There needs to be a lot less appeasement and a lot more life sentences for right-wing terrorists. Target shouldn’t give in and should hire more security, but the long-term solution isn’t to turn every store into a war zone, it’s to actively pursue and eliminate the root threat. If the government went after right-wing assholes with the same fervor it went after non-violent drug offenders there wouldn’t be quite so many people left to be making these threats.
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Picture, if you will, the response if a conservative Muslim group threatened violence because of the immoral depiction of barely dressed female mannequins. Or photos of bikini models on the walls. I suspect there would be a very different story here. The fascists have the implicit, if not explicit, support of far too many mainstream members of society, who would be horribly insulted to be informed of such.
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Looks like I’ll be getting my Pride supplies at a different store this year.
I can paint my own, thanks just the same.
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“Original” colour, good choice 
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So true.
Or even, I know this is a very different thing because it wasn’t terrorizing a community, but remember the whole “gallon smashing” fad? Stores didn’t respond by removing or even relocating the milk, they added surveillance and signs stating that people engaging in that destructive behavior would be held accountable.
They KNOW how to protect their product and their personnel, they just need to grow some spine.
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Is the best response really to bring in guards, inviting more bullies? When one guard per shift is no longer enough to control the mob, do you bring in two? Four? A platoon? Given this is almost certainly in an “open carry” state, do the guards need to be armed?
This is indeed a battle. But it’s not one that should be fought in the clothing aisle. It should be fought in the courts and the legislatures and the polling booths. Meeting violence with violence isn’t the job of the private sector. And leaving some minimum wage schmucks in harm’s way while you figure out how to react is absolutely not the solution.
MAGA needs Target to feature these products, but LGBTQ shoppers don’t.
Putting that aside, not much good can be said about Target, from its shoddy execution to pander for profit, to it’s track record of blatantly plagiarizing artists and illustrators on their products.
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I wonder if people are aware that there is a game of “Who Goes Nazi” going on as we speak? Some of us are working out who really are our allies, who are saying they are our allies but will stand back as we are rounded up, and who will go Nazi and turn in former friends. We need to play it if we are to survive.
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take a look at the history of the civil rights movement and of pride. the courts follow from what the people demand. rarely the other way around.
target where i live already has armed security guards ( apparently they are trying to keep out unhoused people ) – so corporate has already made a decision about when to employ force.
letting fascists make those decisions is a terrible idea – because they definitely won’t stop at pride apparel. their whole point in attacking the lgbt community is to erode the rule of law and custom in order to gain power. worse: it’s working in florida, in texas, and many other states.
this is the whole warning of first they came…
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(That strip is from V for Vendetta, right?)
“Who Goes Nazi?” The game the entire family can endure!
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I play the game on this BBS ad well as in my own life. It’s not much fun and hard to share the results openly without stirring up problems for myself, but as you say we still have to play it.
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I keep thinking about the parallels with Berlin a century ago.
And that last sentence really drives home the point.
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Me, too. My favorite person lives in Schöneberg, Berlin, and her whole neighborhood has these really subtle street sign posts, but when you look, they aren’t street signs, they list an anti-Semitic statute or law and the date it was passed. So whenever you walk around, you’re reminded of how insidiously the fascism took over.
People are very right to be extremely alarmed about what is happening in the US right now and anyone who says otherwise is telling us a lot about themselves.
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That’s exactly how.
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But that’s cancel culture and censorship! /s
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