SO, RIGHT-WINGERS, A BOYCOTT OF MARKS & SPENCER WOULD BE FASCISM TOO, WOULDN'T IT?

There are threats of retaliation against British retailer Marks & Spencer for this new policy:

Furious M&S customers threatened to boycott the store last night for allowing Muslim checkout staff to refuse to serve customers who want to pay for alcohol or pork.

Managers at a London store told the workers they could ask any shoppers trying to buy the items to wait until a different till was available, it emerged yesterday.

One shopper said: 'I had one bottle of champagne, and the lady, who was wearing a headscarf, was very apologetic but said she could not serve me. She told me to wait until another member of staff was available....

Customer Matt Syson wrote: ... 'My family and I shall no longer purchase any goods from your company due to the implementation of this “one rule system” that creates further division and hatred within our communities.' ...

But wait: it's utterly wrong for people who are offended by this policy to retaliate in a way that threatens Marks & Spencer's livelihood, isn't it? Haven't we just spent the last few days being told by conservatives that that sort of retaliation is fascism, because people have absolute freedom to offend you, while you have no right to respond?

Weren't we told that suspending a millionaire TV actor who said insulting things about gay, black, and Japanese people is "totalitarian" and comparable to the worst Soviet abuses? Haven't we been informed that going on social media to mock a racist tweet about AIDS from Justine Sacco, a high-level public relations executive (who's since been fired), amounts to an "online assassination"?

So a boycott of Marks & Spencer would be just as horrible ... wouldn't it, right-wingers?

Whoops! Guess not. Jihad Watch is incensed at M&S, not at the boycotters. So are the Freepers and the Lucianners.

I would tell this company to pound sand.

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Me, I'd never be a customer there again.

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I hope they lose all their non-Muzzie customers

I actually oppose M&S's policy myself -- I think it's best to employ people, of whatever faith, who are willing to do all of what a job requires. I wouldn't hire a devout Catholic who categorically opposes divorce for a law practice that does a lot of divorce work. I've said in the past that Muslim cabdrivers who won't drive people who've been drinking perhaps should be in some other line of work.

As for a response, I think if you don't like M&S's policy, you're perfectly free to take your business elsewhere (many of M&S's competitors are not following suit) -- but I'm also not upset at how GLAAD and A&E and a lot of other critics have responded to Phil Robertson. And given that that public relations person's job is, y'know, public relations, I'm not upset that she faced consequences either.

I feel this way about retaliation I disagree with. I thought the Dixie Chicks boycott was vicious and wrong, but it was within wingers' rights to do it. Same for any boycott of A&E now by the right. If your work primarily involves dealing with the public -- as is the case for M&S, Justine Sacco, and both Pil Robertson and A&E -- that's a risk.

Maybe some of the outrage should be dialed down a bit. But it's not fascism. And it's definitely not fascism only when the other side does it.