I just saw a Best Buy commercial where they referred to their employees as ‘Blue Shirts’. (I didn’t find the specific one; just linking examples of the campaign.)
I heard of ‘Blueshirts’ in The Pogues’ The Boys From The County Hell.
So to me, Best Buy is calling back the Blueshirts. Their leader ‘was an admirer of Benito Mussolini, and the Blueshirts adopted corporatism as their chief political aim.’ Also, ‘[s]ome of its members would go on to aid the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War.’
So now, when I think of Best Buy, I’ll always think of Fascists.
I don’t buy anything from Best Buy. My last three or four times trying to buy an advertised item there ended in failure due to the bait and switch corporate philosophy. I haven’t been in a BB store for years.
I have no love for Best Buy. Never thought they were worth much as a source. But at least they don’t refer to their employees as “Red Shirts”. (He’s dead, Jim.)
Yeah, with online shopping (and Amazon Prime) there’s really no reason to set foot into a Best Buy unless you need something right fucking now. I’ve been there once in the last 5 years, for an HDMI cable emergency (we prefer to use Monoprice).
So Target are commies (and/or expendable), Starbucks are Hungarian fascists (or see below, or greenaprons)? Home Depot employees are [del]Irish[/del] Northern Ireland British loyalists? I can’t feel safe anywhere now!
O’Duffy also did the greenshirts, but they were less popular.
My main reason to go to Best Buy is when I get a gift card. Or if you need to test whether some part is bad and take advantage of the return policy, which is a much bigger pain with Amazon/Newegg. Otherwise, no.
They’ve referred to their retail employees as Blueshirts for at least twenty years. I doubt they get the ties to fascism, or care since very few of their customers or employees would either.
That is a bit of a stretch. The Irish blueshirts lasted less than 2 years in the 1930s. It’s a minor piece of history even in Ireland let alone the US.
Group Health’s IT people are called Blue Shirts- or were, when we rolled out EPIC a little more than a decade ago. Now they just send emails ;). Doubt fascism there from all of us tofu fartin’ hippies (quote from right wing gun nut neighbor)
