It seems to me that anyone who can’t see such differences is either dishonestly and willfully blind to them, or is completely ignorant of the two organizations is question. I’ll be charitable and assume that you are merely ignorant, rather than dishonest and willfully blind.
Firstly, the KKK is not an employer in the same sense that CFA is an employer. As alluded to by cmyk in a recent post, it doesn’t even have “low-level employees” in the same way as a fast-food organization does. It is primarily a membership organization, not primarily an employer. In that sense, the two organizations aren’t really comparable.
Connected to this issue, but even more importantly, the KKK is, first and foremost, an ideological organization. It isn’t a chicken-selling or a service-providing organization that happens to be run by someone with an ideological bent. In the case of Chik-Fil-A, its main purpose is to make money by selling a particular product; in the case of the KKK, its ideology is its very raison d’etre. For CFA, the ideology is coincidental to the existence of the company (the guy didn’t decide to sell chicken because he hates queers); for the KKK, the ideology is the only reason for the organization to exist in the first place. For CFA, the product is chicken; for the KKK, the product is ideology.
It should be very clear that someone who “joins” CFA as an employee—especially a low-level service employee, and especially in the period before the company gained nationwide notoriety for its political positions on gay marriage—most likely did so primarily because that person needed to make a living, and CFA happened to be a reasonable way to earn money. I guess it’s vaguely possible that some employees joined the company as a “fuck you” to the gay community, but for the most part i’m willing to bet that a bigger consideration was, “Will this job allow me to pay rent and keep from starving?”
By contrast, people join the KKK precisely and specifically because they subscribe to its ideology. The KKK isn’t well-known as a reliable, nationwide employer with decent hours and good health bennies. It is known as a political organization, and its politics and ideology are precisely what attract people to it. I guess it’s possible that there are a few people working within the KKK who are employed in non-ideological job, and who don’t subscribe to the KKK’s philosophy.
It’s possible, for example, that there’s an accountant who does the KKK’s books, and who works out the organization’s financial affairs without subscribing to its ideology. But if such a person exists, he or she is a small minority within the organization. And, to be honest, if some accountant (or whatever) had to choose between working for the KKK and not having a job, i probably wouldn’t be too critical of him or her making the decision that kept the rent paid and food on the table.
As i said above, CFA is, first and foremost, selling chicken. Its leader is also pushing an ideology, but there is no necessary connection between that ideology and most of the company’s employees. CFA employees end up with the company not because they want to end gay marriage, but because they want to pay their rent. The KKK, on the other hand, is first and foremost selling an ideology. The people who get involved in the KKK are mostly members and supporters, rather than employees, and they are attracted to the organization precisely because of the ideology it is selling.
All of this is precisely why i’m not willing to condemn an employee of Chik-Fil-A (or any other “evil” company) just because they happen to work for said company. Condescending Robot is welcome to characterize me as either a “Christian supremacist” or a “hand-wringing ‘liberal’ who views gays as an annoying obstacle to Obama’s re-election,” but neither pole of that asinine dichotomy describes my position. I simply recognize, in cases like this, that we can draw valid distinctions between the people who set policy at companies like CFA, and people who simply need a paycheck to live. We can also draw valid distinctions between organizations whose prime purpose is business, and organizations whose prime purpose is political ideology, and we make reasonable distinctions between those who get involved in the first type and those who get involved in the second.