When the latest brouhaha blew up over Black Rifle Coffee’s CEO allegedly insulting conservatives and right-wingers, I was immediately suspicious. It was too perfect, too neatly packaged, as if someone had taken the time and trouble to wrap everything up and present it just so, in a way that even the dumbest redneck or “bitter clinger” would have to believe.
Turns out I was right to be suspicious.
Black Rifle Coffee’s founder and CEO has spoken out and is disputing how his comments were presented by the New York Times and represented by those reacting to the article, who were led to believe that Black Rifle Coffee bashed conservatives.
Evan Hafer decided to set the record straight regarding the “significant amount of misinformation being put out on the internet” about Black Rifle Coffee and about statements that he has made.
Hafer quickly debunked the notion that he made derogatory remarks about BRCC’s customers or conservatives and then proceeded to explain how the New York Times deliberately twisted his words and took them out of context. According to Hafer, his conversation with the NYT Magazine reporter was in the context of racism and anti-Semitism in America in light of Hafer being the target of an organized attack last year because of “my last name and my heritage.”
“We were purely discussing that,” Hafer says, and he was not conflating those groups with conservatives.
“The New York Times, as we know, the chances of them being objective were fairly slim, but we gave them the opportunity,” he added. He went on to mention veterans issues he hoped to bring attention to. But, unfortunately, the New York Times chose to go with “the salacious headline” about the company instead.
Hafer reiterated that racists and anti-Semites have no place in his company.
“I really need you guys to get the facts straight on this, which is: There’s no chance in hell I’m gonna talk s–t about conservatives to the New York Times. It’s just not gonna happen.”
There’s more at the link, including a ten-minute video interview. A longer, half-hour video interview is available here, going into more detail.
Stephen Kruiser finds Mr. Hafer guilty of abysmal stupidity by exposing himself to such misinterpretation. It’s hard to disagree.
As a committed skeptic, it’s not unusual for me to think that Hafer might merely be a bull-you-know-what artist who has been lying and using conservatives just to make money. However, I have conservative friends who rep Black Rifle so I’d like to give the company and Hafer the benefit of the doubt.
If I do that, I have no choice but to believe that Hafer is a straight-up paste-eating moron.
How long do the mainstream media hacks have to keep exposing themselves as frothing-at-the-mouth haters of conservatives before conservatives get it? If Hafer truly thought that the Times was going to give him a fair shake and that this would be a good marketing opportunity, then he’s too monumentally stupid to be around anything that isn’t toddler-proofed. It’s like walking into a biker bar while wearing a tuxedo and being surprised you got your a** kicked after you called all of them wusses. It’s just super easy to predict how some things are going to work out.
Conservatives shouldn’t be treating The New York Times and its ilk with any kind of courtesy. Unless you want to be a turncoat, it’s not going to work out well for you. Don’t hang out with an enemy who spends all day pointing a knife at you then turn away and act surprised when you get stabbed in the back.
And here’s the most important lesson for conservatives: don’t pull the knife out, hand it back to your enemy, then turn away again.
Again, more at the link.
Mr. Hafer was undoubtedly stupid to believe that any progressive left-wing media outlet like the New York Times could be trusted for even a moment to provide an unbiased, accurate, unfiltered reflection of his views and beliefs. As Vox Day has said many times, don’t talk to the media.
No matter how smart you are, no matter how nice and sympathetic the reporter seems, no matter how interesting your side of the story is, never forget that the deck is completely stacked against you.
. . .
Don’t talk to the media. The story is already written. Even those who are ex-media experts … only talk to the media in very rare and particular circumstances when we know we can undermine the pre-written story. But most people haven’t worked in media for over a decade … and therefore have no idea what the pre-written story is or how it can be, in certain circumstances, undermined.
UPDATE: To be clear, Do Not Talk To The Media also means Do Not Respond To Media Requests. Don’t politely decline. Don’t obscenely decline. Don’t write a wall of text explaining your Very Important Personal Media Policy. Ignore it and delete the email, because they can and will attempt to use anything you send them.
I’ll go on buying Black Rifle coffee . . . but I might have to write and tell Mr. Hafer that’s on condition he and his fellow executives don’t give any more such interviews! Our side doesn’t need to go around shooting itself and its allies in the feet. The enemy is more than willing to do that already. Why provide them with ammunition?
Peter
One is rather reminded of Trump supposedly saying that white supremacists were very fine people when one reads the conservative outrage machine's take on Mr. Haber's remarks.
Some people just desperately want to be offended.
No sale, Peter.
There's too much smoke at Coffee Of Color to think there's no fire, and that they were "misquoted".
They outted themselves, plain and simple.
That doesn't mean there are no conservatives working for them. The trade name for them is "suckers".
But it does mean the CEO pulled the mask off a bit, and the backlash is probably going to gut them.
When your only options for excuse are stupidity at the level of fungal infections, or evil, Occam's Razor says that you don't become a multi-millionaire by being fungus-stupid.
And bear in mind, neither being fungus-stupid nor evil are mutually exclusive.
I'm betting on both being true.
Because if you're that stupid, how can you try to argue that you didn't stupidly tell the truth, rather than stupidly get misqouted?!?
Counter-argument to that hypothesis has been kneecapped by the currently-operative cover story du jour.
How unfortunate.
They did this. They said this. They own this.
QED
They do have a way out:
Full-throated support that Biden is a fraud, and vocal strident opposition to everything the DemoCommunists propose. Put their mouth where their mouth is. And back it up with cash.
In a way that would get them blackballed from most media, like Mike Lindell.
If they aren't that anti-woke, they're Chick-Fil-A and the Boy Scouts.
i.e. dead to us
Gotta agree with Aesop. I know bullshit when I hear it.
If you're going to be interviewed, make SURE you also record the interview!!! Sigh
cannot disagree with Aesop, particularly following "They do have a way out:"
either they find their testicular fortitude or they stay outta my percolator.
there are just too many drinkable coffees around that stay out of politics.
Well, yeah, expecting any reporter, especially a New Hork Slimes reporter, to actually report the truth was stupid. To not record the interview for self-protection, even more stupid. For wearing some pansy-looking man-bun outfit for a supposedly conservative company, even more more stupid.
And then, once the conservidiots (idiots on the conservative side) got pissed and did some digging, to find out that the company as a whole and the top executive specifically donated far more money to leftist politicians than to middle-of-the-road or conservative politicians, well, duh.
As to snob appeal for coffee, surprisingly the best coffee I've ever had still comes from a corner convenience store. Where the coffee doesn't taste burnt and is tossed out before it goes acid. So suck it, expensive coffee people and stupid Keurig machines. And I save money, too. When I drink coffee, that is.
Want to be seen as conservative? Simple steps.
1. Don't get interviewed by the eneMedia.
2. If you must, video and post the interview before they print it.
3. Don't support leftist politicians over conservative politicians.
4. Don't act conservative. Be conservative.
Simple rules. Easy to follow. Break one and you're stupid. Break 2 and you're really stupid. Three or more and you're the enemy.
They were invested in by a known left wing fund, this is not the first time Evan has done this, they are taking sides in the culture war because they think the left is the strong horse. CYA maneuvering aside, it was a business decision to widen the appeal of BRC it may still work, they can trade one customer base for another, although they will need to change the name.
I'm siding with Aesop. I smell large quantities of the stuff found on the ground behind male bovines.
Even if that's not the case – and I believe it IS the case – that he trusted the New York Times to even the slightest and smallest degree indicates that he's just not smart enough to be trusted to run a company. Each individual must make his or her own choice, but spending money with that company is supporting someone who disrespects the people buying his products.
The "Main Stream Media" is composed entirely of anti-American, anti-conservative, lying, cheating, thieving liars. They cannot – absolutely cannot – be trusted in any way, shape, form or degree to be the slightest bit honest or truthful. They are all-in for the Marxist, Socialist, Communist Left.
Peter has the right idea – if they call, hang up the phone immediately. If they email, delete it immediately. If they show up at your door call cops to arrest them for trespassing. Make sure your employees – ALL of them – understand that speaking to any media about anything even slightly related to the company is grounds for immediate dismissal, that only the designated public information contact is authorized to have any degree of contact with any media. Period.
Hafer and Best trying to straddle the fence. In this day and age they should have known that they would be misquoted and taken out of context. Should have had a video recording of the interview ready to be published the minute the paper was published. Should have been ready with the PR to counter the claims made instead of waiting a day or two.
Hafer said in his Instagram video there is no place for racists in the company and then talks about having a rifle-toting image of St Michael hanging in the art department, but won't use it as the DOD/Pentagon says it's a white supremacy image. So Hafer needs to make up his mind, if you are going by the DOD and it's on your wall, you are a racist, or it's not and you should go ahead and brand it on one of your coffee blends.
Questions being studiously ignored in all this sturm und drang; did Evan Hafer defame Kyle Rittenhouse or not? Did Hafer intentionally try to influence any future jury deliberations regarding Rittenhouse's guilt or innocence?
I get that BRCC doesn't appreciate having its name/logo drawn into these events, but their response as reported is entirely the wrong way to handle the circumstance (which inevitably reflects upon the company as well).
I've liked the BRCC products I've tried, but I think I'll continue to enjoy Yuban as my go-to morning brew. However South American, they at least are not Un-American.
Switch to Crigler Coffee: https://criglercoffee.com/
Adam Crigler is a longhaired hippie skateboarder-guitarist, but became a genuine patriot and conservative last year. Check out The Crigler Show on Youtube five days a week.
I was a "citizen journalist" for 5 years, so I am familiar with how they operate.
The key point is not "do not talk to the media," it is "no matter how smart you think you are, they will do whatever they want." They rely on the vanity, egotism, or fear of the persons they encounter to compel them to provide quotations for the media to use as they wish.
The correct answer is always to totally ignore them (as a bonus, it drives them crazy)!
Bull. Aesop has the right of it. They're so full of it it's coming out their ears.
They rejected a coffee styled after frigging Saint Michael the archangel because the ADL said his imagery was used by white supremacists. Anyone who listens to the Always Defending pedophiles League deserves everything that they get.
I have not tried their coffee. I like my Gevalia French Roast very well. And I haven't been swayed by them wrapping themselves up in the flag for their promotions. Like I don't like financial advisors who solicit clients by talking about "investing like Jesus wants me to".
And the Old NFO is utterly right. If the BRC guy didn't make his own tapes of the interview he is a darned moron. If he had tapes to back up his denials, where are they? Wouldn't he have them all over the internet by now?
Peter, I might reference your more recent article on "They will not stop until they are stopped" as an example. If they cannot completely either admit they made a huge error publicly (buying a page in the New York Times to apologize might be a start) without trying to justify it, this sort of behavior is enabled.
Even I, who hate any kind of conflict at all, am coming to the place where my ability to cut slack is very thin indeed.
BRC are grifters that wrapped themselves in flags and guns as a marketing gimmick. But if you follow the money, it stinks of leftist funding and ActBlue donations.
At least they have not yet molested children like the Lincoln Project… that we know.
ALWAYS record your complete interview. I think they taught us that on Day 1.
That stops the he said she said bull stuffing.
You would be surprised how many request for interview get stopped before they even get started.
Recording the interview is a not effective at all. Unless you have a more followers than the people interviewing you their version will get lots of views and your version containing the truth will be ignored.
The only defense against being misquoted in a interview is to not do any interviews.
George – True perhaps, but at least one would have the evidence to produce directly instead of interpreting what the questions sounded like and what the answer was (versus what it was reported as).
But, as you point out, the only fail safe method is to do no interviews at all.
George,
Bless your heart.
But y'see, BRCC regularly puts out YouTube videos that garner up to 10,000,000 hits, and their YouTube channel has 825,000 subscribers worldwide.
The actual NYTimes newspaper reports 3M subscribers, overwhelmingly mainly in NYFC.
So any message BRCC put out, would get out.
And when other news organizations saw a chance to stick it to the Grey Lady, BRCC's video would go viral in about a New York minute, if they actually were misquoted.
But they weren't, which is why you aren't seeing that video now.
In fact, BRCC is so upset, they linked to the NYT interview in question on their own site, without comment.
That's the moral equivalent of going out with the rapist on a second date.
The posers doth protest too much.
They outted themselves and their Leftarded core beliefs.
QED
I don't see them selling Commie Piss Coffee very successfully, something their accountants are about to explain to them at the next quarterly board meeting.
Makes no never mind in my house.
Q) What do BRCC and Starbucks have in common?
A) I cant afford either of them.
Plus, the ONE time I tried Starbucks, it was the nastiest cup I'd ever had. Nuff said….
Other people have been researching the CEO’s politics.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/BRCC-Black-Rifle-Coffee-Company-Bends-The-Knee-Updated-23NOV-1400hrs-/5-2394381/
47 pages.
He liked tweets anti Kyle Rittenhouse:
Donated to Act Blue and Obama
Said anti Trump stuff on a podcast with David Frum
And their social media is managed by Act blue Alumni
And they are trying to go public, so they are trying to expand their market. And they are venture capitol funded.
Sounds like The NY Times article is accurate.
And the CEO is in full damage mode, because he just found out his customer base has different politics than him.