The Photo of Protesters at Starbucks Is a Sad but Accurate Representation of Our Times

Doubtless, you’ve seen the picture circulating around Twitter of the protesters at Starbucks yelling at a single barista as he stands there taking it.

https://twitter.com/SunniAndTheCity/status/985856714502262784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fbrettt-3136%2F2018%2F04%2F16%2Fphoto-of-philly-starbucks-protester-with-megaphone-kicks-off-caption-contest%2F

The picture is such a meme-able one that I expect this picture of poor Zack and his misfortune to be seen around the internet for a good long while. For those curious, this is a protest in a Philidelphia Starbucks that arose after two black men were arrested for no other reason than they were sitting in a Starbucks without having purchased anything. Certainly a horrid scenario, but two wrongs and all that.

Like many others, I joined in on the fun of captioning the photo, the best of which can be found on Twitchy here. Thing is, the more I looked at it, the more I realized that this picture is the image of our times much in the same way the Buddhist monk on fire was for the 60’s or the Windows 95 videotape cover with Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston defined the 90’s. Don’t @ me.

The commentary the image gives us is spectacularly accurate of our own times. Here we have a social justice warrior surrounded by his fellows in the angry mob, bullhorn aimed squarely at working man Zack. Zack did nothing wrong, and yet looks on ahead at nothing as he stoically and quietly takes whatever abuse the crowd throws at him despite his innocence.

Zack stays quiet for two reasons. One is that anything uttered out of his mouth will immediately be taken wrongly and will only cause the mob to go into loud hysterics. The second reason is that Zack is a modern man who will take the abuse because society has told him that he deserves it, and in order to be a good guy he must take whatever punishment the mob throws at him. Zack may have not even been present when the two men were arrested, but he shares the blame. That’s what society has told him, and Zack wants to be a good man by society’s current standards.

Zack is innocent, and Zack is at fault.

Je suis Zack.

Not everyone is blessed to be a political/cultural commentator or a frequent reader of the fine opinions my colleagues and I dole out on the regular. A good chunk of the American population — specifically those of the younger variety — don’t understand that those in the mob are the bad guys. They’re bamboozled by the fact that this mob claims their actions are in the name of a social good despite their solutions causing a social ill. They get the initiative by claiming the moral high ground, and those under them don’t realize that what they’re claiming a shallow form of morality.

We can all agree that racism is bad, and shouldn’t be allowed. The social justice warriors claim this too, but their solution isn’t understanding and togetherness. It’s finding a culprit, generating outrage about said culprit, and finding a way to make said culprit a pariah. That culprit can play any part they need it to as well. Corporations, the rich, white people, men, Christians, police, Trump, Pence, guns, NRA, Republicans, or even women if you’re Hillary Clinton.

It doesn’t matter if you fit any or all of these qualifiers. To the social justice mob, we are all sinners. They demand you repent and apologize for your transgressions against their religion’s version of morality, but unlike Christ, the true definer of morality in our western culture, you are not forgiven after your penance. You’re still a pariah, only now you’re a useful one. An example of how the mob is all-powerful and ready to conquer you at any moment.

It doesn’t matter if you did it or not. You still better fall on your knees and swear obedience.

That’s what this mob is doing to Zack, and that’s what this mob does to the rest of the western world. The social justice warrior mob is a plague on society that alters the way society works and businesses function for the worst. Social justice divides us socially and bastardizes the definition of justice. We as a society fear its backlash because the job makers and politicians fear their backlash. People lose jobs, sponsors, and relationships because of the social justice mob.

And so, like Zack, much of America stands stoically and takes the abuse hurled at them from a mob driven by ignorance, spurred on by the fear they produce, and the west is subjugated thereby.

The picture is a perfect representation of our modern times, so much so that it deserves a name. One of my followers came up with something so perfect that it even encapsulates the times even without the photo to accompany it.

The title of this picture is “Guy Who Wasn’t There Yelling at Guy Who Wasn’t There.”