Why He Terrifies Me: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Blames the Victims

By Stephen Ryan

Last Christmas season, Starbucks CEO sought to protect Americans from  the potentially offensive – even “dangerous” images of snowflakes and reindeer.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is back  again – like Batman – swooping  in to  protect us from ourselves.  This time  Howard “Batman” Schultz is warning Americans that we can’t make up our own minds about the election, that we cannot be trusted and that we should listen to his fatherly advice.

Mr. Schultz says:

Voters are embracing “fool’s gold.”

Politicians have failed the country.

There are moments when I’ve had a hard time recognizing who we are and who we are becoming.

The presidential election will be a test of Americans’ morality.

Enough already, Mr. Schultz.

I have a real problem with a businessman who feels obligated to tell me I should have better manners.  I love Starbucks coffee but I may need to rethink my loyalties because of the potentially disturbing culture Mr. Schultz is trying to create.

Let’s  begin with the fact the man is a total suffocating bore.

We buy his coffee because it is really good, but let’s be honest: we go into the store because there are usually interesting people in line who are often engaged in stimulating conversations.  Coffee and interesting conversation are like pants and a shirt – the whole thing works best when they are combined.

I enjoy having coffee with friends who want to engage in animated, dynamic, conversation. We want to share our thoughts and views. We want intellectual stimulation. However, if we listen to the Starbucks CEO closely it seems he wants us to do nothing more than sing “The wheels on the bus go round and round”  and embrace the great philosophical words of Rodney King  who asked the world “Can’t we just all get along?”  Schultz  really does not want us to have opinions that differ from his.

Howard Schultz has clearly spent waaaaayy too much time in training sessions with his employees. Starbucks workers are fantastic “employees.” They are polite, energetic and always aim to please, but then so are trained seals.

I have to believe there may be no company in America that so resembles the dystopian world of  “1984”  with its carefully mandated  mindspeak.

But here is the real problem I have with all of this: Howard Schultz is blaming the victim, the American people,  when the real root cause of  the “division” in the United States is the mainstream media. Nobody watches CNN or Fox of MSNBC unless somebody is yelling or they are talking about Donald Trump and THEY know it.

It is almost now unwatchable having to see Anderson Cooper  drone on about the “dangers” of Donald Trump, pretending he really wants to talk about something else.  Go head, Anderson Cooper, start talking about the water in Flint Michigan.  TV is a business that, like the newspaper industry, is getting crushed by the Internet. CNN has no choice but to talk about Trump. The great irony is Trump is CNN’s lifeboat to profits and sustainability.

Howard Schultz warns Americans (he is warning you and me because we need his  brilliant insights) that the country is witnessing the decline of America politics. The inconvenient truth is politicians, back in the day, used to  shoot each other.

Things are not nearly is bad as Chicken Little Howard Schultz thinks they are.

The Starbucks CEO should listen to what Obama had to say in a speech and maybe he will feel better about his country.

President Obama said (paraphrasing) “Today we have two Cuban Americans running for president in the Republican Party, who are seeking the office that is currently headed by a Black American. And to win the presidency they are going to have to beat a woman or a 74 year-old Jewish socialist. We’ve come along way from the 1950s”

Howard Schultz should  have a little more faith in the American people.  Keep making your great coffee. Mr Schultz and stop telling me what to do.