It's like...
(inhale)
(pause)
(exhale)
FREE SPEECH, man!
Maybe we need to start selling T-shirts that show a montage of Ted Kennedy, a bottle of Scotch, and a car sinking into a river...
No, wait, that would be WRONG! It would be in POOR TASTE!
Hmmm... maybe instead we should sell T-shirts showing Hillary Clinton as viewed through the cross-hairs of a rifle scope...
No, wait, still wrong and poor taste and GLORIFIES EVIL GUN VIOLENCE!
I have it... no, never mind... that would be intolerant... Or maybe... nope, hate speech...
WHY IS IT ONLY "HATE" SPEECH IF THE OBJECT OF HATE IS LIBERAL?
Bottom line: we conservatives need to simply do the RIGHT thing, and boycott Cafe Press and other vendors of such baseless crap. Just pulling these products after people complain isn't good enough (and I'm sure that, having been linked by Drudge, by the time you read this the products will be pulled). Cafe Press shouldn't have offered them in the first place. The only way to teach businesses like this is to end their business by exercising our freedom to choose.
I don't know if I want cafepress to make decisions about products people sell through them. I wouldn't want to see them start blocking pro-gun products because they are considered "violent". I'd much rather just let the people buying products decide if they think they are in good taste.
Posted by: Wesley Womack | Wednesday, 13 April 2005 at 01:31 PM
If they choose to do so, we can choose to use other companies to sell our blog ware. Those Shirts (http://thoseshirts.com) is a wonderful alternative to Cafe Press.
This is simple economics: reward companies we like, do not reward companies we don't.
Posted by: Gullyborg | Wednesday, 13 April 2005 at 02:36 PM
"WHY IS IT ONLY "HATE" SPEECH IF THE OBJECT OF HATE IS LIBERAL?" Is that a rhetorical question, or what?
Posted by: JannyMae | Friday, 15 April 2005 at 05:45 PM
Oh, don't get me wrong, CafePress has a TON of lefty stuff on their site too. Some, like the items you show above, are clearly over the line in terms of decency and free speach. Advocating for the murder of our President is a crime, but also morally repugnant.
What I do like about CafePress is the ability to create whatever you want. How about a shirt that says, "GREGOIRE NOT MY GOVERNOR"?
Which brings me to my final point. Did you know John Kerry is coming to Seattle May 1st? Yup, he's coming to raise money for Comrade Fraudoire and the Dems to defend the legal challenge.
Posted by: Patrick E. Bell | Tuesday, 26 April 2005 at 12:01 PM
For starters, I believe that Cafe DID pull that line pretty quickly, from what I read.
In response to Wesley, the idea of letting the market decide is all well and good, and is in fact my own belief, but we should remember that Cafepress is a private enterprise, and as such has the freedom to do business with whom they please, as well as the responsibility that comes with freedom. If they fail to exercize that freedom responsibly, we have the freedom and responsibility to NOT do business with them, as WE please.
Posted by: Brian B | Wednesday, 27 April 2005 at 08:00 AM
Yes, CafePress is doing a decent job of responing to situations like this--but until they become more proactive instead of reactive, and until they offer a real apology with strong language condeming such abuses rather than offer lame generic statements about policy, I will continue to call for a boycott.
Capitalism: Yeah!
Posted by: Gullyborg | Wednesday, 11 May 2005 at 01:21 PM
http://www.cafepress.com/valag.36447378
Posted by: Valag | Monday, 20 August 2007 at 04:39 PM