"Stick to beer" has always been bullshit

I filed a column at VinePair last week about how the Trump administration’s deadly siege on the Twin Cities is hurting the beer scene there, and how owners, workers, and union organizers are responding. You can read it here. A lot of people seemed to like it, and some did not. I got a few comments on social media demanding I “stick to beer,” and some paying subscribers here at Fingers canceled their subscriptions. Rare, but not unheard of.

In 15 years of journalism, I’ve heard versions of this complaint many times before. Examples include:

Here’s the thing: “stick to beer” has always been bullshit.

This sort of reactionary chuddishness had been a meme in sports for many years, and last decade, it became one in beer, too. The conservatives (and some centrists) who say it do so to discipline journalists for speaking plainly about what they are seeing and hearing when it’s unfavorable to the right-wing project. One look at the gun-shy corporate media will show you how successful that bad-faith effort has been.

Beer, wine, and liquor are all exceptional in many ways. But they are not exempt from the forces that shape the country. To pretend otherwise is a category error, and people/companies that ignore that reality, do so at their peril. Just ask Anheuser-Busch InBev, which is just now clawing its way back to baseline after sleepwalking into the Bud Light fiasco earlier this decade. Naturally, you never hear these same folks screech when right-wing pander-brands explicitly embrace politics as a marketing strategy. Funny, that.

I’ve never been coy about my approach to journalism. For years, I’ve described Fingers as “an independent newsletter about drinking in America […] about how, what, and why we drink—and the money, power, and politics that shape the answers to those questions.” Put another way: I will never, ever “stick to beer.”

For nearly six years, Fingers has proudly covered the business, culture, and [gasp] politics of drinking in America. With your support, that’s exactly what I plan to continue doing. Thanks for reading.—Dave.