Internet Yells At Middlebrow Chain Eatery Chili's Until It Stops Selling Anti-Vaccine-Flavored Baby Back Ribs

Is there nothing that the power of internet rumbling cannot now achieve? First a handful of sadmads toppled the CEO of Mozilla because he didn't like the gays enough, and now the online hooligans have managed to stop Chili's Restaurants -- that shining paragon of weirdly glazed baby back rib-fueled casual dining -- from giving money to anti-vaxxers. Will these thugs stop at nothing??

So it is National Autism Awareness month, and it is a good thing to be aware of autism! It is not, however, a good thing to heighten that awareness by deciding to give 10% of all the money your customers give you to a group that believes vaccines cause autism, which Chili's found out the hard way when the entire internet yelled at them over the weekend.

At the outset, it did not sound like people would want to murder Chili's, because they proposed to give money to something called the National Autism Association, which certainly sounds all autism-aware, except that they push the "vaccines cause autism" nonsense. What's more, the National Autism Association's handy-dandywebsite FAQ refers people to the National Vaccine Information Center, which gives out vaccine info the way the Koch Brothers's Americans For Prosperity gives out prosperity info: laced with baby back rib flavored lies.

That link [on NAA's website] goes to the National Vaccine Information Center, which journalist Michael Specter characterizes in his book "Denialism" as "an organization that, based on its name, certainly sounds like a federal agency. Actually, it's just the opposite: The NVIC is the most powerful anti-vaccine organization in America, and its relationship with the U.S. government consists almost entirely of opposing federal efforts aimed at vaccinating children."

Oh, and the peeps Chili's wanted to give your money to, presuming you are the kind of person who spends money at Chili's, also sponsor this cool-ass website that says "Yes, Vaccines Cause Autism" right there at the tippy-top.

Props to Chili's for addressing this quickly, unfucking the situation, and telling folks they will not give your money to anti-vaxxers after all, but perhaps do a little more research into the groups you're going to give piles of glazed BBQ-stained dollars to next time? Just a thought.

Before we go: we would never forgive ourselves if we forgot to remind you about the time that N'SYNC shilled for Chili's baby back ribs on a desert island...

...and in the studio.

You're welcome, America.

[ Think Progress / Business Insider ]