Editing The Pen Addict 514/transcript (section)

== Anti-Semitic Label Controversy ==


'''Brad:''' Yep. Agree. Thank you for that clarification. That is accurate. So, as you can tell, number one, this is going to be about the Noodlers issues from last week. And number two, as you can tell, I wrote down zero notes because I just want to talk about this and see what happens. So, Noodlers did a thing again last week. Really right when we were starting to record last week's episode, podcast episode, all this Noodlers stuff came out. And I think the best way to start this conversation off is to tell you how I found out about it. But before the podcast, I got an Instagram message said, hey, did you see this thing from Noodlers? And, you know, there's kind of a hubbub about it. And I went and looked, like, real quick, as you do in Instagram messages. And I said, yeah, we talked about this a few months ago. Nothing new. And we recorded our show. And then I looked at it afterwards. And I was like, oh, this is actually not the thing that I talked about. Like, I think I talked about it on stream when it happened earlier this year. A certain product label that the Noodlers, Noodly Man, decided to make, you know, caused a bit of a stir. And I thought this was that issue from a few months ago. Turns out, Noodly Man did it again. Noodly Man's a bigot. I'm just going to call it as it is. And he thinks he's some kind of edgelord putting these, what he deems as funny ha-ha labels out there that are actually grotesque, harmful, and bigoted.

'''Myke:''' It was an anti-Semitic image. Yes. That was as part of like a collage, one of the collage kind of labels that. Yeah. What's the guy's name?

'''Brad:''' Noodly guy? Yeah. Nathan Tardif.

'''Myke:''' That's it. That's like, that's the guy, Nathan, who runs Noodlers Inc. Yeah. Seems to, you know, it's like this culture now, like you see it, like it comes from Elon Musk, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. It's like this, this like, oh, I'm just saying funny things. Right. And here's the thing, like, you know, free speech, right? You can do that if you want to. Yeah. Absolutely. You can't then expect everybody's going to go along with you. Right. And that seems to ultimately have been what happened here.

'''Brad:''' Right. So this was a new label on a new product he released.

'''Brad:''' Extremely, clearly anti-Semitic tropes. And the biggest thing that I will repeat several times during this conversation, it is not new.

'''Myke:''' This is not a new experience. That we were talking about. So I'll say, I honestly do not remember this the first time. I don't know if we ever spoke about this on the show, Brad, because I have zero memory of it. We didn't.

'''Brad:''' I thought about it. I talked about it on stream.

'''Myke:''' Okay. And so like, apparently there'd been something in the past where an image, there was like connotations of anti-Semitism in the image that he used. And he claimed to be unaware of this. And I, as a person who makes things online, I find myself in these situations where I say something that I don't know the connotations of that thing. Right. But then when people tell you, you apologize, you learn, and you don't do it again. Right. Right. Like that's, and like, it's not that you never make mistakes again. Right. Right. Because I make mistakes all the time. Correct. I like to feel like I don't make the same mistake multiple times. And if you seem to have, like, by your omission, stumbled upon an anti-Semitic image and chose to use that on your product label, you should be more smart about the images that you don't know the connotations to later on.

'''Brad:''' Right? Right. Right. And Noodle Guy is not that smart. He is, he knows exactly what he's doing. He is choosing these images purposefully. And he is showing his, his just completely wild mindset that is fueled by hate and fueled by disrespect. And I, I guarantee knowing these types of people, like he thinks this is fun and funny, but guess what, Myke, this time it really hurt his business. So, we get the business PR apology, which I don't believe a word of. This has been the most impactful pushback on Noodlers in like probably the past decade. He's been doing this type of stuff for this long. Right. This is not new. But the challenge that we have as a community is there's always new people coming into the fountain pen community. Right. Like Noodlers is, has been on my no shop list for, I can't tell you how long, five, six, seven, eight, ten years maybe. Because I just don't like the guy. He, he's just not a good person. He's not someone I want to associate myself with. He's not someone whose products I want to support because his belief system is so flawed and just shows a complete lack of empathy and awareness to humanity. Like he is just one of those types of people. So, I don't support him. And that's been going on for years. But there's new people that are just, that have kind of, Noodlers has always been kind of like this gateway product, especially with inks. They have a big, a big footprint in our industry, if you will, on the ink side of things. And a lot of people are familiar with the brand and they find something they like and they want people, as a habit, continue to want to buy the things that they like. This time it, it impacted the bottom line in a big way. Pretty clearly there were, you know, apologies, air quote. Like we're not going to link to any of this stuff. Y'all can go find it on Instagram. I implored no one to read the comments, never read the comments. But it's just, it's just a mess. So, given all that and given, you know, my opinion of the Noodle Guy, I think the conversation needs to be focused now on how do us as consumers continue to, you know, shop, support businesses that carry products that we disagree with. And things of that nature. And from my perspective, what I want personally doesn't really match up with the reality of the situation. What I want after Wednesday is for Noodlers to, no one to, like every vendor and retailer to stop carrying the brand, right?

'''Myke:''' By or large, they have, right?