The novel “A Confederacy of Dunces” comes to mind.
WalMart has an online open market where third party sellers can offer merchandise to the public. Good! That’s a public service. It’s like a farmer’s market, online. Aspiring entrepreneurs can get started. Consumers can find products that they might not have known about.
One of its third party sellers offered a T-shirt with the message, “Impeach 45.” Oh, fine. It’s a moronic sentiment, and an ignorant sentiment, but so is “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” “Abolish ICE,” “What would Jesus do?,” “Bush lied and people died,” and “Go Yankees!” Personally, I think any messages on clothing is prima facie evidence that the wearer is intellectually deficient.Imagine someone who walked around saying “Give peace a chance” all day long. You’d have to commit him. Wearing a T-shirt with messages on it is basically like that. Nonetheless, if people want to parade around wearing some slogan, virtue-signaling to fellow “resistance” members and Maxine Waters fans, that’s their dumb choice. This is America. We get to make dumb choices. And I, for one, am grateful when idiots label themselves.
But increasingly, Americans want to restrict the right of other Americans to say and express sentiments that they don’t like. Ryan Fournier, chairman of the group Students for Trump, flagged the MAGA-offending merchandise on Twitter, asking WalMart, “What kind of message are you trying to send?”
Heck, I can answer that. WalMart was trying to send the message, “We sell stuff that people want to buy.” The shirt-maker, a company called “Old Glory,” was trying to send the message, “If you hate President Trump, here’s a shirt you might want to buy.” The shirt is trying to send the message, “Impeach Donald Trump,” and the people who buy it are sending the message, “I’ve never read the Constitution” or “I have a Trump-deranged uncle whom I want to troll.” Legitimate messages all.
Never mind: Trump supporters, who are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it any more, started organizing a WalMart boycott. UNETHICAL, like all such boycotts. This is a boycott of open political discourse and free speech.
A responsible, respectable, reasonable corporation that wanted o do its part to keep our nation open to diverse political opinions and the God-given right of human beings to make a buck out of other people’s quirks and biases, would have reminded these supposedly conservative speech censors and hypocrites that they could also market their “Lock her up!” T-shirt if they had one to sell. But no. Like the pathetic jelly-spined companies that abandoned their sponsorship of “Duck Dynasty” when liberals threatened a boycott over some random comment by the professional redneck stars, then came crawling back when conservatives threatened a boycott over the boycott, WalMart showed that it has no integrity or principles whatsoever, and pulled the shirt ads.
Troubadour Jacques Brel once said, but in French, “If we leave it to them, they will crochet the world the color of goose shit.” If we leave it to the boycotters and the lazy, cowardly corporate executives, we will have a country with goose shit for a democracy.
Perhaps we have that already.
Ethics Alarms 
Your logic is spot on. Unfortunately, our society has been conditioned to react without any due consideration of the implications.
So let’s say Trump is impeached Mike Pence will step in to the role of President. I would think that that the far left would have far more real ideological differences with him than Trump. In addition, because Pence was not elected President he could theoretically be President for 10 years.
Conversely, to all my Trump friends it makes more sense to capitalize on this outrage by fighting fire with fire. Create a whole line of shirts that say what you want. I can imagine a shirt showing Hillary in a french maid outfit saying wipe it with a cloth? Or, maybe a unflattering photo of Ms Waters depicting her as the left’s face of reason. Maybe we create a shirt showing Antifa crowds creating economic development opportunities. The possibilities are far greater for illustrating competing ideas using the left’s actual behavior than anything they can muster against Trump.
Chris,
That’s too complicated. I have no skill at drawing and my t-shirts would not sell.
How about the lazy response: roll your eyes and move on. It’s worked for me for decades, though lately, my eyes are unusually tired.
-Jut
Jut.
Its not that complicated unless we all have more important things to deal with.
Even though I could do it, I would not waste my time.
The best way to deal with the easily offended is to ignore them. The habitually offended thrive on the attention they generate.
How many Trump supporters are likely to assault you based on your shirt? How many progressives, same question?
I think the numbers tell you why your hypothetical shirts are a non starter, when wearing a MAGA hat is bold, even in San Antonio:
http://www.newsweek.com/texas-teen-attacked-wearing-maga-hat-1008678
Totally agree, fact is Walmart was offering pro trump stuff too, it would have been better to pull everything then just the items that offended some idiot that does not understand, while you may not agree others have a right to their opinion too.
I once had a t-shirt that said “Jesus saves!”.
Above it was a picture of Jesus diving for a volleyball.
One of my Christmas shirts showed Santa pouring a can of peas on the ground, and read “peas on Earth”.
Important messages for mankind, sharing the good news!
My personal favorite bumper sticker along those lines: “Visualize whirled peas.”
I guess I hoped the Trumpsters would just shrug this off and let it go. You know, act like adults. Kind of disappointing. They should know better.
Adults? We have adults in this country?
Who knew?
funny
Information: Film festival volunteers (my fun and free entertainment work) get paid in t-shirts with all kinds of slogans on them. One of mine has three chest-covering exes on the front . . . X X X . . . and nothing else, meant to signify the 30th year of their existence. Another says “What else is there to think about, except my job, my dirty job?” (that’s Orson Welles in “Touch of Evil”). Then there’s “I Love Happy Endings” which I wear only to medical appointments. And “I can afford a blemish on my character, but not on my clothes.” (Vincent Price, Laura, 1944) worn over my oldest jeans; and a silent film intertitle in its original ornate frame: “I won’t talk! I won’t say a word!!!” The tees come in seven languages (Hindi, Italian, Swedish . . .); my favorites don’t translate well, but apply to more than movies — A la fin de l’envoi, je touche.
I’ve been collecting them since the mid80s, working nine to 12 series a year. The oldest – outgrown – have gone to make quilts; the garish-colored ones gone to Goodwill. I only have about 200 left. They’re my only shirts. I wear one every day, for all occasions — two, when the wind whooshes through the city (most days except early October), layered with one of the long-sleeved ones . I favor the old ones in thick cotton, and with a black background to show that I am sober and grounded.
We all have our own fashion statements, such as (translated from the Spanish): The wise old are immune to criticism.
Stupid slogans on t-shirts remind me of some of my ‘friends’ on Facebook, who place post after post that are only links to someone else’s post. Can’t think for themselves, but must have a presence, so… This is worse and less interesting than posts like “Sushi tonight: yum” and “Have to work late. Ugg.” Who cares? I don’t care what people are eating, want to see pictures of same,
Similarly, if you have no thought, opinion, or fact of your own, stop clogging up Facebook with this junk. The T-shirts clearly appeal to the same morons.
Walmart is seen as the conservative (common American) store, right or wrong (they are just a store out to make a profit like everyone else, but the progressives labeled them as ‘eeevul’ some years ago, so the polarization stuck).
This helps explain the reaction, if not excuses it. Boycotts are unethical… but are the only effective response to progressive boycotts. Common Americans outnumber progressives by a large percentage in America (else progressives would win at the ballot box more often) so this tactic is being used to offset the vocal progressive minority.