I ate only foods that have been boycotted by the alt-right and liberals — and it revealed an absurd truth about Trump's America

I ate only foods that have been boycotted by the alt-right and liberals — and it revealed an absurd truth about Trump's America
Hollis Johnson Food brands have been hit hard by boycotts by the right and left. I decided to go on a boycott diet, eating only foods boycotted by the left one day, and only foods boycotted by the right the next. Liberals may be missing out on tastier food than conservatives — but there's much more to the story. In a politically polarized country, what you eat can say a lot about what you believe. The past two years have seen an unending series of politically motivated boycotts and counterboycotts . People on the left ditched Papa John's after the founder slammed NFL leadership, only for the right to start smashing Keurigs because the brand pulled advertising from Sean Hannity's Fox News show. With the boycotts adding up, it felt like you could craft an entire diet based on what certain people are refusing to eat. So, I decided to do just that. For one day, I would only eat items boycotted by the left and endorsed by the right. The next day, I would do the opposite, feasting on liberals' favorite foods, which conservatives refuse to touch. The experience would leave me feeling physically ill — and emotionally queasy. I started the day off with a conservative favorite — Chick-fil-A. Hollis Johnson Progressives arguably kicked off the modern era of politically motivated food boycotts in 2012 , after Chick-fil-A donated to anti-LGBT groups and its CEO voiced opposition to same-sex marriage. If you look at Chick-fil-A's sales, the high-profile boycott was a failure. Just two years after the controversy, Chick-fil-A beat KFC to become the biggest chicken chain in the US in terms of sales. Among Republicans, the chain still ranks No. 1 on Harris Poll's ranking of the reputations of the 100 most visible companies in the US. Across all consumers, the chain is ranked significantly lower, in the No. 17 slot. Eating a Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwich, I'm forced to admit that Chick-fil-A's egg and sausage sandwich is superior to almost any other fast-food breakfast offering. Hollis Johnson That might be one reason that boycotts of Chick-fil-A didn't actually hurt sales. Conservatives doubled down to support the chain during the boycott. And, with high-quality food and menu items that no other chain has managed to replicate, apolitical and more progressive customers may have been more inclined to turn a blind eye to executives' viewpoints. For lunch, I tried to partake in a more short-lived alt-right obsession: Wendy's. Hollis Johnson Not every right-wing boycott starts with the alt-right, a loosely allied group of white supremacists, men's-rights activists, and other far-right people. But with the social-media power of many alt-right personalities, they often play a role in starting or amplifying boycotts. Wendy's was designated the "official burger of the Neo-Nazi Alt-Right movement" by a white-supremacist website after the brand's Twitter account tweeted, then deleted, an image of Pepe the Frog. Once a common meme, Pepe was declared a "hate symbol" by the Anti-Defamation League after being adopted as a symbol of people — primarily the alt-right — spreading racist and anti-Semitic messages. However, when I showed up at Wendy's, the location was closed for renovation — which may have been for the best. Still, the Wendy's Pepe tweet is a convenient representation of how quickly things can go from light-hearted fun to straight-up hate speech on social media. See the rest of the story at Business Insider

December 1, 2017 at 02:56PM