In March, people shopping at Target began noticing a new line of clothing on full display on mannequins at the front of the store—LGBT clothes, clothes from a Satanic brand, and merchandise with Satanic messaging. These included clothes for small children and onesies for babies. Also included was “tuck-friendly” clothing for males who identify as females and want to have women’s swimsuits that will hide their private parts.
“Attention all shoppers, there’s a cleanup on every aisle. Target is targeting your kids,” the opening line states.
Then there’s Bud Light. Anheuser-Busch chose to go “woke” in March for the NCAA March Madness tournament, using a picture of transgender Dylan Mulvaney, an actress and pro-Biden social media influencer, to help sell its fourth big-selling beer, Bud Light. They chose Mr. Mulvaney, who identifies as female, to celebrate that he had just passed a year, a personal milestone, in his transition toward becoming a female; a transition that he had shared almost every day on social media.
However, this woke decision led to an amazing backlash and boycott against the brewer, which it appears it won’t be able to overcome. Anheuser-Busch’s share price fell $13.63 from when the market closed at $66.57 on March 31, just a day before Mr. Mulvaney appeared on Twitter to brag about the personalized Bud Light cans and partnership.
By June 2, Anheuser-Busch had lost a whopping $27 billion in market value in the wake of its partnership with Mr. Mulvaney.
- “Maybe Anheuser-Busch will get the picture ... that some people are not on board with their decisions! Why can’t beer makers ... JUST MAKE BEER!”
- “I want to know how stupid you have to be to not realize who your customers are. Trying to appease maybe 1% of the populace they gave the middle finger to everyone else.”
- “As we have seen with each and every company/industry that panders to the woke brigade. The woke mob does not support or buy the products that you promote to them. All you are doing is turning away your existing supporters. Movies, music, comics, sports, food, drinks, clothing ...”
By mid-July, Costco gave Bud Light the death star. According to the Washington Examiner, Costco, the third largest wholesale retail warehouse store in the world, announced on July 13 that it‘ll no longer be carrying Bud Light. Once all the beer is sold, it’ll no longer restock its shelves with the brand.
ESG May Be Behind Companies’ Wokeness
In case the reader isn’t familiar with the “Environmental, Social, and Governance” (ESG) set of standards, it has become much more influential over the past few years, exercising more control over businesses and even banks—coercing them to go along with the progressive woke agenda to be able to stay in business.ESG means that a company or business or even a bank will be judged according to how well it adheres to woke standards of environmental guidelines concerning climate change, energy use, and other “sustainable” policies; how well the business goes along with the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” framework and whether their employees meet certain quotas for race, gender, ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, and so forth (that’s the “social” part); and how politically involved it is in supporting the right kind of politics—progressive and liberal, of course (that’s the “governance” part).
In March 2021, Justin Haskins, editor-in-chief of the Heartland Institute, said on Glenn Beck’s show that ESG has a metrics system, a numerical score, for evaluating a company based on how “green” and “socially just” it is.
There’s a large amount of money—trillions of dollars—set aside to use to reward the woke high-ESG-scoring companies. Thus, companies that don’t make a lot of money selling their products (because they may have been boycotted by their upset customers like Target and Anheuser-Busch) but are very woke with a high ESG score can still stay in business because of the awards coming to them.
Those awarding the money also say they'll only invest in certain types of businesses. So if you want that money, you must jump through the political correctness hoops to get it.
Mr. Beck asked who makes the judgment calls. Mr. Haskins told him that it’s the World Economic Forum International Business Council, led by the CEO of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan. They created a report in September 2020 with an elaborate ESG system that they think all the major companies in the world should adopt.
The list includes things such as percentage of employees by gender as well as how many ethnic groups are included. For example, if you don’t have the right ratio of Asians to Hispanics, you get a lower score. It also helps to have a certain percentage of employees who belong to a labor union.
Mr. Haskins gave the example of Coca-Cola: It actually lists its ESG score in its annual report. It has an ESG auditor who gives it its ratings.
ESG was started by the U.N. in 2006, when the organization was promoting its Agenda 21 Sustainable Development Goals, now called Agenda 2030. Those U.N. schemers were saying, “How can we get businesses to go along with our agenda when we can’t get government to impose it?”
Their agenda is really a communist one of total control of every aspect of our lives—“how man interacts with the environment.” They wanted to somehow get that idea into the bloodstream of the corporate universe. The way they figured out how to do that was to get investors, central banks, the International Monetary Fund, the World Economic Forum, and the U.N. behind this and say, “We‘ll only support you if you agree to adopt and live by these ESG standards. If you do, then we’ll take care of you and make sure the money keeps flowing in your direction.”
They’ve been building this whole ESG infrastructure for almost 15 years. No one really noticed it or knew what was happening until now. All of the major corporations that we can think of already have this system in place.
They also call it “stakeholder capitalism.” Mr. Beck gave examples of how it is affecting our private lives: GoFundMe yanked a fundraiser that parents were holding against critical race theory, and Home Depot co-sponsored a website citing the Southern Poverty Law Center and The 1619 Project. So Home Depot is helping to fund what Mr. Beck calls the “poison” coming from the distorted American history of The 1619 Project.
Beck said: “The insidious part of ESG is that it doesn’t just affect the company. It affects everyone in the chain of that company. So every company that drives a truck for that company, who makes a widget for that company, etc., will be adopting the EU’s ESG policy.”
And every company in the chain of command has to have a good ESG “social credit” score, just like in communist China, or they could be blacklisted and not be allowed to be part of the supply chain.
- The largest U.S. bank cut ties to a conservative group, canceling a Donald Trump Jr. event.
- In 2019, JPMorgan Chase closed bank accounts associated with several political activists and commentators.
- Wells Fargo suspiciously closed a bank account belonging to Lauren Witzke, a 2020 Republican candidate for the Delaware Senate.
- Citibank and other large banks rolled out restrictions for gun manufacturers and retailers.
- PayPal admitted to closing accounts flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- Tina Descovich, co-founder of the conservative group Moms for Liberty, said her organization and some members have had their accounts frozen by PayPal in Florida.
What Can We Do?
Mr. Beck suggested that we get our state legislators to write bills against ESG in our own local states. He was instrumental in getting one passed in Utah. Five other states have passed similar laws: Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana, and Florida.- No state contracts awarded to businesses for ESG
- Prohibit state pension funds from being used under ESG
- Pass a fair access to financial services act that gives protection for you—the individual
- Local banks will be required to tell you about your ESG score when you’re applying for a loan (right now they don’t have to tell you anything)
