Rantz: Seattle activists boycott Etsy over satirical ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ merch

Seattle Indivisible has officially entered the cancel culture sweepstakes, this time setting its sights on novelty t-shirts and hats. Yes, while crime skyrockets and homelessness festers on Seattle’s streets, the activist group is laser-focused on demanding that Etsy, an online craft marketplace, ban “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise.

In its “official daily action” email, the far-left group urged members to sign not one, but two petitions, demanding Etsy refuse to sell hats, stickers, and clothing that feature alligators in ICE uniforms, vacation-style Florida Everglades themes, and other satirical designs. Their reasoning? They say it “glorifies” the detention of illegal immigrants and constitutes an “affront to human decency.”

“Online retailer Etsy is selling numerous offensive hats, stickers, and clothing that promote the dehumanization of our immigrants being caged at Alligator Alcatraz,” Seattle Indivisible wrote. “It’s not funny or clever.”

A t-shirt crisis!

Apparently, the group believes a cartoon alligator in an ICE vest is tantamount to a constitutional crisis.

The call-to-action doesn’t stop there. Members are told to pledge a boycott of Etsy until the merchandise is removed, because nothing says “grassroots activism” like making sure a company that sells homemade candles, crochet cat sweaters, and friendship bracelets faces economic ruin over a satirical t-shirt.

The rhetoric, predictably, is as overwrought as it is humorless.

This is what cancel culture has become: organized mobs wasting their time demanding censorship of products that don’t fit their worldview. To be clear, you can dislike the joke. You can find the parody distasteful. But only in Seattle progressive circles does a joke t-shirt morph into a moral crisis requiring boycotts and petitions.

Free advertising

Ironically, their campaign may have backfired. As Seattle Indivisible notes, the merchandise is selling just fine — despite the supposed backlash last month. “Note: One article said that searching for Alligator Alcatraz on Etsy wouldn’t work – that is wrong, it works all too well,” they warned. In other words, their campaign gave it free advertising.

At a time when Seattle families are worried about fentanyl deaths, car thefts, and open-air encampments, Seattle Indivisible is rallying its base to protect us from Etsy sellers with a sense of humor. It’s a case study in how unserious activists have become.

Maybe if they put half this effort into demanding accountability for failed public safety policies, Seattle wouldn’t be in crisis. But then again, stopping crime isn’t nearly as easy as flooding Etsy with angry form letters about cartoon alligators.

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