Jay Weber Show transcript 5-20-21 6:10am
You are aware of the push-back that has begun on ‘woke’ corporate boards and CEOs...companies like Coke, Delta, Nike, and Target but the issue of big companies deciding to ‘get political’ has a couple of underlying currents that explain what’s going on, and most of the coverage related to this, doesn’t mention them.
For example: never mentioned?-is the fact that it is the -employees- of these companies that are, most often, shoving the CEO and/or the corporate board into engaging in left wing activism. It’s the increasing number of young mini-Hitler activists who are working for these companies who are insisting that they cannot just stay out of politics and focus on the mission of making money...
But instead have to use their corporate power and their corporate voice to change society, get behind ‘woke’ and left wing causes, like BLM and transgender rights, and all the rest.
That is-most often-the undercurrent that is pushing these CEOs and corporate boards to ‘go woke’ and ‘get political.’
Sometimes it is outside activist pressure. For example, companies like Nike and McDonalds are so huge, and so global, that they were some of the earliest targets for left wing activists and remain some of the most bullied...
But the new wave of activism is to have people push their own employers and companies to engage in the socialist progressive bullying campaigns. And so, we are seeing more and more companies caving to the -internal-pressure from their employees...instead of pushing back as they should.
The response to the insistence from employees that ‘this company has to be political’...should be a firm ‘no, it doesn’t. Our mission is apolitical, and to make money and to keep us all employed. That’s the mission. if you want to be an activist, quit.’
That should be the response by all of these CEOs and corporate boards when they are pressured by employees to get political. Instead, they are caving to the pressure, bullying, and shaming that the activists heap on them...
Or- worse-
There are also some CEOs and corporate boards that think ‘going woke’ is a good business move that will increase profits. Clearly, Nike’s executives believe that is the case.
They are marketing their shoes to, largely, young urban Black and Hispanic kids, and so it fits with their business model.
But-for the purposes of this segment-I really want to focus on this relatively new phenomenon of company execs being pressured-by their own lefty employees- to go woke and turn the company political.
One such effort has been going on at a Canadian-based company called Shopify.
You might have heard of Shopify-it is a giant
E-commerce company. It helps people start businesses, make sales, etc....
Well, this week the CEO of Shopify, Tobias Lutkey, sent a company-wide email to staff -as a response to a handful of Shopify employees agitating in the media to try to force Shopify to be more ‘woke’. These employees have apparently complained about the company has handled racial and social issues, and the fact that the company won’t acknowledge or embrace all of this left wing activism.
Lutkey’s letter is great. He tells his Shopify employees, look, we aren’t a ‘family’, and we aren’t ‘a government’. We are here to sell stuff and make a profit.
He starts by shooting down a strain of corporate language that i have always hated: this idea that ‘we’re a family’...and ‘in this family, we need to look out for each other, and do a, b, and c’.
Tobias Lukey starts with: we’re not a family. You have a family. We aren’t it.
Fantastic.
So he’s at least honest. he cops to reserve the right to use social justice causes to sell more of their services or to help the bottom line...but he’s saying....it will be a technique to help the business...
It won’t be borne out of any genuine belief that we have a ‘social obligation’...to anyone or anything.
This, obviously, offended all sorts of social justice warriors and the activist left, but hey, he’s being honest.
This guy sounds like a liberal, himself, but is ‘done’ with this push by his own employees to toxify the work environment with social justice wars between his employees...and is ‘done’ being pushed into using the company to engage in social justice causes.
Good for him.
This follows the CEO of basecamp- a software company-recently doing the same thing, and in the same sort of blunt, clumsy manner.
Basecamp’s CEO just announced that the staff will no longer be able to engage in social and political discussions. Period. Focus on your jobs. His name is Jason freed, and he got pounded by the activist left and his own ‘woke’ lefty employees for doing so.
I believe a number of them quit over it, making it clear that they were more interested in political activism then pulling a paycheck.
And you have to note the attitude: if i can’t toxify this workplace with my social justice crap, i don’t even want to work here.
Fine. Get out.
That should be the answer from every one of these CEOs and corporate boards: if you want to engage in activism- on either side of the aisle- go and join an activist group. See if they’ll hire you to spout toxic crap about America...in exchange for a paycheck....
But that’s not what we pay you to do.
I love the fact that at least some CEOs are pushing back...and I believe it will start to become a larger trend.
i saw this week that a couple of former trump officials are now starting an investment fund that will only invest in ‘non-woke’, ‘non-political’ companies. The Wall St. Journal’s blurb on it said:
a small group of conservative money managers is trying to catch up to investment funds that for years have catered to those concerned about climate change, diversity or animal rights.
The nascent effort, which has attracted some prominent names, seeks to woo investors disgruntled by increased involvement by some companies in political and social issues.
Whether conservatives will move money from more traditional investments to funds that hold shares in companies that are either neutral or lean conservative on political questions remains to be seen.
Oh, I think they will.
Remember, a higher number of conservatives than liberals are both patriotic and religious, and a lot of these ‘woke’ causes run counter to moral, religious, and pro-America beliefs.
i can think of all sorts of Christian conservatives who would want to know their money isn’t being invested in companies supporting causes they don’t believe in. Anti-America causes, like critical race theory...and anti-religious causes like...normalizing transgenderism.
And the whole point of the new ‘unwoke portfolios ’is: we’ll watch your money and make sure that it isn’t being invested in Delta, or Coca Cola, or Starbucks, or any other company that decides to use their platform to promote BLM, or transgenderism, or critical race theory...etc.
If you want to invest in companies whose only agenda is to ethically make money - this is the portfolio.
I think it will take off.
But today’s left is so bullying and toxic, that even corporate America is being forced to take up sides, or announce to the world that they are ‘Switzerland’. This is neutral ground at work, so take that woke crap elsewhere.
story credit: Wall St. Journal
photo credit: Getty Images