Fighting back with social media

Tim Blair reports:

In tiny Walkerton, Indiana – population 2144 – a local pizza shop recently became a target of national hatred:

When asked by local press the hypothetical question of whether or not they’d prefer to have their family owned business, Memories Pizza, cater a gay wedding, the owner said no citing their own religious beliefs as the reason.

Rather than allowing this family to simply have their opinion, which they were asked to give, outraged people grabbed the torches and began a campaign to destroy this small business in small town Indiana.

All for having an opinion that is rooted in faith.

No one was turned away. No one was discriminated against. It was a hypothetical question asked by a news reporter who had questionable motives to begin with.

The hatred and threats were so intense that the pizza shop shut down and the proprietors went into hiding.

The pizza shop said they would serve gay people, just that they wouldn’t want to cater for a gay wedding. They’re entitled to their view, just as people are also entitled to say they’d rather not frequent there.

But people are not entitled to threaten them and talk of burning their shop down. That is the true intolerance.

But it doesn’t end there, and has what I consider a good ending:

Texan journalist Lawrence Jones launched a funding drive for the shop, with the modest initial aim of raising $25,000. Let’s see how that campaign is going:

It has now raised $778,321!! What better way to strike back against intolerance.

Of course threats are now being made against Lawrence Jones, but I think there is a lesson learnt here – you can express disagreement with the policy of a store, and even express a desire to not patronise them. But if you unleash a hate campaign against a small business, well it may backfire – at it has in this case.