Boycott: Top Clothing Company Founder Calls Trump, Conservatives Evil
Ever since Donald Trump got elected, Yvon Chouinard has managed to become a minor celebrity among liberals for reasons unknown to God or man.
You might not know who Chouinard is because, well, you probably have better things to do. However, he’s the founder of outdoors clothier Patagonia, a company that has become increasingly known in recent years for its far left political bent.
And we’re not just talking, say, Jerry Brown-style far left here. According to a 2016 New Yorker profile of Chouinard, the “climber and environmentalist” opposed Obama because he felt Obama was too corporatist.
And he’s definitely not a fan of President Trump. “I think we’re seeing the end of empire, the end of globalism. It can’t hold. People will revert: protecting your family, protecting your village. Like the Dark Ages. I honestly believe that,” Chouinard said in the 2016 profile. “Trump is the perfect person to take us to the apocalypse.”
Sounds like a lovely guy. However, if you’re a fan of Donald Trump, he doesn’t quite think you’re so lovely. In fact, Chouinard thinks Trump and his supporters are plain “evil.”
Chouinard made these latest remarks after Trump announced he was greatly reducing one of Barack Obama’s major federal land grabs: the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
As we explained in an earlier piece, the “monument” in question was nothing short of a blatant abuse of the 1906 Antiquities Act, which is why the president traveled to Utah to announce he was slashing the size of the land grab. And that, to Chouinard, is “evil” — along with anyone who is in confederacy with the president on this one.
“I’m going to sue him,” Chouinard told CNN.
“It seems the only thing this administration understands is lawsuits. I think it’s a shame that only 4 percent of American lands are national parks. Costa Rica’s got 10 percent. Chile will now have way more parks than we have. We need more, not less. This government is evil and I’m not going to sit back and let evil win.”
“We’re losing this planet, and we have an evil government,” Chouinard added. “Not just the federal government — the wacko politicians out of Utah and places. I mean, it’s evil.”
“I’m not going to stand back and just let evil win.”
OK, first off, let’s talk about “evil” here. Charles Manson was evil. The apartheid government of South Africa was evil. Idi Amin was evil.
Reducing the size of a “national park” that was actually nothing more than a last-minute land-grab on the part of the Obama administration isn’t evil. Trump isn’t evil. His supporters aren’t evil. If that’s what you think evil actually is, you’re so isolated from the harsh realities of this world that you shouldn’t be commenting on anything to do with good, evil, or how politics and society can influence these things.
As for the lawsuit, good luck. The 1906 Antiquities Act, as The Washington Times notes, “specifically states that they should be limited to the smallest area possible and to protecting specific artifacts or other items of cultural and historical significance.”
Bears Ears consists of 1.35 million acres of land usurped by the federal government and what it was mostly protecting was the “threat” of possible energy exploration, not “specific artifacts or other items of cultural and historical significance.”
“Utah has become ground zero for politically motivated national monument designations that are excessive in size and contemptuous of peoples’ livelihoods,” GOP Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement issued before Trump’s visit, according to the Washington Examiner.
“The president has stood against prior abuses of executive power, and his administration has demonstrated a commitment to work in concert with local communities to protect unique public antiquities and objects the right way.”
That’s apparently “evil” to Mr. Chouinard. Whatever. Given that conservatives tend to like to get out into nature — and liberals aren’t exactly the type to afford his wares — this probably wasn’t the smartest move on his part, especially since calling people evil tends to lead to them boycotting you.
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What are your thoughts on what Yvon Chouinard had to say?
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