Republican politicians like Ron DeSantis may rail against “woke” corporations. The reality is that when companies like Nike and Disney—no progressive angels themselves—seem to align with the left by promoting anti-racism and LGBTQ causes, they are catering to the tolerant demographic that matters most to the bottom line. It’s understandable why older conservatives would feel business has left them behind, ranting about supposed lefty strongholds like Blackrock and Disney. But there’s no top-down conspiracy of woke corporations as defined by Tucker Carlson. It’s just capitalism.
This is especially true given the Republican Party’s increasing reliance on far-right religious voters, whose cultural power is also waning rapidly despite recent judicial and legislative wins. Americans are becoming rapidly less affiliated with organized religion. Younger people are markedly less religious than their elders. In 2021, membership in religious organizations fell below majority levels for the first time, and “nones”—those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or nothing specific—now account for around 30 percent of Americans, up from just 9 percent thirty years ago. White evangelical politics is the province of mostly older voters disconnected from the broader culture and economy.
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They also lost the science war.
Also the civil war
Did they win the war on drugs? That seemed to go well.
No, they lost to people on drugs.
I hate the use of the word “tolerant”; I don’t tolerate people of different races, religions, sexual orientations, etc., because there is nothing to tolerate. I just accept them.
The people I tolerate are people who try to impose their religion by force, people who profit from hurting others, Nazis, terrorists, etc. I don’t tolerate them because I’m tolerant; I tolerate them because I have no choice in the matter. They exist no matter what I think of them. If I could banish them all to Siberia, I would.
I feel like statistics on religion are largely useless, especially in Western, mostly Christian nations. So many people follow the “I said a prayer when I was 10 so now I won’t go to hell” version of Christianity that a huge chunk of those yes responses are actually functionally atheists and have been for a long time.
I don’t mean to imply anything negative about atheists here. I just think the only thing really changing is that younger people don’t see the point in pretending to be religious anymore. They’re at least casually familiar with the tenets of Christianity and are pretty aware that what their parents are doing is not religion but some sort of weird social and political club with little resemblance to the religion it’s supposedly based on. In fact, I’d argue that the percentage of people who take religion seriously on a personal level has always been much lower than official numbers like this would indicate.
This is the case I try to make to people on the left who complain about corporate white washing, or whatever they want to call it. Mainstream corporations feel like it’s advantageous to have their symbols out there in pride parades, environmentalist goals, anti-racism, and anti-sexism. Corporations are obligated at a certain level to follow the money, and they have read the signs and chosen to align themselves with these progressive causes. If nothing else, this is a good sign of where the country is headed.
They don’t really lose. They just stop talking about things and start talking about something else crazy. Their followers do not care.
But there’s no top-down conspiracy of woke corporations as defined by Tucker Carlson.
Anyone remember Bill O’Reilly ranting about the “War on Christmas” years ago?
Same shit, different day.
I’ll consider them as having lost when they’re out of political power and no longer a serious threat.
Abortion rights aren’t going to reinstate themselves.
I feel like their tantrums are death throes of a dying ideology. You’re right, they remain dangerous for the moment, hopefully for the last time.
Unfortunately, I suspect human tendencies for tribalism and prejudice will not completely vanish anytime soon. Which means reactionary assholes will always be around and we should never let down our guard.
For countries that are currently more progressive, beware. Education and entertainment are the first things they attack. By the time they’ve gotten enough power to rig the courts and control the reality of their followers, they’ve become an enormous danger.
BlackRock is leftist? It’s a nightmare built from unrestrained neoliberalism!
Anything that is not openly fascist is leftist to these people.
I’m not sure I agree - the change of generations isn’t a new process and our political parties have survived it before. Certain ideas that were controversial for past generations won’t be controversial for future ones, but conservatism and the general phenomenon of the culture war will persist. (I think the Trump phenomenon is in fact conservatism adapting itself to modern conditions.)
It’s not like new culture wars won’t be started and fought just the same. But there was a time when slavery was the topic of a fierce culture war in the US, and it wasn’t resolved until it broke out into a literal war. Now, nearly two hundred years later, it’s still unacceptable to suggest that people who look different are better off as property rather than people. Even Florida’s attempts to whitewash Southern slavery doesn’t go so far as to blame the slaves weren’t people.
They’ve lost this culture war, just as they lost the fight for slavery and later to keep the population segregated. They’ll try again in time, but for the moment, the question of abortion and homosexual rights is largely settled at a cultural level. The conservatives lost, and that’s why they’ve largely moved on to nitpicking the definition of gender and trying (unsuccessfully) to defend their legal victories on women’s reproductive rights.
This is a perfect example of how liberalism enables fascism - conservatives have managed to frame superficial human decency as “leftist” (or - bad) to the point where catering to them is no longer profitable? Not a problem, corporations just put on their “we care” masks (while the machine underneath is still, in some cases literally, crushing orphans) so now they can firmly milk the liberal (but definitely not leftist) consumer who will gush about how “good an ally” or whatever one brand or another is, while they continue to do business as usual - destroying the planet, exploiting and oppressing workers globally, and funding the states that enable and even support these actions, all to fill the pockets of a room full of people, who already have more money that anyone could spend if they lived a thousand lives, and who will never willingly stop this system that works so well for them (and that will decay in to full blown fascism again and again as they fight for power at our expense).
People think, rightfully, that horseshoe theory is bullshit, but pointing out that both sides (edit to be clear: that is conservatives and liberals, not actual leftists) serve the same master - capitalism, isn’t that, it’s indisputable fact.
This is a perfect example of how liberalism enables fascism
Today I learned that being inclusive and working toward the betterment of all people instead of a privileged elite is fascism.
Wink. What you really learned is, some people will leap on any excuse to bash liberals as if liberal was “bad.” It not only isn’t bad, it isn’t stupid either. I can assure you that liberals are wise enough to see how the bottom line for corporations means putting on a facade of caring - of course they do, because they aren’t stupid either. And yes it all serves the goals of capitalism - try finding a workable society where that ISN’T the case. It’s not because of liberals not being bright - it’s because that’s the world that we all live in.
working toward the betterment of all people instead of a privileged elite is fascism.
Lmmfao, I don’t know who you think you’re describing there, but it isn’t the democrats.
(edit just to add this quote from the article you chose to include which directly contradicts this clueless statement of yours, and which made me think you had actually posted this article critically: “But there’s no top-down conspiracy of woke corporations as defined by Tucker Carlson. It’s just capitalism.” which begs the question - who the fuck do you think capitalism serves? 😂🤦♀️)
The truth might be uncomfortable, and I can understand the knee-jerk reaction to protect your cognitive dissonance, but it’s based in wilful ignorance, not reality (in which they serve the literal opposite). Feel free to educate yourself further (don’t worry, I won’t hold my breath lol) -
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/
