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Right-wingers are forever announcing boycotts of major corporations for their alleged “wokeness.” This past week, these culture warriors have started raising a stink about Bud Light after trans influencer Dylan Mulveny endorsed the blue-collar beer in a Tik-Tok video. “Get woke, go broke!” is their favorite slogan, though they often forget the exact wording: (CW: Transphobia.)
Yes, that’s a video of the ever-pompous Sebastian Gorka muttering about “cuckolds” and tossing a six-pack of Bud Light (which he probably bought for the occasion) into the trash.
Yes, that’s Kid Rock shooting up cases of Bud Light (which he probably bought for the occasion, too) with an assault rifle.
The haters have also recently turned on Nike–again for a Dylan Mulveny endorsement–and Jack Daniels for a commercial featuring drag queens from 2021.
There’s just one problem with the whole idea of “get woke, go broke”: It’s not true. Companies that “get woke” seem to be doing just fine; in fact, as a recent survey by Rolling Stone shows. The slogan, the magazine points out,
allows MAGA country to believe that there is ongoing, massive backlash to products that acknowledge and celebrate marginalized communities. But the supposed boycotts never seem to be reflected in the bottom line.
Rolling Stone looks at a number of targets of high-profile right-wing boycotts–from coffeemaker Keurig to Disney–and reports that many are recording record profits, opening up new factories, or otherwise showing signs of extreme non-brokeness.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s aggressively anti-woke moves at Twitter have left the social media site circling the drain, with advertisers fleeing and would-be moneymakers like the Twitter Blue paid subscription program flopping mightily. People seem to actually prefer wokeness to anti-wokeness, and polls bear this out. In any case, despite all the attention they get on Twitter and from Fox News, these anti-woke boycotts don’t seem to be catching on outside the MAGA bubble, and maybe not even within it.
Suppose they gave a culture war and no one came?
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@Elaine
I am so sorry. I hope your friend pulls through.
@Elaine: So sorry! I’m too far away to help, so I’ll hope. And send a virtual casserole. 💐🥘🌹
If your friend makes it, do tell them internet strangers are pulling for them.
@Elaine: I’m too far away to help, but I’ll hope.
💐🌹🥘
(that last is a virtual casserole or soup pot)
Tell your friend internet strangers are pulling for them.
Gah this is ridiculous. Also, is it automatically a sign of “wokeness” if someone trans is in a commercial for something? That’s a pretty wide definition of “woke.”
@Elaine – That’s awful! I hope they are OK. Take care of yourself and don’t hesitate to write here or not write here, whatever you need.
OT, but my electricity and Internet are finally both back! Montreal just had the worst ice storm since 1998 and it knocked down loads of trees and branches, so for three days I had no power at home. Then Saturday and yesterday my internet provider was down.
But we’re lucky; the storm’s only casualties in this household, direct and indirect, were
1) the clothesline – a big branch fell on it
2) the bathroom window frame (A candle melted and burned part of the plastic above, but I was able to put out the flame before it spread to the wooden part. Thanks to the smoke alarm working!! The thing is usually a nuisance, going off whenever there’s the least bit of smoke from cooking, but this time it possibly saved our lives)
@Cyborgette:
“Gaslighty” would presuppose they cared one way or another. They don’t. The logic of the large corporation is the logic of the cancer cell: growth, by any means possible, is the only imperative. They may use any matter as a wedge issue where it might benefit their own bottom line, but they have no real opinion or care on any matter except their own size, as measured in market cap, property owned, or whatever other metric.
Those lesswrongers’ worries about basilisks and paperclip maximizers were naive: the paperclip maximizers are already here. The alignment problem between the goals of people and the goals of powerful, autonomous things we’ve invented is manifest already in, for instance, climate change. A bureaucracy is a low-speed computer that calls humans as oracle-subroutines to do the AI-hard bits of its job, while ignoring anything irrelevant from those humans (such as, say, morals and ethics) … even a relatively enlightened CEO has limited power versus the Board, the bureaucracy, and Wall Street, and ditto a relatively enlightened banker on Wall Street versus the “market forces” worshipped by the Rand acolytes. The Randroids, in particular, may as well be praying to a giant paperclip in the Clippy Cathedral. The end result is the same.
The singularity they keep nattering on about already happened, back in the 18th century or so. Powered machines, bureaucracies, corporations as legal persons, the dawn of modern capitalism … these, particularly in combination, have transformed the world in ways that would have been unforeseeable to the people living then, and they may yet destroy it outright.
@Dave:
In fairness, it would be unreasonable to expect any thoughts from someone with no brain.
@Elaine
I’m sorry to hear the news regarding your friend; I hope they pull through and are safe
@Elaine: I hope your friend pulls through, recovers, and thrives going forward
That whole “I will not be judged by the beer that I drink” blah… from the second kid rock one… none of us on the supposed “woke” side said anything about judging. So who’s likely doing the actual judging here? You and your asshole virtue signaling friends, that’s who! You absolutely will be judged by them if they catch you drinking the woke beer (until next week when they’ve all forgotten about it).
I’m sure you think we’ll all be drinking bud light now because the conservatives say that lefties and liberals are the ones who are afraid of what everyone thinks. I’m not afraid of what anybody thinks. Plus I don’t drink so no I will not be drinking any bud light.
All of this is a bunch of virtue signaling, like others have pointed out. It is all performance to impress their MAGA friends. I’m so tired of the projection.
@Elaine: I’m so sorry for you and your friend. I hope your friend pulls through
At what point can we force Kid Rock to change his name to the more accurate Old Ramble?
@ Elaine
It is just awful that your friend was so hurt by the evil the Republicans are doing, I hope they are doing ok and that you all have good community to help each other get through such horrid times.
OK, no idea how that double post happened, but am letting the double good wishes stand. Please let us know, whatever happens.
@epitome: That was definitely a weekend. Tabernac! I light the candles in the glass bowls just to be safe during power outages. Easier to carry around the house to find other sources of light. Although once when the Mr. and I were both slowly walking down the main hallway (it’s a ranch house) with those, I sang “Silent Night”, then we did the chant of the head-thumping monks from “Holy Grail” (minus the smack). Which all, appropriately, did Confuse-A-Cat.
@RJ Dragon
What’s-his-name, the rat-faced failed actor on Daily Wire, was saying that she’s simultaneously an offensive caricature of a woman and stereotypes around femininity, but wholly sincere in her presentation. Of course, I don’t think for a second that he gives a shit about women or our problems. He just wants to hate on a tran.
Even if she is playing up stereotypes about women and femininity and trans women in particular, it’s not her fault that stereotypes exist and she’s not responsible for our perception of her in relation to them. There is no possible way that any single trans woman, no matter how annoying, problematic or toxic, could do more damage to us or the public perception of our collective personhood than the right is doing in the halls of the state and in their media.
What I love about this is how nakedly genocidal this is. No one I have seen comment on Dylan as a spokesperson has mentioned anything she has said. This isn’t a “The wokes are all so mean, how dare they have someone controversial as their brand ambassador!” It’s literally that she is trans. That is a reason to protest her.
that’s one of the most hilarious things about this to me. she’s mainstream, unoffensive and attractive. if she wasn’t openly trans they would have no issue with her.
@elaine Canada is seriously considering giving refugee status to trans people. We have several n our neighbourhood and nobody harasses them. It’s a hate crime here. I hope your friend recovers and comes here.
The Budweiser exec behind the Mulvaney partnership has taken a leave of absence.
https://nypost.com/2023/04/21/bud-light-replaces-marketing-exec-behind-dylan-mulvaney-partnership-report/