Mistermix is right that the pink ribbon branding makes it very, very easy for consumers to avoid products made by companies that continue to sponsor Komen.
You can tell Yoplait to drop Komen here on their Facebook page.
You can give to Planned Parenthood here.
I know not everyone here likes it when I talk this way, but the truth is that fear and intimidation are an important part of the American political process. The right understands this, but the left is inclined to bring tote-bags to gun fights. If Komen can be completely and utterly destroyed or humiliated here, the next right-wing group that wants to fuck with women’s health will think twice.
patroclus
Karen Handel, the crazy right-wing nutjob that Komen hired after she lost the Georgia gubernatorial election, responded last night to this brouhaha by re-tweeting the following: “Just like a pro-abortion group to turn a cancer orgs decision into a political bomb to throw. Cry me a freaking river.” Apparently, Handel almost immediately tried to delete the retweet, but an alert reader captured it. So, that’s her only response so far…
Cargo
I always thought that pink ribbon stuff was just corporate branding bullshit, especially when the NFL started doing it (presumably to attract a female audience, who love being reminded of cancer when they watch sports apparently). And now it turns out that it’s actively part of the Right’s efforts to make Planned Parenthood the next ACORN.
Litlebritdifrnt
I don’t eat yoghurt so I am pretty useless in that respect. I have several times in the past though donated framed photographs for a silent auction they have during one of their fundraisers. I shall be delighted to tell them this year that my donations will go elsewhere, I always preferred the wildlife shelter anyway.
IM
but the truth is that fear and intimidation are an important part of the American political process.
an important part of the political process everywhere.
scav
I’ll repeat myself. Bummer of a tattoo you got there, Hal.
jibeaux
So far, Yoplait’s response on that page seems to be “we were not involved in that decision. Please direct your concerns to Komen.” That is some willful obtuseness right there, and imo deserves more heat!
I sent them an email detailing exactly which flavor and brand of Greek yogurt I purchased last night instead of buying Yoplait. It was 100% true.
JCT
I think Komen completely blew this. As I said yesterday on one of the other threads, the wing nuts may have finally crossed the rubicon re: this assault on PP.
I have a sister-in-law who is a complete idiot. I have no idea how she gets dressed in the morning she’s so clueless. She is deeply involved in the Komen Race for the Cure stuff — has organized teams in a very wealthy NY suburb for YEARS. So when I called my brother last night to warn him that we weren’t going to sponsor her this year I almost keeled over when he told me that she had already informed Komen that she would NOT be participating on any level because of this decision.
So when even complete nitwits see how crazy this is, it doesn’t bode well. Couldn’t happen to a bigger bunch of assholes.
mistermix
Good to see some Komen local chapters bite back – they are going to lose a lot of volunteers to other worthy BC charities:
CT: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/susan-g-komen-foundation-board-member-we-are-absolutely-frustrated-by-the-decision-to-defund-planned-parenthood/2011/08/25/gIQAgH8LiQ_blog.html
Denver: http://coloradoindependent.com/111361/for-now-denver-komen-leaves-politics-out-of-funding-decisions
DougJ you make a good point about not bringing a totebag to a knife fight, but remember that Planned Parenthood operates out of bomb-resistant bunkers. They’re not NPR. They fight hard.
Satanicpanic
@patroclus: Wow, and that should be the end of her career, but sadly it might not be.
Schlemizel
Its sad that this has to be an either-or situation. As charities go SGK distributes their funds at a very respectable rate. Yes, they probably pay their execs too much – welcome to America at the dawn of this brave new millennium! – but they did raise awareness and probably save some lives.
But they brought this on themselves. The ended funding for stem cell research even though that is a very fertile field to look for a real cure. Now they have taken it another step and have stupidly lied about why. They only care about womens health if it is handled in a way they approve of.
It would be nice to think that somehow the organization could right itself, dump the thugs and morons they have leading them down this road and get back to the very important work of preventing, detecting (early!) and curing breast cancer.
Litlebritdifrnt
According to The Atlantic the “no investigations rule” was specifically created to cut off PP.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/top-susan-g-komen-official-resigned-over-planned-parenthood-cave-in/252405/
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@Schlemizel:
I say fuck ’em. They don’t do anything that some other non-right-wing organization couldn’t do. And they overpay their execs, as you say.
shortstop
Could not agree more with the take-no-prisoners approach here. With three-quarters of folks disagreeing with Komen’s move, I was thinking this morning that this incident is having the effect of focusing attention on the war against PP in a much more intense way than PP has been able to achieve previously. Congressional attacks and state-by-state defunding just haven’t gotten the coverage that this has. It took the idiocy of an organization of Komen’s size and with its level of name recognition to really rally people to PP. And, yes, the branding Komen cherishes makes it clear how to fight back.
IM
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Is that really a J. Goldberg post? I am surprised.
Schlemizel
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Not that there is a single thing wrong with helping our furry friends but please consider donating to an organization dedicated to womens health. It does not have to be PP but the thought that SGK cost the entire effort dearly needed money would probably give the bastards some comfort. And this is an effort that needs the help.
I know its not my business but at least consider it.
Fraking whackjobs...
I don’t think the next right-wing group will be intimidated by a potential Komen crash (unless you are referring to Komen as one of those right-wing groups). However, maybe the next charity that gets threatened by the right-wing whackos may grow a spine and tell them to f-off. (Hey – a guy can dream, can’t he?)
Cat Lady
My Book of Faces link about this has blown up with disbelief and outrage. I can’t think of a worse marketing disaster except maybe the Tylenol thing years ago, and that wasn’t self inflicted like this. Fuck them and the trojan horse they’re riding in on.
The Moar You Know
Well, at least one Juicer gets it. I was just about ready to throw the towel in on you guys. The jury’s still out on the whole fucking party of pussies that call themselves Democrats. I honestly think they do not want to win.
Schlemizel
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
name one with the size, reach and clout of SGK.
But that said fuck ’em dry and sideways. Just try to aim to only hit SGK, not the cancer efforts
Litlebritdifrnt
@Schlemizel:
Well any monetary contributions that I give right now are going to “Rene’s Brigade” a bunch of local attorneys, paralegals and court staff who are raising money to help with one of our local ADA’s treatment for breast and liver cancer. She has insurance but the co-pays, deductibles, gas back and forth to chemo two hours away is draining on the finances of a young mother.
shortstop
As others have noted, a board member accidentally told the media that Komen was only targeting PP, in contradiction of their “many longtime partners will be affected by our new rules” line. Last night,
Komen threw up a vid on its FB page that only adds insult to injury: Brinker offers yet another rationale for cutting off
funding while whining about the “scurrilous” attacks from people pushing back. They continue to gravely misread public opinion on this.
schrodinger's cat
Having dealt with cancer (not breast cancer, though) at extremely close quarters as a caregiver, SGK’s pinkification of cancer always bothered me. There is nothing cutesy about cancer and now this. I have always avoided buying the pink ribbon stuff anyway. As for yogurt, I make my own, not that hard and more delicious and less sugary than Yogplait (sp?).
Dave
Depending on how you define “political,” well, fear and intimidation IS the political process.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
This piece:
http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2012/02/01/the-accidental-rebranding-of-komen-for-the-cure/
is instructive but more background on the author:
http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2011/02/16/an-open-letter-to-my-conservative-readers/
relates to this post. Note in that piece:
That’s exactly the “tote bag to a gun fight” we’re talking about. It’s also exactly how my WH Press Corpse friend describes the kind of “feedback” they would get on articles and how the bean counters would then shit their pants at the thought of losing even more subscriptions.
For the life of me, I still haven’t figured out why they’re more scared of the right than the left. We boycott and threaten to cancel shit all the time and yet, I don’t see such parties quake with fear. And yet some knuckle-dragging wingnut still wed to a dead tree newspaper can threaten to cancel and they get apoplectic.
Raven
Damn. no paypal.
FormerSwingVoter
Hey, this reminds me – where can I write an actual real-world snail mail letter to Komen? It might help to flood them with angry letters, or maybe phone calls.
slag
@shortstop:
Yes. The war on women’s rights and health has been raging underground for a while now.
And now the war has a well-known brand, which is really helpful for bringing it above ground.
Thanks, Komen, you dumbasses! We needed this.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemizel: How have been? Are you done with the surgery you were telling us about?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
They have to because they know the right wing wants to exterminate them. Period.
It’s a lesson Democrats nationwide could learn: the modern Republican party wants to exterminate you and everything you’ve spent the last 70+ years trying to accomplish.
I repeat it often but the following quote by the late Steve Gilliard should be hammered into everybody on the left:
“I’m not writing to make conservatives happy. I want them to hate my opinions. I’m not interested in debating them. I want to stop them.”
Schlemizel
@The Moar You Know:
Careful there buddy! There are some extremely delicate fee-fees here that will label you an emoprog or worse, a concern troll, if you do not speak as if the the Dems are peerless, faultless and unable to lose in November.
It may be too late, I’m a slow typer, by now you could be dressed down! Save yourself before it is too late!
shortstop
Schlemeziel: SGK is strictly a fundraising org that makes grants. You can donate directly to orgs that do research, screening, healthcare and/or education. I am not sure why SGK’s “size and reach” matter in this case — your personal donation doesn’t have more impact for having gone through a middleman, and probably has less for having another layer of administrative costs coming out of it.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Satanicpanic:
Hardly. That’s a bonus on her resume for any wingnut welfare position she applies for. She’ll thrive.
schrodinger's cat
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Next step a gig on Fox.
slippy
@Schlemizel:
Far more crucial that we (figuratively) burn the place to the ground, (figuratively) nuke it from orbit just to be sure, and then come back in 100,000 years and (figuratively) pour 10,000,000,000 tons of salt in the wound.
To be ABSO-FUCKING-POSITIVELY CLEAR that a charity shall not engage in political hackery, and that any charity that thinks it is entitled to do this can be expected to go down in smoking flames, taking all of the goodwill and positive image it has painstakingly earned with it.
Someguy
You assholes are all wrong here.
Instead of wasting bandwidth on why Komen is wrong to do this, we need to be asking what right wing organizations we can mau mau into pulling the plug in a similar way. I’m thinking lawsuits or senate investigations targeting “charities” and “think tanks” like the ones funded by the Koch brothers might be one place to start. Rattle the cages and see what kind of turds drop out.
Frankly, it’s a nice tactic, and I applaud the woman-hating bastards for being so innovative. Now let’s take it from them and see how we can hurt the wingers back, tenfold.
amk
the rw has penetrated and is controlling all levels of society – government, judiciary, congress, church, charities, corporate media, sports.
patroclus
@shortstop: When I saw that, I went to the dictionary to see the precise definition of “scurrilous” – it means “foul-mouthed” or “vulgar”. So, according to Ms. Brinker, telling the truth about the despicable and pathetic Komen actions constitutes vulgarity and a foul mouth.
beltane
@schrodinger’s cat: A few months ago I was about to buy some pink-ribboned Pepperidge Farm cookies when my 10 year old son put them back on the shelf and said, ‘Mommy, don’t buy those. They’ll give you breast cancer.”
In all seriousness though, I have lost more loved-ones to colon cancer than to breast cancer. Where are all the f*cking brown ribbons?
amk
@Someguy: Exactly. The left is always playing defensive. Of course, being eternally splintered, it doesn’t have a clue on how to go on the offensive.
schrodinger's cat
@shortstop: That’s what happens when you live in an echo chamber.
Roger Moore
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Or, if you still want to do something about cancer, you could donate it to your local cancer center for their fundraiser instead. Smaller, local charities like that are likely to be easier to keep track of than big national ones like Komen.
redshirt
@slag: There’s all kinds of Wars going on, and have been going on, for awhile. The Right knows this – they’ve actively been fighting this war.
When will everyone else realize it?
Schlemizel
@schrodinger’s cat:
There was a delay for the first one – its tomorrow noon. They will journey up the urethra & implant a stint, see if it is the pelvis hardware that caused the problem & if they can fix the cyst/defect on the bladder or if they have to go inside to do that. They also hope to learn something that will help them with the huge mass in my abdomen. I will have to bring in a surgeon and consult on when they will “go in mid-line” to remove that. Depending on how I feel I’ll update you all in an open thread late tomorrow early Sat. (with any luck before the good painkillers wear off) 8-{D
JCT
@shortstop: This. I’ve recently moved to a new university and I am impressed daily by the energy and passion of the local groups who support my research focus.
Find the *local* non-profit groups and support them directly — cut out the middleman.
I wonder just how many supporters of Komen have been shocked to find out that it is infested with right-wingers… the bottom line is a donation to Komen supports them. Sobering.
pseudonymous in nc
Uh, why? Komen exists to create dynamic marketing synergies [ahem] with megacorps. The megacorps want to glom onto the pink-ribbon brand.
Effective protest would be to ask those megacorps to do meaningful things for women’s health, whether in terms of their public philanthropy or their employment policies or their environmental record.
I’d say “Dear Yoplait: thank you for providing a big pink indicator of where your priorities lie. Please continue to do this to make it easy for us to avoid you.”
It’s like Michael Pollan’s argument that you shouldn’t buy food which has a health claim slapped on the packaging. Don’t buy things that have been pinkwashed to convince yourself that your consumerism is charity.
Steve
I think the “rebellion” against the national Komen decision by affiliates like the one in Connecticut is almost entirely PR spin. See if you agree with my explanation.
I have already told my local Komen affiliate that we are cutting off funding, and I gave to PP yesterday. I agree with fighting back hard against this decision. But I honestly could never imagine adopting the same tactics myself, in the sense that if there were some organization doing right-wing stuff I disapprove of but also providing valuable breast cancer screenings, I would never think of trying to deprive them of money earmarked specifically for breast cancer screenings just to make a point about the other stuff. Maybe that means I’m bringing a knife to a gunfight, I dunno.
Bill in Section 147
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Yes. Spectacular FAIL will be her ticket to a big promotion at the next Wingnut.org. I don’t think she even needs a resume because she will be airlifted to her new throne. Pissing off the DFHs is is always considered SUCCESS in their playbook.
Schlemizel
@beltane:
Its sort of funny that MLB felt they had to start the blue ribbon day for prostate cancer after they held a few pink ribbon days.
I guess any attention is good attention to the cause but I would love to have heard the discussion that went on in the MLB boardroom over that one!
slippy
I think I like how we’re unplugging SKG. They built up all this goodwill and positive image, and then shat on it with one selfish, right-wing hackjob statement, and now they have lost all of it. I imagine the place will close down from lack of donations. That’s how we do it in the honest world.
I don’t want to start adopting mendacious, asshole tactics. Truth, honesty, and decency are the way you win a long fight like this.
Turning into scumbags like the SKG Stepford Women is not how one wins. It’s how one loses one’s soul.
pseudonymous in nc
@IM:
Kudos to Goldberg on that one: he’s committed an act of journalism. Source-driven, of course, but he clearly has the contacts to get a behind-the-scenes scoop.
joes527
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
The right give money to SuperPACs
The left put up tents.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemizel: Good luck and keep us updated.
beltane
It’s really a good thing that SGK hired Karen Handel. Nancy Brinker is every bit as much of a wingnut as Handel but she is of that wing of the Republican party that deceives people by appearing sane. By hiring Karen Handel, SGK has graciously let us see what they really look like without their makeup. From where I’m standing they look no different than Phyllis Schafly-a bunch of mean, ugly, hypocrites.
The Moar You Know
@Schlemizel: Emoprog: check. Concern troll: check. Bigot: check. Racist: check.
I’ve been called all that and worse but I’m not going to stop. Far from “taking the high road”, the Democratic party better find some sort of collective spine, get a massive dirty tricks squad going, and start giving these fuckers as good as we’ve been getting.
Otherwise, we’ll all be breaking our own arms, patting ourselves on the back for having fought the good fight as we get herded into the Dominionist gulags following the Second American Revolution. Don’t think that can happen? Think again.
Mandatory prayers will start campwide at 5am. Me, I like sleeping in, so let’s get to it. If you won’t fight for your rights, diginity, and party, maybe you’ll fight for your sleep.
Villago Delenda Est
Absolutely agree Doug. The reality based community should show absolutely no mercy, give Komen absolutely no quarter on this. If the wingtards want a war, give it to them, and make them suffer for their initiation of it.
The line must be drawn here! This far, and no further!
Bill in Section 147
They chose to re-brand themselves as an Anti-Choice Cancer Fundraising Club. So if you wish to donate to an Anti-Choice Cancer Fundraising Club then don’t let politics stop you.
Yoplait, I guess, is the Anti-Choice Yogurt. And if you have a problem with that contact the Komen, until there is an Anti-Choice Cure, Foundation.
Elizabelle
Take it away, Margaret and Helen:
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/the-race-for-respect/
Good point about Walking for Respect.
We deserve it, as members of the reality-based world, as people who care about women’s health and Americans’ health, as Democrats who do not deserve to be demonized and ignored or misreported on by megacorp and/or right-wing controlled media.
mistermix
@Steve: You make a good point there, but I think that it’s early days for those local affiliates. They’re unwilling to go medieval on the national org in public because they’re hoping to change the decision by advocating for PP from the inside. Unfortunately, as John explained yesterday, the way that SGK weaseled this out probably makes it too late for the national to reverse themselves. The damage is probably already done. When the locals understand that, a lot of them will leave. It’s hard for people who have dedicated themselves to a cause to change – you can’t expect all of them to leave SGK overnight, but they will leave.
geg6
@slippy:
This. This. This, a thousand times. Fuck Komen. It’s been a grift shop for years and is about to be outed on film, too: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946099/. I want them to die a swift, but painful, death.
There are plenty of organizations that fund cancer research, if you want to give such causes. If you want to fund screening, you can give directly to PP. Fuck Komen.
Bubblegum Tate
It won’t be, though. It’ll just be turned into a charity for right-wingers to support (while they tut-tut, “Isn’t it so sad that LIEbruls love abortion more than they hate breast cancer?”). Which is fine–strand Komen on that island. That’s the best they deserve for pulling this bullshit.
Yevgraf
I noticed that Komen is also pulling embryonic stem cell research grants.
curiousleo
It seems SGK is doubling down and not backing away. At least according to politico. I’ve never given $ to PP b/f but I will this week.
Elizabelle
@slippy: @The Moar You Know:
I agree with slippy at 48:
I think pulling funding, finding and publicizing alternative sources to deliver actual healthcare to women, and advocating against tactics like the Komen Foundation’s — firmly — are the way to go.
This might be a “he nominated Clarence Thomas?!?” moment for Republican women.
geg6
@curiousleo:
Well, I have always donated to PP, but I gave them extra today just because of this.
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
I’m not getting how that would be an effective protest. Most megacorps already have “corporate responsibility” departments that give money to local and national charities in addition to selling charity-branded products with pink ribbons. You’re going to go on a hunger strike until Nestle sells yogurt that funds its own healthcare clinics for low-income women?
You’re right that the megacorps support the Komen foundation because it’s easy for them, so that’s what makes this protest so effective — it’s no longer easy for them, and I guarantee you that Komen-supporting corporations around the country are shitting themselves right now because Komen screwed them.
If Yoplait drops Komen, expect to see every other major corporate sponsor follow suit. I say, keep the pressure up about this specific situation rather than muddling the message with additional, unrelated demands.
Bill H.
I’ve never really dared to speak out, but I’ve been fed up with “color pink” and the whole SGK thing for quite a while. What color does the NFL wear for an entire month in support of people dying from ALS, or people who have Parkinson’s Disease? I see commercials flooding my airspace all year long for almost monthly “Brest Cancer Walks” sonsored by SGK, but who’s doing walks for kids with Leukemia? The whole “pink” thing has struck me as a political thing, and if this kills it then it will seem to me as the one good thing that the right has ever done.
Steve
@mistermix: Well, I don’t discount the idea that the local affiliates may serve as a pressure point. I just don’t want to give them credit before they’ve actually done anything. If the dollars don’t flow to Planned Parenthood (other than on existing grants, which the national organization isn’t trying to cut off), it really makes no difference if someone’s heart is in the right place at the local level. And I don’t want people to conclude the problem is at the national level and to keep sending money to their local affiliate if the national decisions are the only ones that matter.
In my email to the local affiliate I was polite and made clear that I would be willing to change my mind if the PP decision were reversed. Some people don’t agree with that – they see Komen as a right-wing front and just want to cut them off now and forever. I don’t think that’s the way to make change happen.
The good news in all this is that Komen is strictly a funding organization, so if you still want to do something for women’s health, or even for breast cancer specifically, all you have to do is direct your dollars elsewhere. If they were actually doing irreplaceable work for women, the way Planned Parenthood does in some poor and rural communities, it would be a lot more difficult for folks with a conscience to cut them off.
slag
@redshirt: If you ask me, the real problem we have in this regard is that the right LOVES war. They live for war. War is how they do business.
We, on the left, are just not that into war. So, it’s harder for us to get it up for a fight. War is a drag rather than an aphrodisiac.
It’s a problem.
schrodinger's cat
@geg6: How is Henry?
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
‘
And this is exactly the problem: She has no fear, because (like any other right-winger in her position) she knows that she’s a “made man” who will never have to suffer any repercussions for her assholery. Her worst failure scenario is a six-figure job somewhere else.
Lefties looking towards the long game need to realize this. She needs to feel financial pain. Her career needs to be over. And she needs to be made an example of, as a warning to others of her kind that the rest of us have fucking had it with their meddling.
Samara Morgan
b-b-b-b-but……i thought “we” were better that?
paging the BJ Morals Police.
aimai? suzanne? n/e one?
Mnemosyne
Also, too, one of the reasons that Komen has been so massively successful is that they made themselves safe and uncontroversial, which made megacorps comfortable partnering with them. It was all warm fuzzies because, really, who could be opposed to helping cancer victims?
Now they’ve put themselves at the center of a massive controversy through their own actions, and I guarantee you the main thing on the megacorps’ minds this morning is, “How do we break our contract with these assholes?”
slim's tuna provider
I’m sure Mssrs. Thoreau, Ghandi and King would be thrilled to hear that we should re-brand civic engagement as “fear and intimidation are an important part of the American political process”. Unless you mean “resist fear and intimidation with common decency and sacrifice.”
bemused
Pet lovers here may want to check Komen sponsors’ list to see if the company that makes your pet food is on it and give them a call, just saying.
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
Sadly, Henry was sent over the Rainbow Bridge this past Saturday. The house seems empty with just one dog now.
schrodinger's cat
The Leukemia and Lymphoma society does a lot of good work, they do have a fundraising walk called Light up the Night. However they are not as sexy as SGK.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@jibeaux:
That’s pretty funny that you went with Greek yogurt. My wife went shopping yesterday and came home with the same thing…lol! Somehow there wasn’t a single pink ribbon-branded product among the goods that she bought. She said she had to change up a few things but was able to find proper replacements for the “poisoned pink ribbon products” (her words) she usually buys.
She’s more than happy to run elsewhere this year too, no more SGK run for the Cure for her or our daughter. No traveling for it, no spending money on the road for it, nothing. They run several races a year and now they have an opening to try a different one.
Everybody suffers when wingnuts try to improve what they view as ‘their world’, fucking shit up for the rest of us in the process.
Destruction, division and hate, it’s all they have left.
Jay C
Not that I want to be the BJ Designated Downer today, buut much as one (well, me, anyway) would like see the SGK Foundation suffer for this act of political hackery, I have an uncomfortable feeling that that Simply Ain’t Gonna Happen. Not, I think, in any way that will seriously impair their operations (and, more importantly, their executive and management salaries).
First: unless the Komen Foundation’s upper management are all utter imbeciles (always possible with wingnuts, but unlikely here), they can’t NOT have foreseen the fallout from this overtly political decision (“investigation” bullshit notwithstanding, this is transparently a hitjob against PP). My feeling is that they simply don’t care.
Second: Even though SGKF may suffer a falloff in contributions due the PP firestorm, I also find it unlikely that they haven’t made efforts to find compensating sources of funding already: one sad fact of life in this country: rightwing causes will ALWAYS find a bottomless pit of money to finance them.
Third: Judging by their responses to date, it looks like the Komen folks are reacting in typical modern-Republican fashion to the criticism: Deny, dismiss, blame the critics, claim “victimization”, demonize your opponents some more, and finally Double Down On The Crazy: relying on the reliable old Wingnut Wurlitzer to make your “case” to the public at large.
Much as I’d like to see the SGKF reduced to irrelevance by this brouhaha, I’m not so sure that will happen. And would love to be proved wrong by events….
schrodinger's cat
@geg6: {{{geg6}}}, how are you coping?
Villago Delenda Est
@slim’s tuna provider:
There’s a short story about how Gandhi fared when confronted by a Nazi occupation force in India.
He did not fare well against a ruthless enemy who has no respect for non-Aryan life.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: Honest answer time: how well has that been working out?
Since Goldwater, American society has been relentlessly driven to the right, to a point where an old crocodile like Nixon would be drummed out of the Democratic party these days for being too liberal. People keep saying, “oh, the pendulum will swing back”. Well, it hasn’t. And it won’t, not until Democrats – or whatever party supplants them after the majority of Dem voters figure that they have been sold out by people who’d rather make moral brownie points than actual policy and legal wins – figures out that you don’t bring speeches and drum circles to a gunfight.
The Republican are in it to win it and kill all the survivors. They say this repeatedly, publicly, and openly. I take them at their word. Perhaps you should as well.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Schlemizel:
I think you’re reading us wrong. It’s not that I don’t think the Democrats can lose in November, it’s that they had better not lose in November. Not that I think saying “The Democrats are going to win” will make it so. But where people on the left weren’t paying attention to the polls in 2010 and hoping that despite them that the Democrats would pull out a win, it’s also wrong to read the way Romney and Gingrich stack up against Obama right now, when they own the news cycle, and get all “Obama’s going to be hurting when ____ runs against him.” And I am taking into account the -5 dark skin penalty Obama has.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Jay C:
If enough people consistently boycott any other charity they try to work for… It Will Happen.
Bad Press is a pricing signal. Even the most badly run or heartless organization understands pricing signals.
Steve
@slim’s tuna provider: No one is talking about physical fear and intimidation here. Martin Luther King was pretty damn comfortable with applying economic pressure, as you might know.
Patricia Kayden
Such a great post. I definitely will boycott all items with the pink ribbon on it. Komen needs to learn that there are consequence to their political kowtowing.
Yevgraf
@Villago Delenda Est:
Holy shit – I thought I was about the only guy dorky enough to read that collection of alternate WWII endings. It really did put the whole nonviolent thing in focus.
gwangung
Yeah, pretty much this.
I’m pretty much comfortable with being relentless, thorough and having a long memory.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Maybe you should ask the African-American and other minority folks who can now go to any school they want without being blocked by a quota, or apply for any job without having “Whites Only” at the top of the column. Or the gay people who can talk openly about their partners without worrying that they’re going to be blackmailed or fired.
No, it’s not perfect, but the world has irrevocably changed, which is what pisses the right wing off. At this point, IMO they know perfectly well that they can’t change things back again, so instead they’re trying to tear everything down out of petulance.
To me, the problem is that you constantly have people on the left who are pulling in different directions to highlight their own pet cause. How many goddamned “Free Mumia” people kept showing up at anti-war rallies in 2003?
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
Thanks. I’m okay. Still thinking that I hear him or skirting around his place in the dining room where he used to lay. My John, however, has had the tougher time. Otis, our other dog, is more my dog than his and has been more clingy with me than usual. And then, of course, Otis has had some trouble adjusting to Henry’s absence.
We’re slowly getting through it. What is buoying John is the fact that the new country Humane Society is being built right across the street from our house. We can not only volunteer there easily, but the plan is to start looking for another dog as soon as the new facility opens. That should be early to mid-summer.
JCT
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Yup — the “pink ribbon” has now been rebranded to “anti-women’s health”, spread the word and AVOID. The other key is to let the sponsors know you are avoiding their products (by name) because of this. A simple email should suffice.
slim's tuna provider
“Economic pressure” just does not mean “fear and intimidation”. Words matter. As to gandhi vs. the nazis, yes there are limits to what peaceful resistance can do, but by that time we’re all pretty much screwed and it’s a matter of how to pick up the pieces.
Emma
@slim’s tuna provider: Those particular gentlemen were dealing with groups and governments that could be made to back down or change direction, even if for reasons that had nothing to do with truth,justice, and decency. The current conservatives DON’T GIVE A CRAP. Witness the many initiatives put forward by Obama that have over 60% support from the public and they still die in Congress.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@slim’s tuna provider:
To quote the A-Team quoting Ghandi:
I quote this because I think you are simplifying these people too much. These people boycotted things all the time to make a point: I believe bussing in particular was a good example.
It’s not like Doug advocated violence against anyone.
Emma
@Jay C: So we shouldn’t fight because we’re doomed to fail each and every time. Let’s all walk into the camps singing, then.
aimai
I’d like to see someone with organizational know how step forward and rebrand PP with a Red Ribbon (or something else) that symbolizes health care for the whole fucking family, and the whole family while fucking. Why aren’t there walks and fundraisers for PP, dedicated funding for all the health services they provide. Funding to get them their own mamogram machines. Funding for more counseling services and testing of all kinds? I hate and have always hated the sentimentalization of the whole breast cancer shtick, the “feminization” of the process of illness and death. But its a fact that the Komen foundation found a way to turn Americans desire to do something,n ot just stand around, into a gold mine. Essentially its as though they are a health club that found a way to get you to give them money and fundraise from all your friends in order to feel good about yourself while offering nothing more than a location and a timetable for your excercise plan.
Its as American as apple pie to hold fundraisers that are also social events, or to attach money to social events and feel good about ourselves. Instead of holding house parties among the very rich to fund PP like a dirty little liberal secret PP should be out organizing everyone in every community to raise money to fund local community clinics. I’m pro choice and I’m loud and proud but I’m also just pro-family health. Komen rakes in 331 million a year and they only gave PP around 600,000? Fuck that. Why can’t PP get 331 Million a year in direct funding and spend it all on the good work they are already doing?
aimai
slag
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I truly hope that real women’s health organizations step up to this opportunity to be an alternative to those Komen phonies!
shortstop
@aimai:
I’m sad that I live in a world in which this slogan wouldn’t be universally embraced with glee.
jibeaux
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Liver.
Ow.
I’m really sorry. I’m glad you’re doing that, and I hope that the insanity of the fact that people have to do that for someone with insurance is sinking in with some folks.
jibeaux
@aimai: To be honest with you, I like the idea on principle, but if there were PP walks I guarantee you someone, somewhere, some time, would show up with a fucking assault rifle and go Columbine on the volunteers.
Roger Moore
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Here’s an off-the-wall question I haven’t seen asked yet: what are the implications of the “no investigations rule” if Komen itself is investigated? Are they required to stop spending any money on their own programs? If one of their local chapters is investigated, are they required to cut that chapter off? If their executives are investigated, do they have to suspend them without pay? I’d like to see somebody do some investigating to find out.
Kane
I understand that this is a popular narrative, but after the grassroots effort in Wisconsin and beyond, the Occupy movement, the opposition to the Keystone tar sand pipeline and SOPA, the resurgence of unions, the continued passage of same-sex marriage across the country along with a number of other successful actions, the narrative appears to be rather tired and outdated.
Even without a constested primary in the presidential election, the left is tuned-in, fired-up and taking action.
Jay C
@Emma:
Nonsense! How did you get this from my comment at # 78? Far from “not fighting” this disgraceful politicization of healthcare issues, crap like the SKG Foundation has pulled should, I think, spur any and all of us who care about the issue to fight even harder against the Right’s anti-choice, anti-woman agenda.
But, as in any conflict, rationally assessing one opponent’s strengths and strategies is just good planning: not a surrender.
BTW, speaking of crap: check out the Paper Of Record’s article on the SGKF/PP flap: it’s a carefully crafted piece of both-sides-do-it mealy-mouthing: they are careful to describe Planned Parenthood as
“the nation’s largest provider of abortion services” (twice) ,and rely mainly on (exculpatory) quotes from a Komen Foundation board member as background. Who manages to pack an amazing amount of (clueless?) irony into one brief quote:
Great, John: How’s that working out for you?
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne:
My point is that turning this into a consumer boycott actually embraces the “consumption = charity” model that earned Komen a shitload of criticism even before the decision to pull its grants from PP. I’d prefer it if there was a way to break the cycle. This doesn’t mean that you can’t make consumer choices in ways that have semi-charitable consequences — FairTrade goods have their own critics, but that basic model is sounder than buying a pink-lidded yogurt or a pink Kitchen-Aid mixer “for the cause”.
Komen’s lobbying work in recent years has been against the kind of healthcare reform that would put it out of business: it wants cancer patients who aren’t insured or can’t afford treatment to come begging to them. Which once again proves why private charity is inherently capricious and no substitute for an actual healthcare system.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne:
Excellent answer!
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
Yes, that would be great, but this is not the moment, any more than an Iraq War protest was the right place to wave a “Free Mumia” sign. Can we stay focused on a single project, just for once, instead of spinning off to embrace three or four related ones before the first one is done?
pseudonymous in nc
@Jay C:
Jeffrey Goldberg appears to have good sources, and quotes the former comms. adviser saying “I think over time they thought if they gave in to the very aggressive propaganda machine of the anti-abortion groups, that the issue would go away.” Which, to me, sounds like they’re imbeciles, and that Karen Handel has made suckers out of them. Nice work if you can get it.
Here’s my predicted endgame: Handel walks (give it two weeks) and as a “made man” and martyr for the cause has doubled her potential salary in a wingnut welfare job.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne:
Really? That’s a rotten analogy, and surprising coming from you.
Are you arguing that if Komen reverses its decision — which I assume is the intended consequence of hitting it through its megacorp partners — then we can all go back to buying pink-ribbon tat and ignoring that Komen operates a fundamentally dubious charitable operation? Fuck that.
JR
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
Perhaps getting her “charity” investigated and their tax-exempt status revoked? Maybe that would harm her resume?
Maybe misusing charitable funds for political purposes is a felony tax violation? Am I getting close yet?
Lex
@Schlemizel: It would be nice to think that somehow the organization could right itself, dump the thugs and morons they have leading them down this road and get back to the very important work of preventing, detecting (early!) and curing breast cancer.
Actually, no, it wouldn’t. This, given the stakes (i.e., prematurely dead women), is the kind of PR nightmare from which a brand and an organization do not deserve to recover. I hope anyone and everyone who has ever given that organization money or time will simply give to some other charity that fights breast cancer, and that SGK will simply dry up and blow away.
Elizabelle
@pseudonymous in nc:
I think one, count it, one poster on this thread (or an earlier one) has said he/she would contribute to SGK if they reversed the policy.
For just about everyone else here, that ship has sailed.
Also, I think that Canadian documentary is going to find a wider audience for its expose of SGK practices.
And that maybe Frontline or ProPublica is assigning stories, as we speak.
Elizabelle
PS: Doug:
Brilliant. Can be a tag for the next time some group gets taken out from within.
dollared
@Kane: I’m not as convinced. I am very, very interested in really fighting, economically. The Koch Brothers own Dixie Cups and Union 76 gasoline. They own brands that can be hurt. Did anybody organize a boycott? It wouldnt’ be that hard and why the fuck are we giving them our money?
We are weak and disorganized. And we could honorably and constructively fight harder and more effectively. Believe me, if the Kochs sold 40% fewer Dixie Cups in Wisconsin, not only would they take notice, but so would all the anti-union grocery stores.
Steve
@pseudonymous in nc: I think he’s saying to get them to reverse their decision first, and then talk about what happens next, instead of trying to save the world in one fell swoop.
Ben Lehman
For the record, the counterfactual history of Gandhi vs. Nazis is pretty darn counterfactual. As in, an Axis victory in South Asia would have seen India in the hands of Japan. Who likely would have propped up the Indian Nationalists as a puppet government, ala Mongolia. (and done horrible things to the populace, let’s be clear.)
yrs–
–Ben
Pongo
This does benefit Komen in one area. They’ve spent millions defending their ‘pink ribbon’ brand from unauthorized users. By making their own brand incredibly toxic, problem solved!
Niques
I keep pointing out to friends and acquaintances that rich people/corporations are vulnerable when anything affects their bottom line. I can loan $20 to a friend, and completely forget I did so. If I’m not paid back, I usually won’t notice, and even if I do, am not all that concerned. It is only $20. But take that same amount away from a multi-billionaire, and he’ll keep a list and never, EVER forget. $20.
I think Yoplait et al will notice far more than they will let on. And, as has been pointed out by many here, they’ve made it particularly easy to boycott their pink products.
I personally don’t want SGK to back down on their decision. It’s done. Let it be a lesson to future companies who make a boatload of money off convincing people they’re charitable when, in fact, they really are only in it for the money.
rb
@schrodinger’s cat: There is nothing cutesy about cancer
Hear fucking hear.
JGabriel
DougJ @ Top:
I’m predicting lots of supermarket specials on Yoplait, and other pink-ribbon branded products, in the near future.
.
gelfling545
@JCT: I think a lot of women who have supported them are now walking away. My daughter has done their runs and is she ever pissed. As she says, there are hundreds of good causes that need funds & that money/time will not go to waste, it just won’t go to Komen.
Schlemizel
@The Moar You Know:
Trust me, I mostly agree with you. Mostly that we have to fight back hard, I’m hoping we could develop campaign-fu and turn their dirt back on them rather than generate our own dirt. I believe the means dictate the ends, not that the ends justify the means.
But there has been a sense that there is something wrong with those who are planning for the worst this fall simply because the GOP has decided to let their freak flag fly high.
Schlemizel
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I don’t recall your name on the list of people who have several times called commentators issuing warnings not to take this election for granted “concern trolls” If you are then stop it, but I don’t think you are.
If the concern trolls are wrong they will have busted a hump working to elect a guy who was a shoe in but maybe we can pull in a few extra Congress, senate or state house seats. No harm but real up side.
If the concern trolls turn out to be right but people sat on their comfy ass because they knew it was in the bag we could lose the Senate as well as the White House and have the joy of Marquis de Mittens gentle ministrations of Marquis de Sade governance.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@JR:
Now you’re talking.
And BTW, if a Church decides to act like a Super-PAC, maybe their tax-free status needs to be revisited as well?
Waldo
@slim’s tuna provider: Like you said. Why risk going medieval when boycotts and bad press should be more than enough to get the job done?
evinfuilt
I’ll just never understand the American mentality of for-profit, and/or private run charities for medical studies.
Instead of all this bull, we could all just pay a couple more dollars a year in taxes and increase science funding, but nope, that for some reason is un-American.
Mike G
@shortstop:
Maybe in Australia…
Hilda M
Some excellent thought on this site…Such a bad move by SGK; such short-sided ignorance. NO ONE is pro-abortion. It’s about choice and safe access. Planned Parenthood provides many essential services to girls and women who otherwise would have no access to health care. But we know this… yet these neo-con right wingers are relentless in their disinformative vitriole and hate-speak!
I’m fighting breast cancer now. I’m going to gather all the pink I’ve bought and been given, have my like-minded friends do the same, and have a BURN SGK BONFIRE!! Anyone else interested? Have your own bonfire!