Over the past several years an unceasing tide of progressive ideas on race, gender, and identity has washed over us from our entertainment and corporate worlds. It has seemed at times that companies would do or say anything to avoid the ire of wokesters who were always lurking to call them out. But in recent days, this seems to be changing.
Netflix, which has been floundering financially, recently made big cuts, including to many of its diversity programs. Imbram X. Kendi’s ‘Anti-Racist Baby’ project got the ax, for example. As did several smaller projects focused on the black, Latino and LGB&T communities. This just days after the streaming giant sent employees a warning that backlash on programming will not be tolerated.
Over at HBO, the new Warner Brothers head honcho David Zaslav has indicated that he is going to uncancel Harry Potter author JK Rowling. Last year, Rowling, incredibly, was not invited to participate in the HBO 20th anniversary celebration of the blockbuster film version of the young wizard’s epic.
This of course, because of her stated belief that men cannot become women. Well, now Zaslav is transitioning back to Rowling despite her stance. And new collaborations will be in the offing.
Even State Farm Insurance has changed its risk assessment and reversed a decision to donate LBG&T books to schools and libraries. Like a good neighbor, the company is listening to real people, not to woke institutions.
Then there is the curious case of the corporate response to the leaked draft decision overturning Roe vs. Wade. Or, actually, the lack thereof. We have grown rather accustomed to our corporations springing into public relations action every time progressives get upset about "voting rights" or trans bathrooms. They move all star games and promise boycotts of states. They tweet incessantly about how they stand with the aggrieved.
But not this time.
That’s because something has changed. It seems very much like Disney’s disastrous fight with Governor Ron DeSantis over Florida’s controversial parental rights bill (absurdly dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill by the left) has broken the woke fever pandemic in our corporate board rooms. Since then not only has Disney stock fallen off a cliff like a Jacob de Grom slider, but a recent poll shows the brand is just 3 points above water in approval. For a politician that's fine, but for an entertainment brand it's an absolute nightmare.
Companies like Netflix and HBO have seen this happen, and they don’t care to be next. They have learned that there can be a real financial price to pay for bending too far to woke ideology. But the more important and relevant message here is that there really isn’t that high a price to pay for ignoring the excessive nonsense of the far left mob.
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Progressive Twitter can howl all it wants about Netflix betraying its commitment to diversity and social justice by dropping its identity politics content, but it has no traction for regular Americans. Even the liberal news media, that would have gleefully run segment after segment about racism at Netflix a year ago, is basically silent. They know the charade isn’t working anymore.
If this trend holds up it will be because of the conservative politicians and journalists who refused to be cowed by inane accusations of racism. It will be because Americans don’t actually think babies are or can be racist, because that is absurd. It will be because normal people don’t want authors silenced for believing in biology.
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The progressive left and major corporations have always been strange bedfellows, the latter looking to avoid internet outrage mobs, the former looking to institutionalize their bizarre ideas on identity. But the love affair might be ending. The shock therapy given to Mickey Mouse by DeSantis might awaken, so to speak, corporations to the fact that anger from the far left is really just a paper tiger.
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