A Primer in Free Speech
We have a group of dedicated readers here in the salon. So, before we begin this exercise I’m going to reiterate that what is said in this piece is really not for them. If you are a regular you already know this. This piece is for anyone else that might stumble along and see this.
The point is pretty simple. Cancel culture really isn’t a thing. It is what we call freedom of speech or freedom of expression. I suppose shows get canceled and there are always backlashes against certain people and certain things. It has always been that way. The point can be illustrated through one very straighforward tweet.
Other artists who are deleting Anheuser-Busch products from their hospitality rider might not say so in public for fear of being ridiculed and cancelled. I have no such fear. https://t.co/YgjO9P03tR
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 6, 2023
Here is the ultimate irony. Travis Tritt is attempting to cancel Anheuser-Busch. Basically, this is a direct plea to his fans that Budweiser isn’t cool with him anymore and shouldn’t be cool with them either. So, in one sentence he manages to attempt canceling Budweiser and then accuses them of doing the same. Some people are just blessed without self-awareness.
So, let me repeat this for those blessed without self-awareness, Freedom of speech means you have the right to say what you want as long as your speech doesn’t incite a riot or is demonstrably false and damaging to a particular individual or business. Yet, that means that people can also react to your speech. They can speak against it or even shun you or your products. That’s always been a thing. It will always be a thing. This new-fangled notion of cancel culture is really a buzzword that means nothing.
I don’t buy Anheuser-Busch products. I don’t buy Coors products. It has nothing to do with wokeness (whatever that is). I don’t buy those beers because they aren’t good. Occasionally, we go to the Spec’s in downtown Houston and it always flabbergasts me when people buy crappy and cheap beer at a store that sells virtually every beer marketed in town. You can buy beer flavored water anywhere.
I don’t own any Travis Tritt albums. I don’t like country music. I know a lot of people do and if they enjoy his music they should avail themselves of it. I know a lot of people like Bud Light and Coors. Great. You buy what you want to buy and listen to the music you want to listen to. This is how freedom works.
The fact is that too many people misunderstand freedom of speech. It protects you from being arrested or silenced by Congress. It doesn’t protect you from the negative impacts of a bad take. It doesn’t protect anyone from their employer reacting badly to their speech. It doesn’t guarantee you a microphone or platform. You have a right to speak. With that right to speak comes consequences. Some of them may be good or bad. It has always been this way and it will always be that way.
Well stated and explained (necessary for those “blessed” without self-awareness). Opinions…we all have them, but some seem to need to express them publicly (?politically).
1I happened to see Travis Twit once at a ball game or the rodeo or something. It was the start of the First Gulf War and Twit was calling folks who questioned the war ‘a bunch of faggots.’ I suppose that cancelled him for me.
2I pride myself on finding good wine that’s also inexpensive. How ever, life is too short to drink cheap beer. I applaud Budweiser for bringing out rainbow designed cans; but, I’m still not gonna drink it.
3When I was a small boy about 70 or so years ago I was told
4” Free Speech ” meant that you had to hear B.S. you did not agree with, and other people had to lesson to you.
No one has to believe what the other one says.
Shouting down some one is not free speech it is just rudeness.
Being louder dose not make you righter. Stopping some one from talking dose not make them wrong. {Ask Putin or Trump.}
They both don’t want to hear from you unless you agree with them.
Republicans love to oppress free speech while simultaneously claiming victimhood. It’s how they seek to silence their critics.
Example: “Conservatives have deeply-held beliefs that they express forcefully. Liberals criticizing those conservatives don’t have firmly held values, they’re just being ‘politically correct’ or ‘woke.’”
5People fail to think about why they admire someone. We like artists for the product they give us, music or art for example. But because they know how to please us in that field doesn’t mean they know everything. Id’ like a Picasso painting, but I wouldn’t take relationship advice from him. BTW the people who get their beer advice from this guy probably also get their COVID vaccine advice from Robert Kennedy, Jr.
6A bigot is cancelling a beer. BFD!!! Don’t like beer anyway.
7I would think Travis Tritt & beer flavored water would pair quite well together. Lucky there’s plenty of crappy beer to choose from. And other fake cowboys singing bad songs about pickup trucks and loyal dogs.
8I wasn’t aware of AB’s rainbow cans (I also haven’t liked Bud for decades). In this world of really important things to be concerned about, Tritt really has his priorities screwed up. He is showing his character (lack of). No big loss to me because I wouldn’t patronize him either. Hope others drop him like a bad tasting beer.
9To me, free speech means everyone has the right to open their mouth and see how far they can insert foot. You have the right to say what you want. I have the right to not listen.
10IMHO, there are no bad beers in life; just some more beerable than others. Therefore, I can go anywhere and enjoy whatever is available.
11A phrase I found on other such blog sites which applies perfectly here: Freedom of speech does not free you from the consequences of that speech.
12I have a Ph. D. in Bad Beer: Arn City, Rolling Rock, Silver Top, Schmidt’s (of both Detroit and Philadelphia!) Duquesne Brewing Co, Olde Frothingslosh (The Pale Stale Ale for the Pale Stale Male), Miller Hi Life, Tech Beer, Hamm’s, Blatz, Bud, Coor’s, Michelob and many more. Then I discovered Guiness (in Ireland), Grant’s Scottish Ale, Total Domination, z etc. Could not go back. Never did like shitkicking music-with the exception of Willie
13What is free speech you ask? Just ask any of the millions of Mom’s around the world.
14https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KjxFDGFKhk
John in Lake Oswego
You forgot about Newcastle, one of the world’s best beers.
15Seems like at least once a week I remind somebody it says Congress shall make no law. The 1st says nothing about your momma, spouse , boss or a private business. Go for it Travis. Boycotts should be major part of capitalism. I boycotted Coors when they would only sell in areas where they could ship it cold. I care where my money goes. Researching how companies do business is one’s civic duty. Granny taught me about putting your money where your mouth is 80 years ago.
16If Anheuser-Busch didn’t think rainbow cans would sell more beer, they wouldn’t have done it. And now look at all the free publicity they’re getting from self-styled “artists” like Tritt and Kid Schlock.
As Deep Throat taught us long ago, “Follow the money.”
17Crona 16 in reference to your comment regarding Coors shipping only to areas cold. I lived in Golden in the 70s just above the brewery. they had a vast fleet of refrigerated trucks and only one brewery.
18what I understand is that this was done because of the mountain water source and the beer was not pasturized or treated to avoid deteriorization from non-reftgeration without changing the flavor for worse . they had no room to expand.
towards the end of that time, the owners decided they wanted to become a big nationally distributed brewery. that’s when they got rid of the fleet of refrigerated trucks so they could ship to places like Texas now as well as having other brewery locations.
the beer tasted different after pasteurizing such that it was just another canned store shelf beer.
it has been years since I visited their courtesy lounge for tap samples. I don’t know if they now use pre-treated beer or stuff that is headed for the canning.
Van heldorf@18. DH spent a summer at CO school of mines learning how to survey. The students went to Coors brewery for free beer every afternoon. He loved Coors but not their politics. I won’t buy it, ever.
19Crone @19 agree about the coors politics even back then. I haven’t had any of their expensive cheap beer in many years. I was staying with a bunch of mines students since a HS bud was a student there. interesting times long gone.
20I would not walk across the street to pour a Bud beer on Travis Twitt if he was on fire. The last time I drank Bud, I was in a cheap bar playing darts. The guy in front of me had a great butt and a gorgeous beard and I took him home for the evening. He never left, married me 1 year to the day we met and is taking a shower right now after 41 years of marriage. That taught me not to drink Bud or any alcohol to this day. Happy Easter.
21The overarching point is that I could care less what beer anyone drinks. It’s nothing personal. I just don’t have the bandwidth. I could say the same for ketchup, mayo, mustard, breakfast cereal, or coffee brand. I care what my family likes because I’m buying for them. That’s it. So people can buy Coors or Budweiser or not and they can do it for any reason. I just love people announcing to the world that they are disowning a particular brand because they are “woke” and then turning around and complaining about cancel culture.
22So, Nick, just so I understand. You have no interest in what a company does. If you like the product you will buy it. Does that mean a Houston area donut producer can hire undocumented people and house them in company property. Then when they are so tired of being physically and sexually harassed by the manager that they file a complaint with the EEOC. And win. The company is fined. The owner forfeits the Heights property they were living in to the tune of way over a million bucks. You will still buy their donuts?
23Not really Crone. I will use my own judgment as to whether I will patronize a business or not. I might even tell my friends and family if I find it egregious enough. What I won’t do is complain that said company might try to “cancel” me. Obviously they won’t care about the likes of me, but it’s ridiculous to decry cancel culture while using it.
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