OPINION | This article contains political commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
Colorado’s famous onservative and religious Masterpiece Cakeshop owner, Jack Phillips, is appealing a $500 fine after being sued again in what is, in my opinion, an intentional setup to be able to force him to comply with woke progressive ideology.
Phillips recently won the famous case about his refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding back in 2012. On the very day that the Supreme Court issued its decision in favor of Phillips, a transgender attorney named Autumn Scardina called Mr. Phillips’s Masterpiece Cakeshop and requested that Mr. Phillips bake a blue and pink cake to celebrate the attorney’s transition from male to female.
Jack Phillips refused to bake such a cake and Scardina subsequently filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The complaint was initially dismissed and a second lawsuit was then brought by Scardina. A bench trial with Judge A. Bruce Jones ended with a ruling that Phillips’ bakery was in violation of Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act, stating that Phillips “chose to incorporate his business as a for-profit entity providing goods and services to the public,” and thus he was obligated to comply with the anti-discrimination act. Phillips was fined $500, which is the maximum penalty for violating the anti-discrimination act.
Here’s my take.
Scardina surely knew the Supreme Court had just ruled in Phillips’ favor, thus the impeccable timing of the call. As though Scardina was waiting to see if he would win or lose.
And Scardina surely knew that Phillips would be uncomfortable baking a cake for a transgender celebration as it, like the same-sex wedding cake, would contradict the religious beliefs that are the foundation of his life and business practices.
And Scardina surely intended to sue Phillips as soon as he refused to bake such a cake, which Scardina could confidently assume would be his response.
It was all a setup.
Scardina could have gone to any bakery. Could have simply asked for a pink and blue cake. Could have done any number of things that would not end with suing the cakeshop owner. But I think that Scardina’s end goal wasn’t actually a cake for a gender transition celebration. I believe that the end goal was actually an excuse to sue Phillips and force him to comply with Scardina’s beliefs and ideals, which contradict his own deeply-held beliefs.
And therein lies one of the roots of the culture-war problem. There is no such thing as “live and let live” anymore because, as the woke radical progressives say, “silence is violence.”
You certainly aren’t allowed to vocally disagree with woke radical progressive ideals, beliefs, and practices because you’ll be labeled a bigot, a racist, various forms of phobic, or other brandings of social disgrace and disdain. You also aren’t allowed to only quietly agree. And perhaps most importantly, you aren’t allowed to privately disagree.
You can’t politely decline to bake a cake for something you don’t agree with. They won’t let you.
You are expected to actively and vocally advocate for the woke radical progressive agenda. Anything less is tantamount to violence. They can’t simply allow a bakeshop to exist that doesn’t actively support transgenderism. No, they have to go out of their way to force that bakeshop to actively support it.
This reminds me of an article I wrote in March about parents in a Loudon County school district being targeted by so-called “anti-racist” teachers.
“The parents who find themselves on the list don’t actually have to say or do anything racist. One parent found herself on the list just for being “very carefully neutral.” So you think you’re safe by being careful not to publicly disagree with the woke progressive radicals? Too bad for you that “silence is violence,” and your silence on the subject is tantamount to incriminating racist behavior. If you’re not vocally with them, you’re against them and will be subsequently put on a target list.”
I’m a little surprised these teachers didn’t engage in similar setups, intentionally engaging with suspected anti-critical race theory parents, in an effort to trap them into confirming that they disagree with it, and then their disagreement as leverage against them.
If you’re not actively and vocally supporting and advocating for the preferred ideals, morals, behaviors, and agenda of the woke radical progressives, then you are targeted for being against them.
Unfortunately for conservative ideals and values, conservatives don’t naturally engage in this kind of active and targeted social entrapment, so we are handicapping ourselves in the culture war by playing by a set of rules not acknowledged by the woke radical progressives who aim to make all our conservative ideals and values obsolete.
This content was originally published here.
