All this over a bacon sign...

[alogram]

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessag...internet-storm

[AnaKhouri]

Goodness. What does this woman do when she goes to the grocery store and sees REAL bacon? Does she demand the store take it all away and hide it?

I don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent for religious reasons, but I'm not going to demand Arby's hide their Meat Stack signs so I don't have to look at them when I drive past.

[XCashier]

Some folks just aren't satisfied unless they're causing drama.

[taxguykarl]

Right about that, XCashier, there are others who must wake up each morning and ask: What can I get offended about today?

[Jetfire]

While the woman who posted asking for its removal in the first place was oversensitive; IMO it's the ones who are reacting to HER that have gone way past acceptable behavior.

The old adage goes "It never hurts to ask," which is what the first woman did.

The store could (and possibly did) post a reply akin to "While we respect your concerns, we do not see a need to remove the sign." and left it as it was.

That should have been it. (And had the woman started a crusade to remove the sign from that point, she would have really gone into the wrong)

But the Internet Tough Guys as usual ramped it up to eleven-hundred and turned it into a personal crusade against her and against the Bistro, leading to the Online mess it's turned into. *sigh*

[Titi]

The store could (and possibly did) post a reply akin to "While we respect your concerns, we do not see a need to remove the sign." and left it as it was.

But the store DIDN'T do that! They apologized to the ONE PERSON who complained and removed the offensive sign. That is what got people upset. Yes, there were some Internet Tough Guys who took it too far, but most were angry wondering about why do stores keep pandering to the one complainer who is offended instead of doing what you thought the store did (saying we see no need to remove the sign) and pleasing the people who liked the sign and got a smile out of it.

[Kaylyn]

Right about that, XCashier, there are others who must wake up each morning and ask: What can I get offended about today?

This is like the entirety of the population of Tumblr.

[Jetfire]

But the store DIDN'T do that! They apologized to the ONE PERSON who complained and removed the offensive sign. That is what got people upset. Yes, there were some Internet Tough Guys who took it too far, but most were angry wondering about why do stores keep pandering to the one complainer who is offended instead of doing what you thought the store did (saying we see no need to remove the sign) and pleasing the people who liked the sign and got a smile out of it.

They did it after a couple of days of discussion:

For a couple days, a largely respectful debate ensued on the online forum page, with some posters saying the complainer was being overly sensitive.

After which the business did decide to take it down; which is also within the store's rights as well.

Was it the right decision? Who knows; maybe they just didn't want to get into it any further one way or another and figured that would just take it out.

Regardless, the online explosion that happened afterwards is, quite frankly, unacceptable.

[LillFilly]

This is from my home state; I couldn't believe it! And the poor restaurant is darned if it does, darned if it doesn't. Don't move the sign, you're insensitive; move it, and you're letting the terrorists win. Blah blah blah. Though and article I read on this said the restaurant thought the sidewalk was cluttered with the sign anyway so it kind of made sense to move it.

Right though; wonder how often bacon woman flips out on other people insulting her beliefs...

I hate that people are going on anti-muslim rants about it, saying 'we're americans!' Errm, yes well, muslims can be american too, along with hundreds of other religions...

[Chromatix]

She'll be trying to get hand-dryers banned next:

[Sapphire Silk]

This is a classic example of the Streisand Effect.

Sign lady makes a complaint that is flat out ridiculous.

The backlash is overwhelming.

Usually the backlash is at least reasoned. In this case the backlash is well truly off the deep end.

The lesson: pick your battles, people.

[Cia]

If she hadn't seen a need to let everyone know her religion this would've blown over. I don't understand this need to say what your religion is be it Muslim, Catholic, Mormon, Christian in general and etc. Your religion isn't germane to the fact you have a problem with delicious bacon so suck it up and leave it out.