Apparently Bud Light has company. The newest boycott target for some conservatives is, believe it or not, Chick-fil-A.

It started, as these things usually do, on social media. On Tuesday morning, political strategist Joey Mannarino tweeted out his objection to Chick-fil-A having employed Erick McReynolds as Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI):

This is bad. Very bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?

Mannarino continued with this comment:

It’s only a matter of time until they start putting tranny semen in the frosted lemonade at this point.

Ugh. Gross, dude.

Mannarino then took an online poll of his followers, asking whether or not conservatives should boycott the chicken giant. Grab the torches and pitchforks! On to Chick-fil-A!

Tenor.com.

However, Mannarino’s online poll didn’t quite pan out the way he thought it would. In fact, over half of the 110,000 votes indicated that his followers were not in favor of boycotting.

Why this guy had such a snit about this now is a head-scratcher, considering that McReynolds has been in place as VP of DEI at the company since 2020. Moreover, the company’s official statement reads in part:

Chick-fil-A, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity, equity and inclusion.  We make employment decisions on a non-discriminatory basis and remain committed to maintaining work environments free from any form of harassment.

How Chick-fil-A executes DEI must be working. The company boasts of its rankings as being one of the Best Places to Work in the US. Plus, it ranked #4 on the Axios Harris poll of company reputations in 2021.

Chick-fil-A Kerfuffle Continues

Mannarino’s failure to rouse conservative Americans to boycott Chick-fil-A didn’t stop the controversy. Instead, it continued through the week.

For example, on Thursday an opinion piece appeared in The Christian Post, which was entitled: “Chick-fil-A has been woke for years. You just didn’t want to believe it.” Writer Suzanne Bowdey claimed:

Not only had the company stopped giving to Christians, but it was also quietly funding radical abortion and LGBT activists in their place ….

Huh? Radical abortion?

Now, with the chain going full-woke, even hiring a vice president of DEI to prove its allegiance to the Left, conservatives are finally forced to face facts. Chick-fil-A hasn’t been true to its values for years.

However, Kayleigh McEnany, Donald Trump’s former press secretary (as well as target of one of his Truth Social tirades), spoke out in support of the company on Fox News’s “Outnumbered:”

You know, I’m in the airport, I want Chick-fil-A, they’re closed on Sunday in honor of the Sabbath. Until they start selling, uh — tuck swimsuits, I’m not going to be boycotting Chick-fil-A, they are a great company.

Meanwhile, Ian Samuel, Harvard law fellow and former clerk for Antonin Scalia, appeared on NewsNation to discuss the complications that companies like Chick-fil-A face when dealing with not only the public, but their shareholders as well. In short — it’s not as simple as the scolds believe.

Here’s an example of the problems a major Christian company might encounter: last year a trans woman sued a Chick-fil-A in Georgia, claiming she was harassed and later fired. Lawyers are eager to gain a notch on their belts for successfully ruining a company that promotes traditional values. And yet some conservatives want to pile on.

Where Do We Stop With the Boycott Frenzy?

Several years ago I attended a fundraiser dinner for a local crisis pregnancy center, and was seated at a table for parishioners from my church. One of the women told how she boycotted every company she could that donated to Planned Parenthood. I don’t recall the names on her list, except that of Kohl’s.

Our pastor’s wife looked at her and said, “Where do you stop?”

Indeed, where do conservatives stop with the boycotts? Especially since by-and-large internet boycotts don’t work?

Oh, yeah, people can point to the problems Anheiser-Busch is having after its Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light moment. Plus Target has lost about $8.2 billion in market share after it pushed kids’ pride merchandise in the faces of shopping mothers. But those are outliers, caused by the companies’ outlandish marketing.

However, “Go woke, go broke” usually doesn’t materialize. Remember how Nike was going to fold after the Colin Kaepernick protest in 2018? In fact, the reverse happened: the Nike brand gained more publicity.

Moreover, in progressive world, trans rights activists recently called for a boycott of the new game “Hogwarts Legacy,” based upon Harry Potter. Since Potter author J.K. Rowling is the bête noire for trans activists, they called for a boycott. As you might guess — that didn’t work out, either.

Even Vivek Ramaswamy, who has lashed out at “woke” companies like Target, wrote in his book Woke, Inc. that boycotting is not an effective form of activism. He finds that “politically-motivated boycotts can hurt poor consumers and are a wasted effort in the long run.”

Check-fil-A Caught in a Purity Death Spiral

Recently the conservative satire site Babylon Bee mocked woke boycott frenzies. In an article called “8 Non-Woke Places to Shop,” the Bee lists such locations as “Church garage sale,” “Crazy Mohammed’s Used Cars,” and “Darnell on the corner of 9th and Main” (“He’s got a wide selection of fake Rolexes in his trench coat.”)

All tongue-in-cheek, of course, but it makes a point: is it really worth it to get triggered by Chick-fil-A? Or should conservative Christians be wary of “purity death spiral” politics, as Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing called it? In Boreing’s words, “unless you are perfect — as defined by the ever-and-rapidly changing sensibilities of the moment, you aren’t even good.”

Readers can do as they wish, naturally. As for me, I enjoyed a juicy, tender, 8-piece chicken nugget meal from Chick-fil-A at lunch on Friday. And I’ll go back for more, too, probably next week.

Featured image: camknows/flickr/cropped/2.0 Generic.