I haven’t gotten to edit so if you see any changes, a mod probably tried to
help.
“Hopefully he’s content to use some other internet. If you don’t want
gender and sexual minorities using your product, maybe you shouldn’t use
technology invented in part by gender or sexual minorities.”
I have a really ignorant question and I’ll try and make it understandable, but if you have a knee-jerk negative reaction to this, you either misunderstood what I’m asking or I didn’t do a good job of asking it (quite possibly the latter so please add some slack): why isn’t it OK for people to say they don’t like X? I mean, I know “why” I just don’t understand why it’s patently unacceptable to say “being gay is not ok with me” but it’s totally OK to say “Homophobes should keep it in the closet”. The former is met with derision, the latter adulation. While I can add the subtext to what he said and make it quite horrid, I’m adding that subtext and what he essentially expressed was “I prefer the traditional family structure” - are we to a point that people can’t even be honest about their true feelings, am I a bad person if, given a choice, I prefer birds to blokes? Am I only a bad person if I tell you that? Is it patently unacceptable to prefer “strait” vs. LGBTQ - is it equally as problematic to prefer LGBTQ vs. strait? I totally get that the pendulum is swinging the other way, and it needs to, but haven’t we learned enough yet to get it to stop in the middle?
I believe that is exactly the fundamental role he is talking about, yes.
Didn’t he pretty welcome them to buy another pasta if they are offended? Well, many people, of all stripes, seem to be offended. I think the true clinker was the reference to the role of women. Not surprising given that he seems to be a native Italian, I suppose. So, he put his opinions out there, many find great fault with them and now those people will respond with their cash. Further, the issue here is publicly stated non-acceptance, which today translates into either Hate Speech (interpreted) or Ignorance. How would you feel if he used the word Black of Mixed Race?
Because it is not okay to be a bigot? He’s not saying “I’m not into homosexuality” as a matter of personal opinion. He’s saying his corporate policy is not to recognize gay people as consumers because they don’t fit his hetro-normative idea of what a family should look like.
Telling people to keep their hateful bullshit in the closet is not anywhere close to the same thing. Everyone can have their opinions, their likes and dislikes, their rational or irrational hates and issues. Spreading your hate around though, that does absolutely zero good in the world.
I’m perversely glad when people get up and declare their jerkiness in public sometimes. It just makes it easier to take my gay dollars somewhere else. Thank goodness HEB has some decent store brand pasta. I’ve heard Garofalo is pretty delicious too. Plus they had a cheeky response - “We don’t care with whom you cook pasta, the important thing is that you cook it al dente!”
In some way, it’s good when assholes show themselves, in public, to be assholes. The way in which it’s good is that we can tell who they are, and avoid them as needed. I mean, what would have happened if Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin hadn’t spoken out about his views? Might he have been elected? ~Shudder~
It’s 100% okay for you personally to be straight, to prefer to date girls instead of guys. It’s not okay to tell other people what they should prefer. It’s, basically, not okay to be a bigot. It’s not cool to believe that blacks or Jews or gays are inferior in some way. Now, that can sound like a thought-police sort of thing, but it’s important to keep a distinction between “you shouldn’t say/think this” and “you are not allowed to say/think this.” I believe Guido Barilla’s beliefs are shameful; he should be ashamed for holding them and more ashamed for speaking them and acting on them, and I absolutely have the right to boycott his product based on them. However, I do not think his views should be censored or criminalized by the government.
There are degrees of this. If deep down you find that gays (or black people, or Jews) make you uncomfortable, but rationally you know that’s silly and try not to act on it, that’s forgivable in my opinion.
Another thing worth clarifying is this: When Barilla says “I would never do (a commercial) with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we don’t agree with them,” he’s trying to sound reasonable and moderate, but he really isn’t. If I were to say “I respect black people but I don’t think they should live near white people,” that’s not as bad as thinking black people should be slaves, but it is still bigotry and it is still harmful.
I hope this helps!
Unlikely: he’s the great-grandson of the founder, in a company that has always been run by the same family. Didn’t get promoted from the shop floor, so to speak.
shhh!
if people find out, they might not be as angry!
Some can bear it. /snerk
Ummm this a great rant but the pasta is not imported. You really think they ship this stuff from Italy?
The box I have says “product of Italy”, but according to both another poster and Wikipedia they also have plants in the US. So I guess it is like Japanese auto companies, only for food.
Not really. I’m just as happy to boycott bigotry masquerading as polite moderation as I am the naked, in-your-face kind.
You don’t actually know any gay people, do you?
Ah, but here I am feeding the trolley. I really should know better.
Gah. don’t make me laugh like that, I’m not a well man…
Both DeCecco and Target’s better store-brand have been suggested to me. I’ve actually used both in the past and found them satisfactory.
So, you’re saying he should go eat a bowl of dicks?
I’m actually gay. I was trying to be funny, but it obviously didn’t come across the way it sounded in my head. 
You were fine.
And if they’re faced with a choice between cutting loose their brother and losing millions of dollars, just how thick do you think the blood between them will be then?
