In the wake of Donald Trump’s electoral victory over Hillary Clinton, many supporters of the Clinton campaign and sane human beings with respect for the foundations of western democracy are more than a little upset.
Obviously, we’re exaggerating, but emotions really are running pretty high these days, and as as the saying goes, bad people do bad things all the time, while good people do good things when they’re angry.
Sadly, this week has some a lot of good people being motivated by fear and outrage to do some pretty bad things.
To be clear, we’re not talking about the anti-Trump protests that are taking place in cities across the country.
Regardless of your feeling on the election or what kind of effect the demonstrations might have, it’s the right of every American to assemble and have their voice heard.
No, what we’re talking about is instances of Hillary supporters behaving deplorably on social media or abusing their power to take rather un-democratic action in the result of that they view as an unfair outcome.
The most highly-publicized example of the latter reaction came from the CEO of online food-ordering company GrubHub, Matt Maloney.
The day after the election Maloney sent out a company-wide email in which he (rightly) condemned Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and abhorrent campaign promises.
Unfortunately, Maloney then took things a step further and informed his employees that if they disagree his views, he would prefer that they tender their resignations.
“I want to affirm to anyone on our team that is scared or feels personally exposed, that I and everyone here at GrubHub will fight for your dignity and your right to make a better life for yourself and your family here in the United States,” he wrote.
“If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here. We do not tolerate hateful attitudes on our team.”
Not surprisingly, Maloney’s email has sparked a firestorm that may have a lasting impact on the GrubHub brand.
(The company also owns several other popular online-ordering apps such as Seamless.)
Shares of GrubHub stock fell 4% on the day that the news of the email went public.
Maloney hastily issued an apology explaining that his message to employees had been misinterpreted:
“I have no problem with an employee voting for Trump,” he clarified.
“I have no problem with an employee agreeing with Trump’s hateful statements.
“However, I will not tolerate discriminatory activity or hateful speech at GrubHub, and I will stand up for our employees when they are demeaned or defamed.”
Naturally, hundreds have taken to social media to call for boycotts of GrubHub, offering further evidence that we should probably just divide the US up into two separate nations at this point.
We kid, of course.
No death threats in the comments, please!
Besides, we still order pizza and Chinese over the phone like the cranky old codgers that we are.