A popular chef got cooked last week. By the tolerance mob.
Chef John Howie owns a number of Seattle area restaurants and is also the chef for the Seattle Seahawks. By all account he’s a really decent guy; generous and active in the community. But isn’t that kind of what you’d expect from the guy preparing Russell Wilson’s food?
In addition to being a decent guy, Chef Howie made a modest contribution earlier this year to the Just Want Privacy campaign in Washington State.
Just Want Privacy sought to repeal a dangerous new law that gives men the legal right to be present in a women’s bathroom, locker room, spa, or changing facility simply by declaring themselves to be female.
The chef was apparently part of the more than 70% of Washingtonians who believe it is problematic to take away the right to privacy women and children have long enjoyed in private spaces.
Probably because he is visible and active in the community, last week the Seattle Times and others from the LGBT mob decided to make an example out of him.
A Seattle Times food columnist—of all things—decided to write a post about Chef Howie’s contribution.
Why now? Who knows.
But when you’re in the business of trying to ruin the lives of people who think differently than you, there truly is no time like the present.
The story quoted Chef Howie saying some really reasonable things that almost no one disagrees with. “Sex offenders scare the living daylights out of me,” he told the Times. “I think pedophiles can take advantage of this.”
Of course this is true.
But none of that matters anymore because “equality” means that women have to allow men who believe they are women equal access to their body.
Notwithstanding the bumper-sticker, the mob has no interest in “coexisting” with people who are different than them.
They are here to accept your surrender.
SO, within twenty-four hours, Chef Howie had created a video recanting his previous statement.
The video was quickly distributed by a number of local LGBT activists groups including the Seattle Times.
You really need to watch the video.
We’ve all seen statements written by terrorists that were read by hostages. The similarities are inescapable. You kind of expect there to be a rainbow flag and a guy in a mask holding a knife standing behind him.
An obviously shaken Howie opened with an apology. “I’m sorry to the people that I have harmed or negatively affected with my words or my actions.”
Stating an opinion about privacy in bathrooms is now apparently harmful all by itself.
The chef promised to never support another effort to protect women’s privacy again and concluded by assuring the audience that, “I am reaching out to several leaders in the LGBT community so they can help me to understand their challenges so that I can help them in the future.”
Translation, “Yes, I’ll give you money when you ask for it.”
Everyone understands what happened. They shook him down.
A guy doesn’t say one thing to a newspaper and then—within 24 hours—publish a video saying the exact opposite because he had a friendly chat with a buddy over a beer that caused him to reconsider his position.
The path to avoid the wrath of the mob was well planned and he took it. Who knows, you and I might have done the same under the circumstances, but that doesn’t mean it’s not obvious and concerning.
The statement might have been more believable if it hadn’t contained the favorite talking points of the campaigns opposed to women’s privacy. “I was motivated by facts not fear.”
If John Howie wrote his statement on his own then I’m John Wayne. Pilgrim.
The truth is, today’s social justice warriors have become modern day witch hunters.
Like the witch hunters in 17th century Salem, they have cornered the market on truth and consequently progressed beyond the need to listen. With respect to issues of sexuality, marriage, and gender, views other than their own don’t deserve respect.
Other views can only be explained by ignorance or hate. If you prove that you have been “educated” by recanting your beliefs, then they will have mercy.
Otherwise, your hate will be dealt with.
The irony of using totalitarian tactics to fight for tolerance is lost on them because their motives are good and the righteousness of their cause is beyond dispute.
Just like other witch hunters, they know God (or whatever non deistic life force entity they have chosen to believe in, or not) is on their side.
Once the bad guys have been eliminated, children will once again play safely in the neighborhoods, flowers will bloom, and the glaciers will heal.
Of course none of it is true, but the religious fervor with which they believe it is true means we have to deal with it.
Chef Howie was spared his economic life because he recanted, but others have refused to recant their beliefs and suffered the consequences.
Brendan Eich was a co-founder of Mozilla, but was forced out of his job as CEO of the company because of a contribution he made to a campaign in support of natural marriage in that state.
Kelvin Cochran was fired from his job as Fire Chief of Atlanta because he wrote a book on his personal time about biblical manhood that included his beliefs that homosexuality was not biblical.
Barronelle Stutzman continues her legal battle against the state of Washington because she refuses to recant her belief that she should not be compelled to decorate a same-sex wedding.
They don’t threaten people’s physical lives, just their economic life. But the tactic is identical to how Jihadi’s control those in dhimmitude. “Do as I say, or else…”
Yes, we can all sympathize with the Chef.
He clearly remembers a time when Americans had the right to express themselves publicly without fear of visits from strangers bringing threats.
But we’ve progressed.
So now he pays for protection.
For everyone else, this can be a lesson. It can either be a lesson to keep our heads down and make sure we don’t offend our masters. Or, it could be a lesson that it’s time to get together and tell the bully to go pound sand.
If we let them fight us alone every time, they’ll be happy to control us, tell us what we can say and what we can do, and shake financial contributions out of us whenever they decide its necessary.
Or we can decide that the right to work and live according to our beliefs, not someone else’s, is worth getting together and fighting for.
