want, healthcare is only available to the wealthy, jobs keep going overseas, environmental protections are gone, nature is a privilege reserved for those who can afford it as we sell off our public lands, etc., etc., etc. ... well, you're going to have to convince them to hate the future generations of humanity.
Them, and all their coffee-snobbery.
Originally posted at Rachel's Hobbit Hole.
