Corporations And Social Issues

We are seeing so many corporations go "Bud Light Woke" with a lot of social issues. What is causing the pressure? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You may recall yesterday on the show, we were talking
about how corporate execus have found themselves in a bit
of a quandary because according to Wall Street Journal, and
we quoted this yesterday, that the companies the boards of
directors CEOs are feeling pressure to speak out on social
issues and political issues. The quote was CEO spent the

(00:25):
past few years adjusting to a world in which investors, customers,
and employees expected corporate leaders to align themselves with social causes.
And we were yelling, so what if you're a paint company,
make paint. If you're a coat company, sell me a
coat that'll keep me warm, et cetera. Leave it alone. Well,
it's a little frustrating, honestly, that the Wall Street Journal

(00:46):
just made quick and vague references to investors, customers, employees
expecting them to make statements. Credit the New York Post
and going deep on the question and explaining it quite brilliantly.
Executives at companies like Nike, Anheuser, Bush, and Kate Spade,
and they mentioned the inflamous, infamous Dylan mulvany tie in,

(01:06):
controversial trans influencer, ridiculous female impersonators. My phrase anyway, these
companies are not are not just virtue signaling. They're handing
out lucrative deals to once what were once considered fringe
celebrities because they have to or risk failing an all
important social credit score that could make or break their businesses.

(01:28):
At stake is their Corporate Equality Index, their CEI score,
which is overseen by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest
LBGTBQ r FD BBQ plus minus times political lobbing group
in the world. This HRC, which has received millions of

(01:48):
dollars from George Soros Open Society Foundation, is the enforcement
arm of what we were describing yesterday, and that's the
woke states, California and New York and a few others
that have ginormous trillion dollar pension funds. Say to the
giant money managers, if you want are trillions of dollars,

(02:10):
you're gonna join us on this this what is it,
the CEI score thing, and you're going to insist on
it from your other clients, or you're gonna tell them,
for instance, Home Depot or bud Light, Hey, Anheuser Busch,
if you don't get a high enough score of this CEI,
we're not going to do business with you, we're not

(02:32):
gonna help you, and so it's like a twice removed
pressure racket. More than eight hundred and forty oh, I'm sorry.
Businesses that attain the maximum hundred total points earn the
coveted title best Place to Work for LGBTQ equality. More
than eight hundred and forty US companies racked up high scores,
according to the latest report. The HRC, which was formed

(02:54):
in nineteen eighty and started the CEI that Social Credit
Score China style in two thousand and two, has let
by Kelly Robinson, who worked for Barack Obaman. Eight. The
HRC lists five major rating criteria, each with its own
lengthy subsets for companies to gain or lose CEI points.
So here's your woe grating Number one workforce protections, no discrimination,

(03:16):
et cetera, et cetera. Five points possible. I'm fine with that,
and again there's subcategories under this, but we won't spend
that much time. Two inclusive benefits fifty points possible. Criteria
here includes providing health care for same sex couples, and
that's fine. That's between you and your employees. I don't
know why you wouldn't Three supporting an inclusive culture. Here

(03:39):
we go, including gender neutral dress codes, trans inclusive restrooms
and facilities.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
We are gender neutral dress codes.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
I guess if a woman can wear a shirt with
bare legs, so can a dude a skirt.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I should say, are there any workplaces that have any
dress codes anymore? I guess because I live in California,
maybe maybe the rest of the country does. In California
is certainly don't seem to be any standard anywhere I go.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Well, and we're in the wacky world of media too.
I think you fail for a giant insurance company.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Maybe, but yeah, I feel like even banks and stuff
like that, at least in california's pretty cash at this point.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, But the point is it's standard neutral. So if
a woman can wear a spaghetti strap and short skirt,
so can a dude who claims he's a chick. So
here's where it gets really nasty, because again, most of
that stuff's like internal and I don't think these people
should be meddling with it, and I don't think they
and George Soros should be pushing these ideas because I

(04:33):
don't like some of them. But number four is corporate
social responsibility. That's twenty points possible marketing or advertising to
LGBTQ consumers, which would include Nike and bud Light's use
of Dylan mulvany. So they've got to do it to
keep their score up so the giant financial monsters don't
hurt them. And then finally five responsible citizenship minus twenty

(04:58):
five points deducted if a company gives money to organizations.
This is a quote whose primary mission includes advocacy against
LGBTQ equality, which is not defined but could easily include
Christian groups or any conservative group that, for instance, is
against experimental treatments for confused as adolescent girls wow permanent

(05:18):
mutilation of their bodies. If you say I'm not comfortable
with a confused twelve year old permanently altering her body
for some temporary identity crisis, you will lose big points
if there's any relationship between your company and somebody expressing
what I just expressed, and so there's enormous pressure on
them now through this Chinese style. Are you Woke? Score?

(05:44):
James Lindsay, friend of the Armstrong and Getty Show, who
runs the site called New Discourses and co wrote the
brilliant Cynical Theories book with Helen Pluckrose told The New
York Post that the Human Rights Campaign and ministers the
CEI ranking quote like an extortion racket. Like the it
doesn't just sit back passively either. HRC sense representatives to

(06:04):
corporations every year telling them what kind of stuff they
have to make visible at the company this year. They
give them a list of demands, and if they don't
follow through, there's a threat that you won't keep your
CEI score. Well, this is all under the braill of
the ESG Environmental, Social and Governance thing.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Right. If the question is is this powerful enough incentive
to get these companies to, you know, react, I think
the proof is in the pudding. I mean it's evident
to every area, look.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
That they're successful in their pressure campaign. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, something had to explain it. This explains it.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah. Well, it's satisfying a way to see the backlash
leaving as serious a mark as it has. Although you know,
there's part of me that thinks a lot of corporate
boardrooms and CEOs are thinking, for instance, in Anheuser Busch,
I just want to make SuDS that people suck down,
make ugly people better look, and boring people more interesting
and let you forget your problems for a little while.

(06:57):
I don't care about any of this stuff.