My Monday column enumerates a variety of reasons why liberals should boycott all fast food chains.
I'd like to defensively preface this column by making it abundantly clear that I'm both a supporter and participant in the boycott of Chick-Fil-A due (in part) to CEO Dan Cathy's contributions to paleoconservative anti-gay organizations. It's not surprising, and more than a little obvious given Cathy's evangelical Christianity and Chick-Fil-A's well-known symbiosis with religious zealotry.
Not to sound like one of those hipsters who always claims to have discovered a cool rock band before everyone else, but I personally haven't stepped foot into a Chick-Fil-A location since the 1990s -- and not just because of its ideological affiliations or the unavoidably creepy Happy Young Christian musak that's piped into its dining areas.
Mass produced fast food is, in a word, bad, bad, bad. And on multiple levels. Therefore liberals who care about civil rights, the climate crisis, healthcare, worker rights and safety, animal cruelty, exploitation of illegal immigrants, genetically modified food, consumerism and corporate greed (you know, many of the marquee liberal causes) ought to be boycotting all fast food restaurants full stop. Continue reading...