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Ross Says it All
The pizzeria was shut down by Yelp reviews. Doesn’t that illustrate that coercive government action is not needed to resolve these cultural disputes?
Heh.
I completely agree. The Yelp Bomb that the pizzeria received, while wrong headed and ignorant, is a perfect example of the free market at work.
I may disagree with you, but I will defend to the death my right to stand on your neck and scream my disagreement as loudly as possible into your gasping face.
Ha–Douthat being brilliant as usual! He shows, however, why the current hysteria ultimately fails. Religious people live within a belief system. Attacking it only strengthens it and challenges believers to use their creativity to avoid the thing that is being pushed on them and its consequences. It may pluck a few from the outskirts, but mostly it strengthens the resolve of the faithful. I guess we can thank the left for that anyway.
So you’re basically cool with lynch mobs…
A lynch mob finds a person, and uses force to terminate that person’s life.
That is orders of magnitude away from writing bad reviews on a web site.
Equating speech with violence is exactly the same sin the progressive mob is committing.
It’s a perfect example of Saul Alinsky.
Would you extend that to advocating violence against them or slander?
There was no violence perpetrated on the pizzeria. Only displeasure registered through a medium designed for it.
Groan.
Those things are illegal and should the pizzeria owners choose to pursue those charges they can. Speaking specifically of the negative Yelp Reviews – none of those are slanderous under the legal definition of slander that I am aware (although as a printed word it would be libel).
Don’t know the whole story, but if that pizzeria were in my town and still open, I’d be having dinner there at least twice a week.
I don’t see any conservatives throwing around words like slander when people on their side publish established falsehoods like Barrack Obama was born in Kenya or is a secret Muslim or is in league with Islamist Terrorists.
I guess its only slander when its said by liberals…
Which why the person who tweeted “Who’s going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w me?” has been referred to prosecutors.
So would I. Its the perfect classical liberal response to this kind of boneheaded behavior from the #boycottindianna idiots.
Good.
This is getting ridiculous. The only thing I care about when picking a pizza place is, do they have good pizza? Not what is their religion or their political views. Is the pizza good or not.
It’s not just bad reviews. It goes way beyond that with things like:
and
The first person to say that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, was Barack Obama. In the original edition of Dreams from My Father.
CORRECTION:
It was a promotional booklet. Ugh. You have no idea how many fever swamps I had to dodge to google up that nugget. I’m going to take a shower now.
No, but those are crimes committed by individuals, and the larger group that merely voices opposition does not share any culpability with those individuals who choose to cross the line by resorting to coercion.
There was a type of Christian in the days of the Early Church, back when being one meant being chained to a post and ripped apart by lions who had been deliberately starved for the entertainment of the Gibbering Mob, who were so eager for Glorious Martyrdom that they turned themselves in.
This passage from the letter The Martyrdom of Polycarp of Smyrna (Bishop of Smyrna, possibly Baptized in infancy and executed at the age of 86 after a lifetime as an active Christian) describes some of them:
There was one man, however, Quinctus by name, a Phrygian recently arrived from Phrygia, whose courage failed him at the sight of the beasts. It was he who had compelled himself and some of the others to surrender themselves voluntarily; and after much persuasion he was induced by the governor to take the oath and offer incense. (And that is the reason, brothers, why we do not approve of men offering themselves spontaneously. We are not taught anything of that kind in the Gospel.) [Early Christian Writings; Penguin Books, 1968; ISBN No. 0-14-04475-0]
There is a foot note to this, referring to Matthew 10: 23.
and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Look to the story of Memories Pizza and you will see in the owners a pair of Phrygians.
Right. The person. An individual. Not a mob.
Retweeted.
The young woman honestly answered a disingenuous question from a reporter on a fishing expedition to find a Christian to fillet. They did not offer themselves up to anything. Would the outcome have been any different had she said “no comment”?
And what is a mob other than a collection of individuals? The mob leaders are normally held culpable for the outcome, and that is what I’m advocating for here. But, not lighting the fire is no excuse when you’re roasting marshmallows over it.
And, are you advocating that they got what’s coming to ’em for holding their beliefs or for espousing them? Which is the offense worthy of this treatment at the hands of their fellow citizens?
She offered an opinion to a mass media outlet.
Others are free to express their opinion of her opinion in mass media outlets.
You are free to express your opinion of their opinion.
Government coercion/force is not required until individuals begin to use coercion/force, and it is only appropriate when used to stop those individuals from using coercion/force, not when it is used to stop those who merely express similar opinions.
A mob is a collection of individuals who are all committing violence.
A person who merely expresses support for the same issue that a mob happens to support is not automatically a member of that mob.
Feeling my inner sailor today so my reply is [expletive]! She answered a yes or no question. She was not asked for an opinion. She was asked what her behavior would be in a specific, hypothetical scenario. She answered honestly now the family’s livelihood has been decimated.