Imagine if you will that you are a homophobic racist of the sort who feels hate is fine as long as you can insist your religion sanctions it. The past election got you all freaked out that Democrats (gay! Black!) were going to spread some homo agenda all over your clan of teenagers or some such nonsense that you’ve been rambling about with a publicly accessible Blogger account.
At some point this year you have a post-head-trauma epiphany and decide to open a 70s theme donut shop in Pittsburgh’s Strip District and call it Peace Love & Tiny Donuts with the slogan “Feed Your Inner Hippie.” See, your plan is to profit off the “dilusional [sic], uneducated and morally bankrupt” liberals who think they’re supporting a cool, fun, small business run by nice folks. And you know what? That’s a plan. Perhaps not the most ethical, but it would totally work.
Except you blogged about it on your public blog.
Then when people called you out on your weirdo marketing lies, you posted the following:
Thursday, October 1, 2009
It has come to my attention…A young woman came into my shop today and shared with me that some people have read my blog and now are busy doing what they can to damage me and my family by telling others that I am a horrible person. Apparently, my viewpoint and opinions have been interpreted as not endorsing their lifestyle choices or their political views. Although I don’t look to offend anyone, I find it ironic that many people who stand under the banner of “acceptance”, are in their own nature, unwilling to accept anyone who disagrees with them. Does anyone else find that ironic?
I make the best donuts I know how, and people have gone to Urbanspoon and given our product a negative rating because they are unhappy with my opinion. One person said that I should keep my opinion to myself so that nobody would know what I thought! Yet these same people who cry out for legitimacy, attack anyone who doesn’t agree with their positions and choices. That to me is the epitome of hypocrisy. I’m not ashamed of who I am, although I admit I am a work in progress. I will not couch my faith or my person-hood for any reason, especially not to sell a donut.
I have been kind and respectful to everyone that has come into my shop. Not just to sell them something, but I try to be the best version of myself that I can be. I take being generous seriously, along with all of God’s commandments. I try to love people and hate sin. Most of what I write about is the struggle to do that without a ton of human debris in my wake. Everyone wants love and peace. The problem is with SIN. I didn’t invent sin (although my wife might joke that I am trying to perfect it), nor did I define sin. I just happen to believe like most people, that there is a better life to be lived if we avoid sin. That requires a knowledge of what IS sin, and my source for that is the Bible. If that makes me the scorn of people and hated… then I say what Martin Luther said… I can not recant the truth. I would welcome the chance to defend my ideas or my faith but only two people have asked me to explain my writings. Others are taking some paragraphs and sending them to others in an attempt to amplify one of my musings. I have a saying for people who try to demonize others by focusing on one attribute or expression… “you have to walk over mile of balance and reason to have that opinion”.
Posted by Ron Razete at 6:37 AM 0 comments
And then delete the whole thing. (Formerly located at ronrazete.blogspot.com, but in the spirit of Martin Luther I will keep it un-recanted here.)
Well, you’re a cowardly liar, and you really can’t be shocked when folks catch on to you. What is your next move? My hypothesis: blame the meanie liberals for not buying your bullshit instead of your poor judgment, lack of business savvy, and bizarre need to politicize donuts.
* * *
You know what, Ron? My unwillingness to tolerate your intolerance doesn’t make me intolerant.
I accept that there are people like you in the world, and your right to be as horrible as you can within the bounds of our laws. But just like you can have issues with the sexiness-levels of movies, and feel the Christian college you pulled your daughter out of was not Christian enough because they let GLBT students enroll –I, and others, have the ability to not support your dishonest endeavors.
Why market to “hippie leftists” and not let your business reflect your true self? Especially since you insist you will not couch your faith or your person-hood for any reason. I don’t think you should keep your opinions to yourself, or lie about them to make a buck. Let’s see if your intolerance is profitable.
I’m glad you posted this – I didn’t notice that he had a new entry up until it was gone. I love how he is accusing those offended by his bigotry of not being accepting, right there on the heels of a blog post which announces that he doesn’t himself accept several different groups of people.
I coulnd’t care less if he “endorses” my viewpoint or lifestyle – and if he can’t see that THAT is not why people are pissed off, then he’s even more ignorant than I thought. Most of us support that people have different opinion, but he expressed his in a hateful way, starting off with a racist comment about the “tannest” president, then questioning his race, moved on to attack gays, then accused anyone who voted for Obama of being not just “dilusional” and uneducated, but morally bankrupt.
The fact that he can’t see his own hate and hypocrisy is what’s “ironic”, no the fact that the rest of us refuse to accept it.
It’s too bad he took down his whole blog. I wanted to ask him to explain how President Obama’s skin color is sinful.
Wow. Didn’t know about this. That’s too bad. I liked his donuts, but I can’t support someone who wears their hate on their sleeve.
I’m with Tan dude. I’ve been in a couple of times and while I found the place odd, it seemed harmless enough. But in light of all this its safe to say I’ve eaten my last mediocre, small donut.
I think it’s disingenuous — at best — to say that “peace, love, and little donuts” is not a misleading name. Maybe the donuts were little, but the owner chose a catchphrase, and arguably a location, designed to capture the attention of a liberal, “hippy” clientele. It seems to me a signal of likemindedness, which clearly could not be further from the truth.
“I have been kind and respectful of everyone who has come into my shop.” Well, of course he has been! He’s not a dumb businessman. But it’s one thing to be good at customer service, and another thing to have something in the public sphere (the hateful post about President Obama’s inauguration and his “followers”) that makes former and potential clients wonder what he is saying or would say behind their backs.
It’s his right to say (and write about) and believe whatever he wants. It is my right to not patronize his store — for whatever reason. It is, unfortunately for him, also my right to share my opinion with people I know — people who may be interested to learn that a business is misrepresenting itself. And they are free, also, to shop wherever they feel comfortable for whatever reason.
He’s been burned, and he’s probably learned something about social media. I do wonder if he’ll change the name to something else though.
ciao,
rpm
I’m just hearing about this…. I would like to see the original post that he is defending, but his blog is gone. Probably damage control, but looks to me like he just “couched” a little bit of his “person-hood.”
Cazzy:
As of Friday, his posts were still available for your reading pleasure on his Facebook page.
The original post is here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=129349745290
His rebuttal is here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=281604545290
Thanks for the links, Uncle Crappy.
Google has also cached the original blogger site, where you can be treated to even more of this guy’s general grossness.
The Post-Gazette had a strong article on this last Sunday. See
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09291/1006134-28.stm
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