Manhattan Project faces backlash over nuclear weapons-themed beers

That would make sense, but only completely out of context. When the brewery is named after the Manhattan Project, and all of their beers are named based on atomic principles and history ... there is no analogy to a beer simply celebrating the existence of the Twin Towers, as you allude to.

Context matters, and the context here is clear. It's not a random island or atoll; it's very specific, and very confined within the context of their marketing. To argue otherwise is to intentionally play devil's advocate.

 

This is some common ground - conceptually. I 100% agree that would be good. Sadly, there is little historical precedent (or rather, the bulk of precedent suggests far more people are likely to flock to a banner - for a multitude of reasons - than to research the history of that banner).

Most people who may be ignorant of the history of US atomic testing (so .... most people) are not going to fire up Wikipedia or go to a library to find out what happened. It's simply not what people do. Some few may, and that's great, but it's not the predominant reaction.

I will give you a very specific example: in WBAYDN?, I occasionally feature a glass purchased in the British Indian Ocean Territory, stamped with "Footprint of Freedom." I'm sure a lot of well-meaning individuals have tossed a patriotic "Like" my way, but how many of them know about history of oppression on the Chagos archipelago at the hands of the US and British governments? How many saw that little stamp of history and thought, "Man, I should look that up!"

I'll tell you the number of people who have contacted me and said, "Hey, did you know about that atoll's history of tragic human rights violations?" That would be none. Zero.

People don't know, and branding on the side of the glass isn't inspiring them to find. I naively hope someday perhaps it will.

So far, all evidence suggests you and I are both foolish to believe that.

 

Who said nobody cares? This thread is specifically about one brewery, and the outrage expressed by the country affected by an incident they appear to be trivializing (personal tastes, of course, are subjective).

If you were to be punched in the face, should I suggest you aren't allowed to be upset because somewhere else, someone completely different is also being punched - or, gasp, murdered?

The existence of offense or injustice elsewhere does nothing to do with an unrelated injustice or offense, except to distract the weak minded and prevent them from noticing the problem.

Be offended, or don't. I'm not trying to sway opinion in that regard. I do, however, prefer objections to be grounded in logical consistency and the issue at hand. Feel free to start a thread about TMI and Chernobyl beers, where we can debate whether or not those are offensive - or hell, we can discuss them here, too! But that has nothing to do with whether or not Bikini Atoll is offensive.

 

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Literally, the first post, man. (There have also been 5 beers just on the BA database named Hoppenheimer, including the one I mentioned - which is, again, by the brewery in the OP.)