Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Dear Lush in Cardiff
Aired: 2017-02-14
Duration: 05:01


=== Sincere Apology (02:18) ===

[00:00:00]  I'd like to offer a sincere apology to the lady in this picture whose face I've covered even though I didn't originally when I tweeted this out because I've been particularly thoughtless and I take full responsibility for your inconvenience.
[00:00:12]  This was something that I didn't see coming and so now I have to explain what I was doing with a tweet which just goes to show you be careful what you do on social media.
[00:00:24]  So I was shopping in Cardiff last weekend and we went into Lush and one of the employees, as you can see here, had a black t-shirt on with feminist written on it.
[00:00:36]  This seems like an obvious political statement by Lush to me and I've since heard, although I haven't confirmed, that the store actually made her wear it as part of some campaign.
[00:00:49]  And even if they didn't make her wear it, they still condoned her wearing something so obviously political.
[00:00:54]  I mean, would they also allow their employees to just wear communist or fascist or any kind of issue, any ideological position that's obviously divisive?
[00:01:05]  Why would a store be backing this?
[00:01:06]  Unless they were trying to be like the New McDonald's, oh, we're a progressive burger store and all that sort of nonsense.
[00:01:11]  And if that's the case, I think people should be aware of that.
[00:01:14]  I think people should be aware of these political positions that corporations take so we can use market forces against them.
[00:01:21]  This is why I tweeted out.
[00:01:23]  Lush in Cardiff, employee with feminist t-shirt.
[00:01:27]  I mean, I thought, honestly, I honestly thought it was obvious that I was saying Lush, the shop, the location, so people could confirm it if they wanted to.
[00:01:36]  I didn't expect people to find who this girl was and then call her names on the internet.
[00:01:44]  I mean, I've always said, and I consistently say, and maybe I don't say it often enough, don't contact the subjects of my videos unless it's a positive thing, you know?
[00:01:55]  Like, you know, if you're going to send them like a nice message on Twitter, find no one minds a nice message on Twitter.
[00:01:59]  No one minds a deluge of nice messages on Twitter, but don't fucking contact the people I do videos on.

=== Don't Talk To Them (02:58) ===

[00:02:06]  There is no good that comes of it.
[00:02:08]  They're not interested.
[00:02:09]  If they're the opposition, you know, if they're the people who are the die-hard ideologues, and they're not going to change their position, you'll get nothing out of it.
[00:02:16]  You'll just cause trouble.
[00:02:18]  And if it's someone who is like this lady, I think, caught in the crossfire, then she gets unnecessarily targeted.
[00:02:27]  And it just doesn't do any good.
[00:02:29]  I would really, really like everyone to remember that my stance is, just don't talk to them.
[00:02:34]  Just don't talk to them.
[00:02:35]  And as part of this campaign of non-interaction, don't go to Lush and Cardiff.
[00:02:40]  If they're going to make their employees wear feminist t-shirts, don't fucking go there.
[00:02:44]  You know, if you should be a savvy consumer and attack their wallets wherever you can, but don't go and tweet random shit at someone who apparently was forced to wear this t-shirt.
[00:02:57]  That's awful.
[00:02:58]  And the thing is, that's my fault because I didn't think hard enough about what I'd done.
[00:03:03]  And so now I would like everyone to understand, I really don't want you to victimize people.
[00:03:08]  I really don't want you to go after them.
[00:03:10]  It's not like a secret message.
[00:03:11]  It's not a click of code.
[00:03:13]  It's I literally don't want you to contact them.
[00:03:16]  Literally don't do it.
[00:03:19]  There's no good of it.
[00:03:20]  Sure, if it's like a public figure and you want to tweet them, you go ahead.
[00:03:24]  That's up to you.
[00:03:25]  But I don't want you to do it.
[00:03:28]  Just, I don't know how to stress this firmly enough.
[00:03:32]  And again, I was talking about the store.
[00:03:35]  If you have a problem with Lush, and you may well do, knowing that they had a feminist, like forced feminist t-shirt wearing in one of their stores, if you've got a problem with the Cardiff store, go and complain to the store.
[00:03:48]  Say, look, why are you pushing political agendas?
[00:03:50]  Do that.
[00:03:51]  But don't go after the staff in some sort of vigilante way, because this is exactly the problem that I have, and everyone should have with vigilante justice.
[00:03:59]  It's not justice.
[00:04:01]  It's just you presuming.
[00:04:04]  And you can't do that.
[00:04:05]  And if you sent her a nasty message, you should send her an apology.
[00:04:09]  And this is, I don't, I haven't linked her Twitter or anything like that.
[00:04:13]  I don't know it.
[00:04:14]  I don't even know what her name is.
[00:04:16]  But I don't want people going after her.
[00:04:18]  And she's done nothing wrong.
[00:04:20]  I mean, I didn't write Feminist in Cardiff or like Fat Girl in Cardiff.
[00:04:24]  I wrote Lush and Cardiff for a reason.
[00:04:26]  But I guess, again, it's my fault.
[00:04:28]  I should have been more clear about what my intent was with this picture.
[00:04:33]  Totally my fault.
[00:04:35]  And again, to the lady in the picture, I am I'm honestly sorry that I didn't I didn't think.
[00:04:41]  I really didn't.
[00:04:42]  I was just thinking, oh here we go, another fucking, another fucking chain store all over the country pushing an agenda.
[00:04:49]  For fuck's sake, this shit is everywhere.
[00:04:51]  And so, right.
[00:04:52]  See, feminist t-shirt and Lush and Cardiff from a staff member.
[00:04:56]  Either condoned or forced to wear.
[00:04:58]  You know, it just.
[00:05:00]  I am really sorry.