Woke Capitalism

July 5, 2022 — John Hinderaker

Sanity 1, Corporate Virtue Signaling 0

Featured image Why corporations see a need to adopt left-wing talking points as corporate policy is a great mystery of our time. I don’t know, maybe sometimes it works out. Other times it doesn’t: just ask the producers of Buzz Lightyear. Today’s heartwarming story comes from the U.K. via Australia, as my friend Rita Panahi comments on a major bank’s effort to jam gender ideology down the throats of its customers: “Get »
June 29, 2022 — John Hinderaker

Woke Food? Seriously?

Featured image Several decades ago I subscribed to Bon Appetit magazine. In those days, it was all about good food, consisting of articles about, and recipes from, excellent restaurants. But, as in so many areas of contemporary life, those days are gone. Bon Appetit survives–barely, I think–but its primary mission these days seems to be wokeness. Check out the magazine’s InstaGram feed to see what I mean. Here are some examples: A »
June 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward

Woke Hollywood, Broke Hollywood (UPDATED)

Featured image Buzz Lightyear (voiced by the great Tim Allen, one of the few right-leaning stars in Hollywood) became an iconic character in the Toy Story series of films, but the new standalone Buzz Lightyear movie, with Buzz voiced by Chris Evans instead of Allen, has bombed at the box office, perhaps because it decided to go fully woke by prominently featuring a lesbian relationship. As Kyle Smith puts it, “today Hollywood’s »
June 25, 2022 — John Hinderaker

Congratulations, You’re Fired

Featured image Paul Clement, Solicitor General in the George W. Bush administration, is one of the top appellate lawyers in the country. He and his partner Erin Murphy have been with the large Chicago-based law firm Kirkland & Ellis since 2016. Last week, Clement and Murphy won one of the biggest victories of their careers when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of their client the New York State Rifle »
April 24, 2022 — Steven Hayward

Woke Capitalism In Retreat?

Featured image A lot of leftists are claiming that the move of Florida Republicans to strip Disney’s favorable tax treatment and local governance prerogatives is a hypocritical attack on free speech, but it is nothing of the sort. There is no attempt to curtail the speech or political activism of Disney or any other corporation, though the irony is that the left wants corporate political speech banned or regulated by the government, »
April 22, 2022 — John Hinderaker

Mouse Trapped

Featured image Today Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that revokes Disney’s virtually self-governing status in that state. The cause, of course, was Disney’s aggressive pro-groomer, anti-parent political stance. Not long ago it would have been unthinkable for a major corporation to stick its neck out in support of an unpopular, even radical political position that doesn’t even relate to the company’s business. Now perhaps we understand why. The Wall Street Journal »
April 18, 2022 — Steven Hayward

An EKG on ESG Investing

Featured image The hottest new thing for Woke Wall Street is “ESG” investing, where ESG stands for “environment, social, and governance.” In other words, investing in politically correct sectors like “green” energy, media, and so forth, and avoiding investing in tobacco, arms manufacturers, and above all fossil fuel energy companies. ESG has become, Barron’s reports, “one of Wall Streets favorite buzzwords.” Only the name and acronym are new. Twenty years ago “sustainable” »
March 31, 2022 — John Hinderaker

Goodbye, Disney

Featured image I grew up during Walt Disney’s golden age. I still remember some of the great Disney films of the 1950s and early 1960s. That may be partly because Disney movies were the only ones my older brother and I were allowed to see, but in any event they made a deep impression on me. Davy Crockett was fantastic; I owned a coonskin cap. Johnny Tremain, based on a very good »
January 12, 2022 — John Hinderaker

Woke Capitalism, Unilever Edition

Featured image Unilever is a massive international conglomerate headquartered in London that predominantly sells food products. Like many other companies Unilever has gone “woke,” as its web site reflects. Unilever claims to be all about its “values,” a company that “take[s] action on the issues affecting our world.” But many observers are not convinced. The Telegraph headlines: “Investment star Terry Smith attacks Unilever for ‘ludicrous’ focus on social and environmental issues.” One »