Target Is Public Enemy No. 1 This June
The Right Launches Its Summer of Hate
By Kevin Howley, June 4, 2023
This year’s Memorial Day Weekend was marred by high-stakes negotiations between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to lift the nation’s debt ceiling. Talk about a buzz kill.
There’s one group unfazed by the economic brinksmanship in Washington: the tireless trolls of the extreme right’s cultural front. They’ve been working overtime this holiday weekend to push back against corporate America’s annual rainbow washing exercise acknowledging LGBTQ Pride Month.
There was a time when conservatives blushed at the very thought of interfering with corporate profiteering. Not anymore. Move over Disney. You too Bud Light. Target is Public Enemy No. 1 this June.
Satanic Wokeism
The Federalist put a target on the box store giant ahead of the summer shopping season with this call to arms: “It’s Up To Moms To Crush Target.” Before you can say “tuck-friendly clothing,” columnist Madeline Osburn tells you all you need to know about what conservatives mean when they talk about “traditional” gender roles.
“I’m not happy about or proud of this fact, but it’s simply a law of nature that once females get pregnant or rear children, they will be drawn to those giant red cement balls like a moth to a flame,” Osburn writes. “So asking a mom to boycott Target is like asking a squirrel to boycott all pecan trees or asking a heroin addict to boycott all street corners.”
Nevertheless, Obsurn wants female culture warriors to take note: This is your moment. “If there is one demographic willing to take on the most seemingly insurmountable institutions who prey on children, it’s moms.” It’s not enough that Target has been playing “the corporate LGBT Pride game for years,” Osburn continues. Now they’re selling merchandise “designed by a Satan supporter who called for the eradication of anyone who disagrees with the mutilation of children.”
How’s that for a winning recipe for manufactured outrage? Turns out all this woke, gender nonconformity business is the doing of the Prince of Darkness.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper culture war skirmish without celebrities of all stripes weighing in on Target’s “radical transgenderism.” Consider this bit of clickbait from WND: “‘Shark Tank’ Star Responds to Target’s Satanic Wokeism: This Is A ‘Lesson For Corporate America.’”
Meanwhile, MAGA enthusiasts were quick to capitalize on the right’s targeting of Pride Month. Gateway Pundit celebrated with this headline: “‘Boycott Target’ Song By Pro-Trump Rap Group Hits #2 on iTunes Rap and Hip-Hop Chart.” Only in America.
Soon after Target capitulated to the right’s gender hysteria, and relocated Pride displays out of sight, if not out of mind, The Blaze served up this wedge-driving headline: “‘Twilight’ Actress Who Has ‘Nonbinary’ 7-Year-Old Child Rips Target For Moving Pride Display To Back Of Store: ‘We’re Not Supposed To Negotiate With The Terrorists.’”
Tell that to members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who voted against the GOP’s debt limit extortion scheme.
Bud Lighting Corporate America
It comes as no surprise to Townhall’s Matt Vespa that Target would pay the price for hawking “transgender-inspired fashion for children … designed reportedly by a Satanist.” Vespa observes, “It’s a mess that everyone could see coming based on a similar reaction to Bud Light’s marketing partnership with a biological male who pretends to be a woman.”
The crowing continues over at OutKick with a story headlined “Target Loses $9 Billion In One Week, Tells Bud Light To Officially Hold Its Beer.” Shaking his head over corporate America’s refusal to heed right wing extremists’ “go woke, go broke” hollow threats, Zach Dean concludes, “Target apparently wasn’t paying close enough attention to the outrage, and decided to dip its toe into the mess by grooming kids.”
Neither was Kohl’s, it seems, another big box retailer on the receiving end of right wing vitriol for its so-called woke agenda. The Blaze fired up the outrage machine with this headline: “Kohl’s Faces Potential ‘Bud-Lighting’ Over Its LGBT Agitprop Targeting Toddlers.”
Just to be clear. This isn’t reporting. It’s provocation and incitement.
Woke Fever Dream
Of course, there’s nothing new here. After all, for conservative news outlets, manufacturing outrage isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
The same media outlets that fan the flames of the culture wars, endorse conspiracy theories and ferment political tribalism are forever projecting their fears and anxieties on the “radical left” – a figment of the right’s woke fever dream.
But don’t take my word for it. American Thinker’s story, headlined “Target Shows The Blueprint To Beat The Left” illustrates the totalizing effect of the conservative movement’s favorite talking points. “Something is happening right now that is scaring the Obama out of the fascist far left. Their power has always been an illusion, perpetuated by pop culture and the national socialist media, but now that is being shown to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors.”
This from the masters of distraction, who wield their rhetorical power to manipulate and deceive gullible audiences with MAGA-inspired dreams of an America that never was.
Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in “Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism,” “Social Movement Studies,” and “Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture.” He is the author and editor of several books including “Media Interventions” and “Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.”
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There was a time when conservatives blushed at the very thought of interfering with corporate profiteering. Not anymore. Move over Disney. You too Bud Light. Target is Public Enemy No. 1 this June. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
