This Pride Month, Big Beer Is Pulling Back from ‘Rainbow Capitalism’

That’s kind of the point, though, isn’t it? Corporations want us to forget that they are really just after our money and whatever political power that affords them. They want us to identify with them on a more human level, and think they have values—and on a certain level I’m sure some of them genuinely do. But for the most part, as Stewart says, it’s all bullshit. And the people who get caught up in these stupid culture wars over Bud Light or Target are just playing right into the hands of the people who benefit most from keeping us divided.

 

I just want to go to work, come home, have some brews, hangout with the lady and the pups, throw food on the smoker or grill and watch sports without having other shit I don’t care about crammed down my throat.

 

You’re right that my description of the Stonewall Riot was reductive. My broader point, of course, was that Stonewall was a riot (with people throwing cobblestones and bottles at police and attempting to set buildings on fire), a history recent corporate-sponsored pride events sanitize.

That said, Stonewall was not just another gay bar, it was much more welcoming of trans folk and people of color than most gay bars in NY at the time — a relevant part of pride history, in my view.

 

Is a rainbow flag in a Heineken Instagram post cramming shit you don’t care about down your throat?

 

I don’t think so, but I think beer was seen as a refuge from the culture wars and that’s changer

 

YA a good one. I remember when Hillary changed her mind :"Polls say" what the hell kinda leader is that. We govern by polls.

 

While you enjoy all those wonderful things, which it’s absolutely your right to do, maybe it’s just worth remembering that not everyone has the luxury of not having their identity (which in many cases is no more their own choice than yours is) politicized.

 

You aren't rebellious or "breaking the status quo" if every corporation, major media outlet, and government is with you.

 

Only skimmed this thread, my capacity for outrage is all but depleted and I need to get geared up for November.

I just don't see how calling for equal rights and tolerance is "political". I'll bet some folks wanted those uppity folks back in the 50's and 60's to stop being so "political" too.

Bob Dylan says don't hate nothing at all except hatred.

 

The reality is that the whole concept of pride has lost the kind of emotional urgency that animated the folks at stonewall because the movement has achieved its objectives.

In the overwhelming majority of public spaces the overwhelming majority of people are accepted as they are. The corporate pandering comes in exactly because the stance is so utterly uncontroversial that it is see as without risk.

Now we find ourselves in a new stage of late capitalism where the prime resource to be mined is heightened emotions that secure attention, and so we have birthed a media ecosystem that will spoon feed people carefully curated outrages to keep them engaged in an emotional turmoil regardless of the triviality of the "transgression".

 

Tell all this to the gay or trans kid in Mississippi or Idaho. This is not to say that corporate activism is the solution (in fact it may exacerbate the problem), but it’s misleading to suggest that progress on acceptance of all types of people has been equal everywhere. In fact in many places it’s being pushed backward.

 

This is the first thing that I thought of as I read this article as well. As a side note, I almost always stay out of these types of threads, never liking or participating in them at all. Which shows how much I agree with Stewart's and by extension your take as well.

 

I really think characterizing this as a “left vs. right” issue is misleading. I appreciate that many people think political discussion has no place on BA but (1) @Todd started the thread and (2) I think there is a productive way to talk about these things without devolving into the old red/blue, left/right animosity that gets us exactly nowhere.

 

I don't think it has no place, and I often read the threads. Just not something I typically participate in, for whatever reason.

 

To be clear, I was just saying I’ve heard that statement made by others, and I respect their point of view, even if I don’t totally agree with it.

 

You been spending a lot of time on Mississippi or Idaho? Counseling the queer youth out there?

 

I read

 

My point was only that Todd is more familiar with both the letter and spirit behind BA content/discussion policies and decided this topic was worthy of posting a thread and encouraging a conversation. Not implying he has any special privileges to start a thread that would be deleted if anyone else started it. Cheers!

 

The best thing that could happen to this country would be for the debate stage to collapse taking with it all the candidates.