The Beer is Making The Frogs Gay! Was Alex Jones right? NOT clickbait
Archived from Apr 20, 2023:
No, of course Alex Jones isn’t right. But unfortunately, for the last week I have been subjected to a slew of videos, articles, tweets and what have you, that would make you think so. I do not know if Alex Jones, infamous, supposedly bankrupt school shooting conspiracy theorist and overall lout, has made a comment about the whole Bud Light kerfuffle and I will make no effort to find out. I would argue, though, that his highly emotional delivery of seemingly every thought he has and general nonsensical interpretation of reality is a good mascot for the behaviour of other right wing pundits throwing tantrums all over Twitter this week.
A quick recap: a trans creator named Dylan Mulvaney was gifted a small box of Bud Light, with one custom can including her likeness. This can design is not available for purchase. She posted a video that made a March Madness joke and noted Bud sent her the gift to celebrate her one year anniversary since transitioning. Good for her, right? Well, not for a very specific subsect of people, including celebrities, with little sense of self outside the brands they consume. There has been a slew of videos of people tossing out beer they already spent money on, swearing up and down they’re only going to drink Coors while completely missing the irony, purchasing other Anheuser-Busch products without missing a beat. Hell, they’re purchasing Bud Light they didn’t already have with the intent of destroying it. My personal favourite/least favourite is some…guy going so far as to apparently establish a brewery and make a commercial I genuinely thought was satire. It’s 35USD for a 6 pack, before shipping, for the record.
This whole absurd media circus touches on a lot of things I think about: consumption, boycotts, outlandish and misplaced outrage, oppression, monopolies, the corporatization of queer liberation, and obviously, beer. I have consistently worked in breweries or craft beer heavy bars since 2016, and let me tell you, there sure are some problems with beer. Making the effort to include trans people, and making them feel safe is not one of them. I would actually go so far as to argue that a lot of breweries still don’t feel like spaces anyone other than cis white men are allowed to be without being condescended to, at best. As a staff member I have been challenged on the beers I made, never mind the lewd comments or literally being grabbed by people I’m serving. It’s certainly not going to be a walk in the park for customers either, especially if they don’t feel like the staff will have their back.
Let me be clear: the brewery I work at is marvelous. My bosses are respectful and we attract a diverse and nerdy clientele I have had the joy of serving over the past 4 years, but it has not escaped my notice that our printed, posted zero tolerance bullying and discrimination policy is something that would make certain people very, very upset. It has been up since the brewery opened, almost 7 years ago, and has included transphobia since day 1. I sometimes think of it as a talisman against the creeps. Now, not that any of these grown men getting arrested for trashing beer in a Walmart and exposing themselves to minors would know it, but there actually has been a reckoning of sorts in the craft beer world. In May, 2021, Brienne Allan, head brewer and production manager at Notch Brewing in Salem, Massachusetts, opened the floodgates of accounts of harassment and violence in the craft beer industry. Hundreds and hundreds of stories were shared from staff and customers from breweries across the globe, highlighting how rampant this sexism and racism is across breweries, big and small. Funny how anti-Bud Light crusaders didn’t even notice that happening. It feels incredibly small and pathetic to me, watching these (largely men) have such overblown tantrums over a TikTok when I know so many women who have stayed working in beer despite the abuse because they love working with and in beer so much.
The tantrums and sheer waste only become more eye roll inducing when you realise that none of these people understand just how centralized the beer industry is, nor it’s long history of trying to attract demographics other than blue collar men typically associated to mediocre American light beer. In 2021, Anheuser-Busch was estimated to have just shy of half the beer market in the United States, across their 11 main brands. As far as I can tell, these numbers don’t include their craft partner, taking that total over 30 brands. If you are trying to avoid their products in a store, your choices will probably be almost halved. Coors, notably, has been running Pride ads since the 80s, and most other large beer companies like Heineken make branding for Pride as well. Thanks to Allan of Notch Brewing, turning to craft beer will increasingly be laden with rainbow flags and inclusivity statements, actual action notwithstanding. This performativity is also something I find ridiculous about the whole situation; taking a moment to look into Anheuser-Busch’s donation history will reveal that not even 2 years ago, the Stonewall Inn, famed New York gay bar and site of the Stonewall Riots, refused to sell their beer during Pride, criticizing the company’s donations to explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ legislators. Not only do these tantrums speak to the sheer reactivity and seeming emotional instability of many of these people, making snap decisions based on a single creator’s collaboration, but also this really fascinating trend of Americans seeming to forget other countries exist. If you spend enough time online, you will increasingly notice comments of baffled Americans asking almost absurd questions about languages, laws and frequently insisting things cannot be true because it isn’t true in the US. While I recognise this is certainly not every American, I can’t help but feel like the Venn diagram of people who throw out beer they already bought and people who forget other countries exist is probably, roughly, a circle. While North America is a huge part of Anheuser-Busch’s profits, Central America actually matches the profit bracket of 6.1 billion dollars in 2022, making North America (including Canada!) about a third of AB’s profits. A large sum, for sure, but very far from the totality. All of the ruckus also has yet to be reflected in stock prices, across the board. As far as I can tell, the only real thing that these outbursts have accomplished is even more people know who Dylan Mulvaney is. Not only that, but boycotts, for the most part, are just free marketing for the company being boycotted, particularly in a time of such short cultural memory. I will be deeply unsurprised if I, god forbid it, see Kid Rock shilling Bud in six months’ time.
As much as I would like to talk about the fascinating performance of boycotting things on the right, it will have to wait. There are a lot more things I’ve been thinking about regarding this, it’s actually the most time I have ever spent thinking about Bud Light, but this was getting very long already so there will be a part two.
Bonus explanation of the title if you don’t get it:
First, congratulations, I wish I didn’t know as much about Alex Jones as I do. Second, he’s a nightmare of a man who touts conspiracy theories and violence on his talk show, Info Wars. It is worth noting, current, bankrupt and criminal Alex Jones is far more extreme and cartoonish than he once was, meaning he dragged a lot of his listeners down the rabbit hole with him. Anyway, he once said, and I quote
“I DON'T LIKE ‘EM PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE WATER THAT TURN THE FRIGGIN’ FROGS GAY!”
You know, very normal stuff. The general ridiculousness of the statement pretty quickly became a meme and an expression of the moon logic so often used in right wing conspiracies and here we are now. Gay beer, gay frogs, what’s next? Stay tuned to find out, I guess!
