ESG: How Woke Corporations Override American Voters and Threaten Freedom

A missing tabernacle and damaged angel statue in St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, which was vandalized and burglarized between May 26, 2022 and May 28, 2022. Operating outside of a political framework, ESG threatens to desecrate our freedoms and the institutions we hold dear. NYPD via AP

Commentary

The conservative movement in America has often used the “go woke, go broke” mantra to fight back against woke ideology in business. The concept of voting with one’s dollars and financially supporting businesses that respect the freedoms and values of their customers has allowed the political right to wield a certain level of power within a free market system. But, unfortunately, that system may be about to change.

An EpochTV episode titled “Christians and ESG: What You Need to Know” features ordained minister and best-selling author Lucas Miles in his series “Church and State.” In the episode, Miles examines how the woke left circumvents voters and weaponizes corporations to control people and limit freedoms.

What Is ESG?

ESG, “Environmental Social Governance,” is a business scoring system that ranks businesses based on their response to woke ideologies.

Miles compares ESG to the social credit system of communist China, where those who do not acquire an acceptable score are punished in the marketplace. Publicly traded companies are evaluated based on ESG and given a score that ultimately affects how investable they are. This is a direct way of circumventing American voters and undermining religious liberty.

Miles says that at one time, the job of CEOs and company boards was to produce profits. Today, companies are putting ESG scores over profits. This means companies will continue going in a certain direction even if it affects profitability, solely because they don’t want their ESG scores to be negatively impacted.

Environment, Social, Governance

The environment portion of the ESG score rates companies on energy use, land use, and reliance on fossil fuels versus wind and solar, among other criteria. This will immediately hurt certain companies, given the nature of their services.

The social component evaluates how companies treat employees and looks at their HR policies, such as forming company culture to be “less white,” policies of inclusion, etc. This gives more power to woke views on equity and inclusion versus faith-based worldviews on God-given equality and human rights.

Governance applies to all aspects of the company. Scores are then put together to determine how investable a company is, prioritizing ESG criteria over profits and profitability.

ESG Resembles Social Credit Scores

ESG is a soft introduction to social credit scores in America. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) utilizes social credit scores to monitor what people do, say, and think.

Scores are used to evaluate individuals based on how each person lines up with behaviors that the CCP wants to reward or punish.

Being discredited makes getting a job, loan, or even a hotel room more difficult. In this EpochTV episode, viewers learn that 4 million people in China have been blocked from being able to buy a high-speed train ticket due to low social credit. More than 11 million have been prevented from buying a plane ticket.

The result of social credit is that those who comply with the political ideology of the government experience a bit more leeway, while those who step out of line are denied fundamental human rights and kept under a much tighter leash.

In America, it’s easy to see how cancel culture and censorship by Big Tech could aid in implementing this social credit system. This will result in more liberties being taken away based on a person’s compliance with woke ideology.

Miles comments that he would think this possibility far-fetched if it weren’t already happening around the world.

For example, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka recently went through a major upheaval due to a lack of food, energy, and basic services. Sri Lanka boasted an ESG score of 98 out of 100 ESG. By that standard, Sri Lanka should be one of the greatest places in the world to live, yet it proved to be one of the worst.

ESG Cripples American Businesses and Profits the CCP

America already has the cleanest manufacturing facilities and the highest level of standards in the world. Mandating ESG spending on top of current expenditures puts an extreme financial burden on American companies.

Meanwhile, China adheres to very different standards in its labor camps and factories. This creates a disadvantage for American companies while allowing China to continue to profit from slave labor and lack of human rights regulations.

This is already why many companies send their business overseas to China. James Lindsay, author of “Cynical Theories,” says ESG is a sword to divide, conquer and box out competition. ESG will drive business to the largest corporations that can afford to abide by its standards. Local and small businesses cannot afford to compete.

Lindsay also notes that ESG acts as a shield for major corporations

It allows them to look morally virtuous, while in reality, they are sending business overseas to oppressive regimes like communist China and profiting from slave labor, organ harvesting, and other human rights and environmental violations that are not allowed on American soil. While doing this, major corporations can still look like the good guys simply for having a high ESG score.

According to the Heritage Foundation, ESG forces companies to take positions on political issues that have nothing to do with the actual business they provide. This is why we see more and more companies pushing woke policies instead of emphasizing the products or services they provide.

ESG Hurts Employees

Employees are losing their jobs, not based on a person’s quality of work, but on ESG requirements such as skin color. For example, if a company needs more minorities, it can fire someone for being white.

According to Lindsay, ESG is a scam to weaponize social justice and use it as a tool for control. Conservative commentator Glen Beck has said, “social justice has now been monetized.” The idea of “go woke, go broke” won’t hold any weight anymore. People are investing in ESG because people know this is the future of the marketplace. According to Beck, ESG investments rose from $10 billion in 2015 to over $246 billion in March 2021.

ESG Removes the Voice of American Voters

Lindsay tweeted recently that with ESG, leftists would no longer need the votes of Americans to enact the Green New Deal. Instead, they will have the power to tell your company what to do, how to do it, and who to hire and fire. This is the left’s way around the Constitution, the branches of government, and the voice of the American people. Woke extremists will no longer have to go through Congress to dictate the laws of the land.

Miles calls this corporate fascism. “It is using American corporations and global corporations to push Marxist ideology on the people of the United States and around the world without ever having to take it to a vote,” said Miles.

If woke policies had to go to the polls, American voters would have the power to make their voices heard and have their beliefs and rights represented. However, ESG is taking control of corporations and deriving its power from outside the government without the consent of the governed.

ESG Results in Religious Persecution

The EpochTV episode explores what ESG means for Christians or any people of faith. In short, ESG forces them to decide whether they will stand for their faith or participate in the woke system in order to feed their families. Miles hopes enough believers will refuse to do lip service to woke ideology and stand against it, regardless of the consequences.

ESG chases a score that will allegedly save the environment, while hurting people. The Bible tells Christians to take care of both the earth and the people in it. In contrast, the left treats people like parasites: they can be hired and fired based on skin color and oppressed based on compliance with the left’s arbitrary political rule.

In a free society, no one should be forced to support woke ideology in order to feed their family or keep their jobs. Likewise, people of faith should not have to worry about how to comply with a political ideology while living out their beliefs.

Miles believes there is still time to reverse the course of the Great Reset. He calls for Americans to stay current on ESG policies and use every legal means available to fight back. Today, ESG may apply to corporations, but if allowed to continue, ESG will increase its scope, impacting nonprofits and people of faith.

Watch “Christians and ESG: What You Need to Know” on Epoch Cinema here.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.