The Cracker Barrel controversy is only tangentially about politics or "wokeness"

I know people are not going to want to hear this because they're stirred up, and I'll probably get downvoted all to hell but I don't give a s**t.

And I will concede that there is no doubt ... none ... about where that geeky looking CEO swings politically.

But this is more about the compulsion of marketing people to chase the young like a bum in the gutter in the Bowery in NYC chases Ripple or crack more than anything else.

You can tell by my posting handle I used to work in newspapers. I managed by having out of body experiences and swallowing my tongue and pride to make it to an advanced age in a dying trade (it's not a profession) until I was in a position to tell the huge company I worked for at the end (If you know anything about huge newspaper companies, you know the one I'm talking about and they're satanically evil) to get F'd and leave on my own terms.

I sat through corporate meetings where the words "we're not interested in an audience outside the 18 to 49 age group" were literally spoken. It didn't matter how loyal the customers above that age group had been, it didn't matter how much money the customers above that age group had to spend, if you were not 18 to 49 they were not interested in you, and while they might not try to deliberately run you off, they were not going to do anything or provide anything that you might be remotely interested in, which is essentially running you off.

The attitude was, "If you cater to those people, you will die with them."

I think that, more than anything, is what's going on here. That's what's going on with the rule changes in sports, too, IMO, the push toward expanded playoffs and NIL and all that crap, to get a young audience excited with bells and whistles and run the traditionalists off rather than "die with them."

The problem is Cracker Barrel is what it is. It's tradition, it's an old clientele going in and looking at things that remind them of the past and eating things their doctors don't want them to eat. You can't sell that s**t to yuppies eating avocado toast, but these idiots will destroy the company trying rather than have it associated with old folks.

And they still need to improve the food back to where it used to be.

Just my .02.