I woke up this morning to piles of the most stupid levels of willful ignorance I have ever encountered.

It's a call to boycott a beloved family-co-op-owned Pacific Northwest brand: Tillamook. A company which is most famous for their cheese, but they make all kinds of dairy products... all of them amazing. Sour cream, yogurt, cream cheese, butter, ice cream, and the like.

And why a boycott?

Was their owner found to be in the Epstein Files 38,000 times? Or tried to incite an insurrection? Or has been found guilty of sexual assault? Or has been credibly accused of sexual assault by numerous women? Has bragged about grabbing and kissing women without consent? Has bragged about going into dressing rooms where women are in various states of undress or are naked? Or has been convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records? Has openly been abusing their position to steal wealth and power from the American people? Has been caught in so many lies that you would be forgiven for thinking that they are incapable of telling the truth?

No? None of that?

Then what? What could it possibly be?

Telling people which of their products are safe for people observing halal? Are you fucking kidding me?

The absurdity here cannot be understated.

Food manufacturers put all kinds of marks on their food products! Non-GMO marks, Gluten-Free marks, Vegan marks, Organic marks, No Corn Syrup marks, No Seed Oils marks, Kosher marks (for observant Jews), and Halal marks (for observant Muslims). And that's just the beginning! There's all kinds of marks for all kinds of people to help them with all kinds of dietary needs and dietary preferences.

And it's not just Jews who use Kosher marks and Muslims who use Halal marks. Many people use them. PEOPLE LIKE ME! Kosher Pareve marks tell vegetarians and vegans that the food contains no dairy, meat, or poultry. Halal marks tell people that the facility producing the food adheres to strict cleanliness standards. If you don't care about that kind of thing, THEN JUST IGNORE THE FUCKING MARKS, LIKE I IGNORE NON-GMO MARKS!

For non-Muslims, Halal marks on Tillamook cheese merely says that the facility is clean and free of disease, and if the cheese contains rennet that the animal from which it came was killed by a Muslim in a humane, clean way with all effort made to keep the animal calm and free of distress. And, oh yeah, the Muslim doing the slaughter must kill the animal while saying "Bismillah, Allahu Akbar"... which means "In the name of Allah, Allah is the Greatest." Which is the same idea as Christians offering prayer and thanks to Almighty God before eating a meal. It's a "God is good, God is great, let us thank him for our food" kinda thing.

That's it.

Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Adonai, Elohim... just different names from different faiths and cultures for the same God of Abraham. And for the offended Christians out there: in Islam, Jesus is a major prophet, the Messiah, and considered a messenger of God. So your Savior is revered and respected in the Islamic faith as well.

So let's sum up the ritualistic slaughter of animals for it to be Halal, shall we? The kill is made in the name of God in a humane way, since God is merciful and is the only one who should take a life, then they say "God is the greatest."

Yeah, totally boycott that.

If you're an ignorant Islamophobe.

As for me?

I don't eat a ton of dairy any more, but when I do I support a local, farming-family-co-op-owned business with the highest possible quality standards who wants to help people find products suitable for their diet.

Whatever that diet may be.