Kids these days.
When I was a youngster, neither myself nor any of the horrible brats who were my peers would have ever thought of doing something stupid and posting a video of it to YouTube. Oh, sure, only a few rich folk had video cameras when I was a kid, and YouTube was still decades away, but for the purpises of a good rant I’ll just ignore that for now.
Most of the “what were they thinking” videos feature teen or sub-teen kids doing something either unwise-stuntlike or moderately criminal. First you wonder why they were so stupid as to do their dumb action. Then you wonder why they were so stupid as to post a video of it for all the world to see. You tend to assume that that level of stupidity is something they will grow out of.
But every now and then you see something that shows you that “age” and “maturity” are not the same thing. Take, for example, the ironically-named Adam Smith. This feller is one of those who is cheesed off about the restaurant Chick-Fil-A’s CEO Dan Cathy stating his Christian belief that gay weddings are bad, and angry that Chick-Fil-A donates a token amount (something like $1000) to Christian groups that oppose gay marriage laws. NOTE: I take no particular position on the gay wedding thing, one way or the other. The basic issue is that it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, so thus I’m not opposed; but the advocates are *seriously* annoying (anyone who disagrees is a “hate group;” you must not only “accept,” you must “celebrate”). I just wish the Gubmint would get out of the marriage business, and then it wouldn’t matter. FURTHER NOTE: on a purely games theory level, I support gay marriage. If things would turn out so that every single attractive male would decide to marry another attractive male, that would seriously deplete the supply of attractive males for male-female pair bonding, leaving women no alternative but the less-than-attractive males. Hello, ladies!
Well, everyone has their right to their opinions, and their right to voice their opinions, and their right to protest… within reason.
Anyway, Mr. Smith decided that he’d take his opposition to Chick-Fil A’s CEO’s opinions directly to Chick-Fil-A. And film himself doing it. And as soon as he did so, he uploaded THIS to YouTube:
[youtube 1RBzO1qJWb0]
This video is, well, pretty childish. He comes off like a prick; the woman he pesters comported herself with frustrated dignity.
Well, alright. It was a bit dickish, but really not all that horrible. Certainly not Berate The Bus Lady horrible. But Mr. Smith had a bit of a problem: he wasn’t Just Some Guy, he was (note the tense) the CFO of Vante, Inc., a medical/biotech company. So in a sense he was in a similar position to Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-Fil-A. But here’s the thing: CFA runs itself like a Christian company, on what it’s board of directors feel is a Christian set of values (including not only donating to various Christian organizations, but also closing on Sunday… not, strictly speaking, the best business strategy). Vante, on the other hand, does not apparently base it’s company values on being a prick. And Vante, like probably most companies, has rules in the employment contracts that employees are not supposed to embarrass the company, even on their free time. And so...
Vante of Tucson, AZ Regrets Actions of Former CFO … Effective immediately, Mr. Smith is no longer an employee of our company.
D’oh!
So, now Mr. Smith has all kinds of free time. Apparently one of the first things he did was go back to Chick-Fil-A to further irritate apologize to the employee he berated, but she, oddly, didn’t want to talk to him. Then he went home and babbled out yet another YouTube video, this time supposedly a heartfelt apology to that very same employee. And the video is not even an improvement over the first. He mumbles out a ham-handed half-hearted apology, and then launches into why Chick-Fil-A is a horrible company, and spews out an entire manifesto. Yeesh. This video is a just spectacular example of astonishing lameness And Just Doesn’t Get It-edness.
[youtube nmP9Shki6_I]
What has interested me most about the larger story is just how big of a story it has been. Gay marriage and opposing Christians and businesses and boycotts have happened before… I seem to recall calls for boycotts against J.C. Penny or some such clothing store for running same-sex advertisements. And while those boycotts got a little press, there was nothing like the media hoopla surrounding Chick-Fil-A. And while I don’t think those prior Christian-organized boycotts amounted to much… the “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” buy-cott a few days ago gave CFA just a whopping great deal of business.