Woke capitalism: a contradiction in terms.

Dylan Mulvaney arrives at the premiere of “Reboot” on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, at the Fox Studio lot in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Paul GleiserWoke capitalism: a contradiction in terms.

Woke capitalism is invading the boardrooms of many of this country’s most iconic companies. The latest example involves the beer brand Bud Light and its involvement with biological male and transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.

According to Fox Business, in the week following the company’s social media efforts at helping Mulvaney celebrate “365 days of being a girl,” sales of Anheuser Busch beer brands cratered – dropping by as much as 50 percent.

Another recent example is the failure last month of Silicon Valley Bank in California. Because SVB is located in the very epicenter of leftist politics in the United States, it’s little surprise that SVB’s management was keen on diversity, equity and inclusion – a.k.a. “DEI.” The bank’s website had an entire section dedicated to the espousal of its DEI vision and its commitment to hiring practices governed by DEI principles as a primary consideration in employee candidate selection.

Of course, much (most) of the media are falling all over themselves to say that SVB collapsed solely because of the bank’s failure to properly manage its liquidity. That is technically true. The bank’s collapse is a textbook example of bad banking. When your short-term deposits are backed by investment in low-interest Treasury bonds with long maturity dates, and when the value of those bonds goes down due to an increase in interest rates, a liquidity crisis is almost inevitable.

But what the media fails to consider is why such a basic banking principle escaped the notice of the management at SVB. Neither the Biden administration nor the media dares to explore the very real possibility that SVB management was so fixated on progressive social issues that they devoted too little time and attention to the basics of running a bank.

The examples of Bud Light and Silicon Valley Bank aren’t isolated. Other big brands like Amazon, Apple and Google are jumping into the DEI fray. Much of the “D” component of DEI, i.e. diversity, revolves around LGBTQ and transgender issues.

As we mentioned, sales of Anheuser Busch beer brands are suffering because of their woke marketing of Bud Light. The Walt Disney Company has seen a near fifty percent drop in its share price since it jumped into the gender fracas by producing trans- and gay-themed movies for children.

The problem with woke capitalism is that it is almost always at odds with sound business practice. It’s hard enough to succeed in a competitive marketplace. You need good people and good management who are singular in their focus on producing a quality product while controlling costs. Among its pernicious effects, wokeness leads to diversity hiring that prioritizes the ticking of this or that socially conscious box over putting the best person in place to do the work necessary to bring about success.

Silicon Valley Bank and Budweiser are the latest examples of what happens when wokeness crowds out sound, focused, results-oriented management. They won’t be the last.

All the while, America will continue to lose its once formidable competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive world marketplace.

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Paul Gleiser

Paul L. Gleiser is president of ATW Media, LLC, licensee of radio stations KTBB 97.5 FM/AM600, 92.1 The TEAM FM in Tyler-Longview, Texas.

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5 Responses

  1. Buddy Saunders says:

    As always, Paul, you hit the nail squarely on the head. A business that fails to focus on the bottom line dooms itself to failure, especially in a time when woke government at every level is doing everything possible to collapse our economy.

  2. Chris Clarke says:

    It’s tragic that there are so few like Paul Gleiser. I no longer watch or listen to national or local media because I simply don’t trust them. For every story they report that fits their agenda, the others that don’t won’t get reported. Will we ever know how many are actually dying from fentanyl or the true and unreported stories centered around the January 6th riots? These are only two examples of the sad state we are in.

  3. Mike says:

    Lets remember one of THE most important items in this EcoNazi, woke debacle, our power plants in Texas are systematically being shut down. Latest victim is the power plant at Fairfield, Texas. Sold to a private entity that closed the State Park, closed the lake, and has a grand idea of developing this area for a community. Monticello, Martin Creek, Pirkey, Fairfield all gone never to be replaced with others to follow in the not too distant future. All in the name of woke ideology and One World Order a.k.a the World Economic Forum. Here is another tidbit on our Nations electric grid status: Due to continued competition from natural gas and renewable resources, 23% of the 200,568 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired capacity currently operating in the United States has reported plans to retire by the end of 2029, according to our Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. You really think ridding our State and Country of our electrical power is going to help power all those electric cars, trucks, buses, and who knows what in the future? You all better get on the phone and call your State Representatives and Senators and raise billy hell concerning Texas’ power situation. The Woke Ecofreaks are alive and well within our Texas Government lobbying everyday to hamstring us in the name of “Saving the Planet”. I contacted my Senator and he replied, “We are seeking alternative means to suppliment the loss via Wind and other power sources…..” Oh yeah? What other power sources, Nuclear? NO. Wind, Solar, and other alternatives.

  4. Richard Anderson says:

    Transgenderism, wokeism, the LGBTQ agenda, Marxism, communism.. all are godless, constructed on an edifice of LIEs.

    Transgenderism in the minds of those who profess this as reality are mentally ill, for no man can become a woman, and no woman can become a man. That is a biological scientific fact.

    Wokeism, similarly, is the believing that provable facts have no definitive unchangeable foundation in fact. Again, those who choose to subscribe to this nonsense have mental illness for when facts cease to be facts, insanity reigns and “no society on earth” can survive where common sense is shunned.

    Marxism | communism, the ultimate ideological lie foisted upon a society by evil doers, denies the existence of GOD. The “state is god” to the adherents of this supreme lie.. a lie of Satan– the father of all liars. This twisted system has caused the death of millions in the Soviet Union, and CCP China. As Americans, we CANNOT let this GRISLY ideology capture our beloved Country.

    Wokeism, transgenderism, the LGBTQ agenda, and Marxism, all are inextricably intertwined in a sinister ideological cabal of “group think” where there is no room for GOD. They are about leftism.. anti-Freedom, anti-Capitalism, and atheism for they reject God and his moral based law. They are COUNTER to any and all people of good will, especially Citizens who cherish our Country as Founded in 1776, as one Nation under God. This is a spiritual battle for the soul of America. It’s GOOD vs EVIL.

    WE THE PEOPLE, a Christian People, a FREE People, must push back with all our physical and spiritual might against this perverted ideological storm of bad actors like never before in our history. If your church, school, workplace, or business you frequent propagates this anti God anti America agenda, I say, find another where God and His moral law is venerated. And boycott those companies like the beverage maker in question which choose to align themselves with this evil* (*i.e. woke) society destroying agenda.

    THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA must return to GOD and His book The BIBLE, as did our Founders 247 years ago, for they got it right!.. for no other resource is more relevant and important for the Life and Freedom of our Nation and our CHILDREN’S FUTURE. We must all work hard to overcome the “current storm of evil” with GOOD by putting RIGHTEOUSNESS and GOODNESS into action everyday to SAVE AMERICA, for we cannot allow, our HOME, our blessed NATION… “Of, By, and For The People” to perish.

  5. Darrell Durham says:

    I don’t disagree with the marketing campaign as much as I disagree with their choice of spokesperson. Mulvaney knows nothing about being transgender or being a woman. Mulvaney is begging for attention. Our children are begging for attention. Our children are being used as weapons for an agenda. They must be 16 to get a driver’s license, 18 to vote or get a tattoo, and 21 to buy alcohol, tobacco or a firearm, but can have their gender changed, at ELEMENTARY school, without parental approval OR knowledge?!? I have a HUGE problem with that!

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