"Soft" is a term tossed around a lot these days.
But one person's "soft" is another person's legitimate issue. So we try to be measured in our use of it. But that's becoming more and more difficult.
Recent news tells us that Walmart has pulled My Pillow products from its shelves (but not its website), because the owner of the pillow company said things that people on Twitter don't like. Granted, Mike Lindell can make an easy target . . .
But Walmart and My Pillow were made for each other. It's like Lucy canceling Ethel.
Are we really this soft?
San Antonio residents who sued the city after it banned Chick-fil-A from the airport will be able to replead their case before the Texas Supreme Court soon. In 2019, the city banned the franchise from opening a location inside San Antonio International because the retailer had been deemed "anti-LGBTQ."
Its owner told an interviewer in 2012 that he believed traditional marriage to be between a man and a woman. (You know who else publicly held that view in 2012? Barack Obama.)
San Antonio's city council said the restaurant's presence in the concourse would cause harm to LGBTQ passengers forced to see it.
If a franchise's ability to open locations is to be contingent on the politics of its owners passing these kind of litmus tests, then, as an Arkansas governor once said, that could open up a whole box of Pandoras.
Just as those conservative Christians who don't approve of Disney's politics have the option to not engage in or buy Disney products (an increasingly difficult task), passengers flying into or out of San Antonio have a choice in this glorious free market to put on symbolic blinders and march right past Chick-fil-A. (There's probably a Panera nearby anyway.)
Are we really this soft?
And one can't speak of "soft" without addressing Bevo, who's been in the news. The Texas Longhorns continue to define contemporary soft. First, the UT brass told the Big 12 conference that its feelings were hurt when opposing fans and players did the "horns down" sign. UT is to the Big 12 as Dillard's is to Park Plaza, so the conference decided that horns-down gestures would invoke a 15-yard penalty.
Now comes Zac Collier, who sang the national anthem before a game between Oklahoma and Texas at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, and had been scheduled to do the same at the Men's CWS in Omaha. Once he completed his rendition in OKC, though, Collier flashed the horns-down sign. (He is an A&M alum, after all, playing to a crowd of Okies.)
Unnecessary? Maybe. But problematic?
The NCAA informed Collier last week that his services would no longer be required in Omaha due to "unsportsmanlike behavior." When Collier asked for specifics, he was sent a picture of his horns-down salute in Oklahoma City.
His response: "I regret nothing."
Are we really this soft?
Wokism has honorable roots. But the pop-culture bubble we inhabit most certainly has become soft.
It makes us wonder if today's woke warriors, so eager to clash over the slightest provocation, perceived and otherwise, would be willing to stand and fight--not on Twitter, but on a real battlefield--if it came to defending their country from invaders. An extreme example perhaps, but we do wonder: Is there a Polish cavalry left?
Real discrimination deserves real opposition. Find it lurking around, and let's all get to a march. But to be offended at the sight of a popular restaurant, pillow or rivalry hand signal? Or a same-sex couple in a TV commercial? Or a team's nickname and mascot? Or a comic's joke he makes on stage (and gets paid to make)? Or having to hear "for Spanish, press 2"? Or seeing a mask on somebody's face?
Are we really this soft? We oughtn't be.