Our definition of “Woke” – an awakening and commitment to present day progressive themes (e.g. perceived societal injustices) and vernacular which becomes the basis for one’s world view.
Being “woke” has become a mind-altering drug intoxicating big corporations. When enough of it is ingested, companies begin making inexplicably foolish business decisions that run completely contrary to what had been an otherwise excellent corporate track record.
We are getting an education in real time of how small numbers of woke, bellicose employees can force the large companies they work for to speak and behave like liberal ideologues. Tried and true business school practices are cast aside by the leaders of these companies in favor of coerced participation in a progressive takeover of our countries culture and traditional values.
The first major example of this was Nike’s peculiar decision in the summer of 2018 to run an ad campaign featuring the poster boy of wokeness Colin Kaepernick1. What followed was by any business measure a nightmare for Nike. Almost immediately, social media was flooded with memes of Nike’s ad that were so voluminous and hysterical, those memes became the news instead of Nike’s original ad. Nike’s brilliant and long curated slogan “Just Do It” was turned into an Internet joke for months by these memes. Their most coveted asset, their brand, was tarnished and their stock took a big hit. Then came a boycott of Nike products from many conservatives disgusted with Nike’s plunge into politically correct ideology.
Fast forward to the early fall of 2021 and the politically charged issue of vaccine mandates. The Biden Administration had announced plans for several versions of federal vaccine mandates, but none would be in effect until the end of the year. That didn’t stop numerous corporations from immediately rushing to implement their own company-wide vaccine mandates in anticipation of the forthcoming federal mandates. They did this willingly, despite knowing there was a strong likelihood that any federal mandates would be overturned in court as being unconstitutional (the mandates were overturned).
The most visible example of the carnage created by these corporation-imposed vaccine mandates was in the airline industry. Despite the fact that a significant percentage of pilots and crew gave plenty of warning to their bosses that they did not intend to be vaccinated, the business decision was made to fire or place on leave anyone who violated the company mandate. What followed was an avalanche of last-minute flight cancellations, travelers being stranded at airports, and the seething anger and contempt of thousands of passengers that the airlines hung out to dry. Southwest and American then added a heaping dose of dishonesty on top of it all by blaming the unprecedented number of cancellations and delays on weather (which was later attributed to climate change). Even the most ill-informed among the flying public raised the bullsh** flag on that one.
In both the above cases, extremely poor and entirely avoidable business decisions based on the woke sentiment of the moment led to the tarnishing of a brand or reputation and severely hit those companies in the pocketbook.
You would think that a corporation like Disney, whose brand and reputation are ultra-critical to their business model, would do everything possible to avoid getting caught in similar circumstances. Nope – the woke drug got to them too. They willingly chose to take a loud and aggressive stance against the Florida Parental Rights in Education law, which they didn’t like. This law, which is supported by a majority of Florida’s citizens, had nothing whatsoever to do with Disney’s operations. Disney attacked the state government of Florida with a purely ideological grievance vowing to do all they could to strike the law down.
As could easily have been predicted, a lot of Disney customers complained about the companies foray into progressive activism. Just like in the above two examples, Disney stock tumbled in the immediate aftermath. However, unlike what happened with Nike and the Airline companies, it didn’t end there.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went on the offensive and punched back hard on Disney by calling on the state legislature to revoke Disney’s special status as a self-governing entity within the state. This will cause all sorts of negative repercussions for Disney, ranging from an estimated $20M of additional taxes they will have to pay to the state each year, to greater state/county control and oversight of their operations. Disney stock plunged even further. All of these consequences were entirely avoidable.
DeSantis was criticized by some for being punitive with Disney and “taking it too far”. As far as we’re concerned, he did exactly the right thing. Political correctness and in-your-face progressive demagoguing is what has been taken too far. These have been nothing but ruinous to our society and need to be eliminated. Not negotiated with, not compromised with, not ignored, but ferociously attacked and wiped out. Fearless actions like those Governor DeSantis took with Disney, the largest media corporation in the world, are the means to that end.
There are consequences to what people say under the protections of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. Disney, who should’ve known better, just found that out the hard way. And there appears to be no end in sight to corporations falling prey to the consequences of progressive activism. As we write this, a large company whose name begins with “twit”, having made a full-throated commitment to censoring anyone who disagrees with woke progressive tenets, is the latest to experience those consequences.
1In 2016, Kaepernick protested social injustice by kneeling for the national anthem prior to an NFL pre-season game. Copycats soon followed, and the NFL suffered big hits in both viewership and revenue for the next 3 years.