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CO-OP makes fool of itself over trans rights

You have to laugh.

A nasty little alt left organisation, Stop Funding Hate, is pressuring companies to withdraw advertising from publications it disagrees with. Effectively acting as censors, all part of the hard left culture war.

So they came after the Spectator for publishing a piece that some trans activist regarded as hate speech. The Co-Op's social media team said that they would investigate pulling any future ads.

Andrew Neil, the Spectator's Chairman said not to bother. The Co-Op is herewith banned from advertising in the Spectator in perpetuity, because it will never allow any company to use its commercial muscle to impinge on its editorial independence. Take that! And how do your customers feel about you now, sunshine?

The Co-Op didn't want to find out if there would be a customer backlash, and immediately gave in, saying the social media team did not represent company policy and they would love to advertise in the Spectator.

As I always say "get woke, go broke."

https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1301895984826519561

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Andrew Neil's tweet is ****ing fantastic, it is one of those gems that rarely gets through the sea of corporate business bull****.
Reply 2
Original post by DiddyDec
Andrew Neil's tweet is ****ing fantastic, it is one of those gems that rarely gets through the sea of corporate business bull****.

It certainly was.

I am guessing it hasn't been a great day for "Alice" in the Co-Op's social media team. She is probably straight out of University and has her head filled with SJW ******** so had no idea what she was messing with. Bless.

Welcome to the hard nosed world of business, Alice. It isn't like your gender studies seminars is it? And how about you ask your boss before getting your company involved in a culture war?

Edit: Here is her original, bone headed tweet if you missed it:

https://twitter.com/coopuk/status/1301481417583534080
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by generallee
It certainly was.

I am guessing it hasn't been a great day for "Alice" in the Co-Op's social media team. She is probably straight out of University and has her head filled with SJW bo11ocks so had no idea what she was messing with. Bless.

Welcome to the hard nosed world of business, Alice. It isn't like your gender studies seminars is it? And how about you ask your boss before getting your company involved in a culture war?

Edit: Here is her original, bone headed tweet if you missed it:

https://twitter.com/coopuk/status/1301481417583534080

I went back to read the whole thread, I doubt Alice has a job anymore.
Not sure why the Co-op was ever advertising in a far right rag like the spectator (literally wrote apologia for Golden Dawn, a neo nazi party, before anyone tries to dispute that) to start with? As the name suggests, it's supposed to be a cooperative, its very existence is an oppositon to the positions of the spectator.

Also, strange how people who claim to believe in the free market get so outraged by groups like stop funding hate, who organise as consumers to withdraw support for any organisation that funds bigotry with ad revenue (with the clear message that thats why).
Reply 5
Original post by DiddyDec
I went back to read the whole thread, I doubt Alice has a job anymore.

You could be right. I see that her original tweet has now been removed.

I am not going to shed any tears for her, she is clueless and isn't suited to a job of such sensitivity to her (old?) company.

She only did it, though, because it obviously didn't occur to her for a moment that it might be highly controversial. Totally toxic. That is what is so staggering. It is like the BBC dropping the lyrics to Rule Britannia on LNOTP (on another thread).

How could those making the decision not realise that this would totally **** off (at least) half the country, so don't go there? But they clearly didn't. It is a staggering failure in imagination. In not understanding that the world isn't how they want it to be.
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
Not sure why the Co-op was ever advertising in a far right rag like the spectator (literally wrote apologia for Golden Dawn, a neo nazi party, before anyone tries to dispute that) to start with? As the name suggests, it's supposed to be a cooperative, its very existence is an oppositon to the positions of the spectator.

Also, strange how people who claim to believe in the free market get so outraged by groups like stop funding hate, who organise as consumers to withdraw support for any organisation that funds bigotry with ad revenue (with the clear message that thats why).

Far right :lol:

You do give me a good chuckle.
Hahahahaha.😁😁😁😁😁
Reply 8
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
Also, strange how people who claim to believe in the free market get so outraged by groups like stop funding hate, who organise as consumers to withdraw support for any organisation that funds bigotry with ad revenue (with the clear message that thats why).

Let me think: scratches chin, ponders, that IS a tough one...

Oh I know, because we believe in the free market of ideas and freedom of speech!
Original post by DiddyDec
Far right :lol:

You do give me a good chuckle.

What else would you call attempts to humanise and legitimise neo-nazis turned up to parliament wielding weapons and shouting Heil Hitler?

Original post by generallee
Let me think: scratches chin, ponders, that IS a tough one...

Oh I know, because we believe in the free market of ideas and freedom of speech!

"We believe in the free market, but if people who disagree with us try to engage in the same practices as us, it's a chilling attack on free speech".


Interestingly, it turns out the Co-op should never have advertised in the spectator anyway and Alice was merely aware on what their members had voted for very conclusively the other year


This backtrack is a betrayal of the coops corporate structure and member base, all to appease some whiny right wing baby
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
Not sure why the Co-op was ever advertising in a far right rag like the spectator

You jumped the shark here, by the way. It shows how far from the mainstream you (and Stop Funding Hate for the matter of that) really are.

The Spectator is a Conservative publication. The longest running weekly magazine in the English speaking world in fact, founded in 1828, so it was annoying liberals for many years before you were thought of, and will be around long after you are dead and forgotten.
Original post by generallee
You jumped the shark here, by the way. It shows how far from the mainstream you (and Stop Funding Hate for the matter of that) really are.

The Spectator is a Conservative publication. The longest running weekly magazine in the English speaking world in fact, founded in 1828, so it was annoying liberals for many years before you were thought of, and will be around long after you are dead and forgotten.

Liberals quite like the spectator, it's left wingers that don't, and like I asked DiddyDec, what does constitute being far right if not legitimisation of actual Nazis?
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
1. "We believe in the free market, but if people who disagree with us try to engage in the same practices as us, it's a chilling attack on free speech".


Interestingly, it turns out the Co-op should never have advertised in the spectator anyway and Alice was merely aware on what their members had voted for very conclusively the other year


2. This backtrack is a betrayal of the coops corporate structure and member base, all to appease some whiny right wing baby

1. We don't pressure companies to not advertise in publications we don't agree with. We believe in free speech even for the likes of you. (And if you can find some right of centre body somewhere online that ever DOES believe in your cancel culture, I disavow it).

2. Ha ha ha! Andrew Neil is not a "right wing baby" he is a highly respected journalist. Who is not averse to giving right wingers a hard time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VixqvOcK8E
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
What else would you call attempts to humanise and legitimise neo-nazis turned up to parliament wielding weapons and shouting Heil Hitler?

An opinion I disagree with. I don't feel the need to label things I disagree with as far right.
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
Liberals quite like the spectator, it's left wingers that don't, and like I asked DiddyDec, what does constitute being far right if not legitimisation of actual Nazis?

I read the Spectator (although my subscription did recently lapse) and I must say I was a little mystified by the reference.

So I looked it up.

Imagine my surprise that this manufactured outrage from the left is for an article published 12 years ago by the (admittedly rather weird) Greek social commentator, Taki. In which he was (mildly) approving of the Fascist Golden Dawn.

One (admittedly highly reprehensible) article out of dozens every week, for nearly two hundred years.

Yeah, the Speccy is "far right" alright. Good call.

:rolleyes:
Reply 15
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
a far right rag like the spectator

Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
Liberals quite like the spectator

So, which is it? Or are liberals now far right?
Original post by generallee
1. We don't pressure companies to not advertise in publications we don't agree with. We believe in free speech even for the likes of you. (And if you can find some right of centre body somewhere online that ever DOES believe in your cancel culture, I disavow it).

You can't have it both ways, pressure groups are a part of the free market. You either accept that these groups exist or you don't accept a free market.

To what extent do you support a free market of ideas and freedom of speech? Suppose I were a customer of the Spectator and they published articles that I found incorrect or hurtful. Would it be wrong for me to stop buying their papers? Should I be disallowed from doing so, solely for the sake of maintaining their free speech?
Original post by SHallowvale
You can't have it both ways, pressure groups are a part of the free market. You either accept that these groups exist or you don't accept a free market.

To what extent do you support a free market of ideas and freedom of speech? Suppose I were a customer of the Spectator and they published articles that I found incorrect or hurtful. Would it be wrong for me to stop buying their papers? Should I be disallowed from doing so, solely for the sake of maintaining their free speech?

There are different kinds of markets.

There is the market place of ideas and the market place of goods. It seems to me that they are being conflated here, to the detriment of both.

What the Spectator decides to publish is nothing to do with a grocery store.

The Co-Op Management get that, by the way, as this climb down demonstrates. Unlike, say, Gillette, who went catastrophically woke in an infamous ad campaign that cost them $8 billion...

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/31/gillettes-toxic-masculinity-ad-haunts-pg-as-shavin/

Get woke, go broke.
Original post by generallee
There are different kinds of markets.

There is the market place of ideas and the market place of goods. It seems to me that they are being conflated here, to the detriment of both.

What the Spectator decides to publish is nothing to do with a grocery store.

The Co-Op Management get that, by the way, as this climb down demonstrates. Unlike, say, Gillette, who went catastrophically woke in an infamous ad campaign that cost them $8 billion...

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/31/gillettes-toxic-masculinity-ad-haunts-pg-as-shavin/

Get woke, go broke.

So I suppose you don't believe in the free market of goods, then, if you believe that there should be a free market of ideas?

How exactly does a free market of ideas work, anyway? Aside from people being able to say, write, publish, etc, whatever they like, how does this affect consumers like yourself and I?

Should we be obligated to purchase literature that we disagree with, simply for the sake of maintaining a free market of ideas and freedom of speech?
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by generallee
There are different kinds of markets.

There is the market place of ideas and the market place of goods. It seems to me that they are being conflated here, to the detriment of both.

What the Spectator decides to publish is nothing to do with a grocery store.

The Co-Op Management get that, by the way, as this climb down demonstrates. Unlike, say, Gillette, who went catastrophically woke in an infamous ad campaign that cost them $8 billion...

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/31/gillettes-toxic-masculinity-ad-haunts-pg-as-shavin/

Get woke, go broke.

I forgot to ask, but do you endorse what happened to Gillette?

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