Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Claps Back At Girl Scout Cookie Column
A conservative columnist named Jane Chastain, who writes for the website World Net Daily, wrote a column earlier this week with the headline “AOC Was a Girl Scout… Just Say No To The Cookies.”
In the column, Chastain, herself a onetime Girl Scout, argued that because New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a Girl Scout when she was young, and because the Girl Scouts as an organization have taken a “sharp left turn,” that buyers should perhaps think twice before buying Girl Scout cookies this season.
The column also takes shots at International Women’s Day, which she claims was first celebrated by the Socialist Party of America and was later celebrated by countries in the former Communist bloc. And it accuses the Girl Scouts of partnering with what she calls left-wing causes.
“So before you decide to embrace an International Women’s Day celebration or buy the cookies,” the column concludes, “ask yourself, ‘Will the country be better off with more representatives like the young socialist Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez?'”
The social media-savvy congresswoman, perhaps unsurprisingly, responded on Twitter to the column.
“Boycotting cookies that teach little girls leadership skills to own the libs nice job I’ll take 10,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday, along with emojis. She also tweeted about her pride in Troop 6000 in Queens, which she called the first-ever Girl Scout troop for girls experiencing homelessness.
PS I am extraordinarily proud of the role my constituents have played in helping to establish + support Troop 6000, the first-ever @girlscouts troop for girls experiencing homelessness: https://t.co/5VHY4X0yed
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 7, 2019
There are a few things worth noting here. While it’s implied, Chastain’s column does not use the word “boycott,” although that word did find its way into various headlines about the column, including The New York Post’s “Writer wants boycott of Girl Scout cookies because of Ocasio-Cortez support” and Refinery 29’s “AOC Was A Girl Scout, So Now Conservatives Are Boycotting Thin Mints.” That’s also true of the story that the congresswoman tweeted.
The anti-abortion website LifeNews.com republished Chastain’s column, with the headline “Boycott Girl Scout Cookies, They Partner With Groups That Promote Abortion.”
Furthermore, it doesn’t appear that any such boycott has actually gone into effect. That may be because Chastain is a relatively little-known writer, writing for a site, World Net Daily, that isn’t one of the more influential ones with conservative audiences. Nearly all of the media coverage of her column has either made of it or talked about Ocasio-Cortez’s response to it.
So “conservatives” aren’t boycotting the cookies; more accurately, those headlines could say “one obscure columnist implies that her readers should avoid Girl Scout cookies.”
