LoveGravy, you're making a number of assumptions that you oughtn't to assume are universally shared, and clinging to metaphors that aren't particularly useful.

For instance, the "vocal minority strongarming the majority" concept. That would be what, the vocal minority of people who want to take a snapshot of their buddies, strongarming the majority of... Starbuckses? At best this metaphor is deeply confused.

I daresay you're not a big fan of civil disobedience; that's just my guess. But that dislike is very far from being everybody's axiom. Sometimes breaking rules you don't agree with IS OK.

And it's not a Black vs. White, Øn vs. Off, Yes vs. No situation either. Gray areas, think of gray areas, continuums, situations where the rules might *vary* with the circumstances. Frankly, at a couple of places I've worked I'd've welcomed someone coming in and protesting their policies. Because, wait for it... IT DEPENDS. On a number of factors.

It's not a given that more Starbuckses will enforce the rule than before, ESPECIALLY in light of a lot of negative publicity. No company likes its less savory rules to be made public. Starbucks might, under pressure of public ridicule, change its policy.

If you want to assume that anyone who disagrees with Starbucks in a manner you disapprove of could have no motive other than to hurt the company... (shrug) I can't stop you, really, but I gotta tell you, you're missing the point. My bet is that Starbucks patrons want to sit in Starbucks, drink their lattes quietly, and occasionally take a picture of a friend without being pointlessly hassled by the management. No injury to Starbucks there.

This conversation is reminding me of a friend of mine back in college, who'd apparently been trained at home to respond reflexively to anyone using profanity under any circumstances with the cold words, "My, how unoriginal." This made it hard for her, as a student journalist, to interview and deal with many of her peers.

You've apparently trained yourself to respond reflexively to the idea of a protest with the words, "How uncivil." Maybe this reflex isn't as much of a strength as you believe.