While aimlessly scrolling through Facebook the other day as I typically do, I stumbled upon something that honestly floored me.

It’s a pretty common known fact the web browsers we have on our computers use all the things we search and websites we are commonly on to generate the advertisements that we see.

Now, as someone who identifies as fiercely patriotic and unapologetically sassy, it’s almost obvious that I split my time on the internet between political sites and the mind-numbing world of social media.

So while amidst my mindless scrolling, I stumbled upon an advertisement for “POPRAGEOUS,” which is supposed to be a cheeky cliché online clothing company that caters to what they believe the majority of millennial females want.

Now normally I don’t indulge in ads like this because the clothing tends to be of low quality materials in both what it’s made of and what it says. But this one caught my eye for a very specific reason.

As you can see, the shirts read things like “Not My President” and “We are the Resistance” – which is fine, because as a defender of the First Amendment, I believe people have the right to express symbolic speech. But what bothers me is the company is calling it “riot gear.” Not protest gear, but actual “riot gear.”

Now let’s go back to what I said about defending the First Amendment. As I am sure that we all learned the Bill of Rights in high school I’ll give a quick refresher: the First Amendment gives us what is known as the five freedoms which of course are 1) freedom of speech 2) freedom of press 3) freedom of religion 4) the right to peaceful protest 5) the right to redress grievances.

Now let’s just focus on those last two for a second: the right to PEACEFUL protest (note the word peaceful).

Now, last time I checked riots weren’t defined as peaceful, but let’s ask Merriam-Webster just in case. Nope, I was right; Merriam-Webster defines a riot (or rioting) as a “public violence, tumult, or disorder b : a violent public disorder; specifically : a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent.” 

Now like I have already stated I am all for people using their rights to be the change they want to be, but what I am definitely not for is people using social change as a front to go out and terrorize our nation, and I am definitely not for companies like “POPRAGEOUS” trying to turn a profit with this upset in our nation and encouraging this riot like behavior by acknowledging it in the first place.

So, that’s what grinds my gears …