Three Cheers for Slave Labor!

"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."

— Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead


A bakery in Northern Ireland, Ashers Baking Company, is being harassed by the United Kingdom's "Equality Commission" and "could face legal action" after it "refused to make a gay-themed cake depicting the Sesame Street couple [sic] Bert and Ernie" for the gay-rights group QueerSpace, reports the Guardian newspaper.

Clearly this is the pressing civil rights issue of our time!

Defending the company's decision, General Manager Daniel McArthur said, "The directors and myself looked at [the cake request] and considered it and thought that this order was at odds with our beliefs...and on the following Monday we rang the customer to let him know that we couldn't take his order." They also offered to fully refund the customer.

QueerSpace quickly found another bakery to make its cake.

In a sane world that would have been the end of it. But the folks at QueerSpace are a group of spoiled, hyper-sensitive brats with an overblown sense of their own importance, and a very distorted view of the obligations others have to them in this world.

Sufficiently "victimized", this offended party ran whining to the Equality Commission — where you can bet some people are always more equal than others — demanding that Ashers serve them, whether they like it or not. Hence the nasty letter from Big Brother chastising the company for "discriminat[ing] against the customer on the grounds of his sexual orientation" — and the threat of legal persecution.

Ashers has even refused to do business with people before. McArther actually admits to such — shudder — free-thinking, declaring, without remorse, "In the past, we've declined several orders which have contained pornographic images and offensive, foul language."

Tsk, tsk.

Andrew Muir, Belfast's Nanny-In-Chief, fully supports legal action against the bakery, and certainly doesn't like the idea of people thinking differently from himself. "Businesses should not be able to pick and choose who they serve," he said. Does that include those who can't pay?

Interestingly, gay marriage is illegal in Northern Ireland — so it's okay for the government to choose whom it will serve.

This kind of relationship has existed throughout the history of civilization. When Party A wants a particular service, it is free to ask Party B to perform it. But Party B says, "No thanks — I've got other things I'd rather do with my time and effort" — and Party A takes a big whip and threatens to lash Party B repeatedly if it doesn't reconsider. 

Isn't that how slavery works?

Now, now — I know what you're going to say: Chattel slavery requires more than just involuntary servitude — the enslaved party is not compensated. 

Are "progressives" happy knowing their regime provides merely a difference of degree? That's a hell of a standard to hoist. 

When you compel another person to work for you — as opposed to compelling that person to refrain from obstructing you in your peaceful pursuits, which is a difference of kind — you're not a civil rights champion. You're a thug, backed up by other thugs with badges.

In a free society, people should be free to think whatever they like, to do whatever they like, to live whatever lifestyle they like, without interference, so long as their actions leave others equally free to do the same. It's a terrifying leap from that to making others agree with your lifestyle, thoughts, and acts — whether they like it or not. Freedom also means the freedom to be intolerant. 

"Progressives" are no scions of tolerance — they just hide their authoritarian agenda behind a veil of acceptance. They are tyrants with a smiley face.