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Since politicians and the media are assiduously avoiding talking about the impeding financial collapse, let’s talk about gay marriage some more!

The latest culturally inescapable development is the ridiculous battle over Chick-fil-A.

On one hand we have the owner of a privately held business who wishes to use his own money to campaign for causes he believes in, and on the other hand we have those who wish to use the violent coercion of the government to force him to stop. This has resulted in a hilarious boycott backfire, where the bullying and demands for intellectual conformity have pissed off that broad, unexamined demographic swath known as “normal people with jobs” to eyepopping degrees.

Now the twist here is, this is totally not about gay marriage. On either side.

The CFA buycott is, I believe, motivated not by distaste for gays, but rather a recoiling against the enforcement of groupthink.

Like we see here:

This fellow was almost instantly fired from his high dollar executive job, as Ace points out, not because he bravely took a stand for gay marriage, but because he’s a bullying douchebag with poor judgement. Note that this guy didn’t chase down a CFA executive or policymaker to haragnue, but instead cornered a young woman with no influence on her employers donations, and who had no choice but to stand there and politely nod. This is not the behavior of someone who wishes to influence the beliefs of others, but rather one who wishes to demonstrate his commitment to the cause. Note the presence of the camera, and how he wanted to record not the employee’s reaction, but his monologue. Much like how Honda couldn’t sell any hybrid Civics, but instead had to redesign the Insight to look like the Prius, very few people are agitating for gay marriage on principle or because they want to get hitched, but rather to publicly fly the progressive flag and claim membership in the tribe.

I’m not saying that the average person who is negative towards gay marriage is consciously aware of this, but people are generally good at sensing a lack of authenticity. When your arguments consist of self righteous insults and bullying, you aren’t going to convince anyone of anything other than that you’re an asshole.

If we are to have gay marriage, then advocates need to make a positive case and answer the critics concerns. If you operate on the assumption that traditional marriage advocates are motivated by hate, ignorance or fear, rather than skepticism, suspicion, and prior negative experiences, then you are doomed to failure. If you do not understand your opponent, then you can never beat him, or convince him.