Rockstar Energy Drink: Hate in a Can

Whenever you buy a can of Rockstar Energy Drink you're putting money in the pocket of a man who says this about gays:

When you hear "human rights," think only one thing: someone who wants to rape your son. And you'll get it just right.  OK, you got it, right?  When you hear "human rights," think only someone who wants to molest your son, and send you to jail if you defend him.

You'll recognize these words from ultraconservative shock jock Michael Savage, whose real name is Michael Weiner.  (It's easy to see why he adopted a pseudonym.)  Back in 2003, the Savage Weiner was fired from a blessedly brief gig at MSNBC when he told a caller to "get AIDS and die."

Not content with smearing LGBT Americans, Savage sometimes directs his vitriol toward children with disabilities:  You know what autism is?  I'll tell you what autism is.  In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out.  That's what autism is! 

Savage/Weiner is co-founder and part-owner of Rockstar Energy Drink.  His son, Russell Goldencloud Weiner - yes, I said "Goldencloud" - is CEO of the beverage company and architect of a militia-esque group called The Paul Revere Society.  (Russell once warmed up a rock concert crowd by screeching: "Who's heterosexual and proud?  If you're not, hopefully you will be soon.")

Wife and mom Janet Weiner is Chief Financial Officer of Rockstar, keeping it all in the family.  She calls San Francisco a "filthy, drug-ridden vermin city."  (Charming woman.  That faded Courtney Love look is so chic.)       

Michael Jones, Communications Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, writes on Bilerico Project:  Russell Weiner, as CEO of Rockstar, makes a boatload of money off the beverage.  Do you like your money going to a family that champions hate?  Do you want your money going to a man who says that autism is a made up disease?  To a man who says that all LGBT people are sodomites who deserve to get AIDS?  If the answer is no, then don't buy Rockstar Energy Drink.  And if you see a club - especially an LGBT club - serving it, please say something to the management.

Just passing along the message.  Be sure and tell all your friends.

Comments

[Ack-Tar]

So, you condemn something just because one person at the top of the company expresses views you disagree with? Whee, what a tolerant and loving society we live in.

Before you call me "ignorant" or "troll", I know about Michael Savage. Dr. Savage (yes, he has a Ph.D., for what it's worth) is notorious for his incendiary and fiery comments...the political equivalent of Howard Stern, a "shock jock".

I hate energy drinks, so it's not like they'd gain/lose business from me. But get real...not everybody is going to express views you agree with, and to damn someone because you disagree with them is just as bad as the abhorrent views themselves. And it's not like the Weiner family funds a group that aims to stifle rights.

In summary, intolerance is not beaten by further intolerance.

[David]

Gonna buy a can tommorow just to support this fine upstanding family, they just brought it out here in the UK i noticed, but you can all carry on with your "boycott" (not that 99% of you ever drank the shit in the first place)

[Xian]

Yeah, people that drink that stuff should try and experiment with things like coffee, mate, sleeping regularly, or cocaine. Unless you're into audacious amounts of syrupy sweetness and crazy chemicals. But if you do, and you don't support the message, then a good old fashioned, all American boycott is in order. Free speech paired with the free market is like apple pie and baseball. Tell all your friends, let the information spread until it's common knowledge, and then we'll see.

Intolerance of intolerance? Sure, freedom of speech all around. If a company is going to proudly associate with a talk show host that wants a group of consumers to get aids and die, then people have a right to decide if they want to support that product. Will it "beat" intolerance? No, but it could show that intolerance isn't profitable, the same message delivered by the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

I could be wrong, but I bet teens, young men, and truckers are the biggest markets for energy drinks. Regardless of the long trend toward greater tolerance among the youth, there's still just three important factors: The difference between current consumers switching away (-A) and the sum of regular growth (new energy drink consumers who don't know or care about Savage, gay rights, or politics at all) (+G) and competitor's consumers switching to join the emerging "anti-boycott" (+J). -A+G+J= effect of boycott. I think the "anti-boycott" group would be smaller than the boycott group because of conservative demographics tending to older, less "hip" or urban, and too manly to drink anything sissy like an energy drink anyway. Other considerations: people who "game" the system by buying truckloads; people who make purchasing decisions for small stores, events, and vending machines, or wealthy bored conservatives willing to buy a pallet of crap to make a point. There's also the truckers, but my bet is that they're too hard core to switch from whatever's been keeping them awake for the long hauls already.

So, trolls, you can pat yourselves on the back for telling us you're going to buy a can, or you can just actually buy one. Shut up or put up, for science.

[Shannon]

This is actually really funny. I absolutely adore Rockstar, and I'm not planning on stopping.
I'm all for homosexuals and their rights. I know so many gays and lesbians. In fact, my stepdad's daughter and my mom's brother are both homosexual.
But what does this change? I'll be telling all my friends about this article, but it won't make a difference in my book. While so many of you are out there buying crappy Monster and other nastiness, I'll be sticking my reliable 16 oz. of pure fury.
It's like when people that didn't go to the polls complain about the president that has been elected. You can bitch about it when you actually contribute.
I don't care that I'm "feeding hate" because eventually, all discrimination against gays will be seen as ridiculous and unthinkable (like racism is today).
Of course, there will always be some racists and there will always be some homophobics, but, hey, they'll be the minority. And I'm still going to want their yummo yummo energy drink that I think I may be addicted to.

[Paua]

I think you must be addicted to it...

[poop]

who cares