In this installment of their weekly Sunday Six conversation, PF Whalen and Parker Beauregard of The Blue State Conservative focus on five irredeemably woke and anti-American companies that we must reject and the consumer’s options to replace them.
#5: Coca-Cola
PF: We’re only covering five companies, but there are so many more we could discuss, many of which are American icons. Perhaps there is no brand more iconic of American industry than Coca-Cola, and they have engaged in some of the most egregious wokeness we have yet seen.
In late-February, a whistleblower at Coke revealed company-mandated training requiring all Coca-Cola employees to learn about “what it means to be white,” and encouraging them to “try and be less white.” Racist indoctrination disguised as anti-racist wokeism. Screenshots of the PowerPoint presentation accompanying the training went viral, requiring Coke to shift to damage control mode, but only slightly.
Coke went on to double-down on their radical leftism six weeks later. In early-April, the Atlanta-based company couldn’t help themselves, deciding to weigh-in on the inexplicably controversial Georgia voting law stating, “The Coca-Cola Company does not support this legislation, as it makes it harder for people to vote, not easier.” As we have detailed many times here at The Blue State Conservative, Georgia’s voting law is common-sense legislation with the most impactful aspect being voter identification requirements, an idea which is supported by over 80% of Americans. Making matters worse for Coke, even the most extreme leftist Democrats who had opposed the law – Stacey Abrams and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) – have backtracked on opposing voter ID.
For anyone who is health-conscious, boycotting Coca-Cola is easy. I haven’t seen the latest studies on how unhealthy their soft drinks are, but it’s safe to say none of them are particularly good for you. But it’s not just the Coca-Cola brand at issue. Coca-Cola owns dozens of brands to consider, including Dasani Water, Minute Maid Juices, and Vitaminwater. Portions of any money you spend on any of these products will likely end up working against the best interests of our country. Just say no.
#4: Disney
Parker: There is more than meets the eye when one considers the Walt Disney Company. Theme parks and animated movies might have put Disney on the map, but it lands on our #4 spot thanks to its anti-white, anti-American, and completely bigoted worldview. Like most organizations, Disney mandated training centered on the evils of whiteness for employees. It again shows ignorance and ingratitude; Disney and its employees thrived in America precisely because they were in America, and not, say, Uganda. Where else in the world or in all of human history can nerdy artists make a comfortable living working in air conditioned offices draw and play around all day? It’s insane. It’s especially insane considering Disney’s “diverse” workforce would be subject to horrible conditions in most other places and time. Gay employees could be sentenced to death for sodomy in countries like Uganda. In American-based Disney, they get sweet paychecks and welcoming spaces. Chadwick Boseman earned a tidy $3 million for his role as Black Panther; that’s $3 million more than black slaves made in 1861 and it’s more than 99% of all white Americans today.
The rot of wokism is everywhere. Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009. Initial stories like Iron Man generally stayed out of politics and just made for pure escapism. In a decade, Disney executives ran vaunted comic book characters into the ground. Black Panther, we were told, was the best movie ever created and played on the fabricated narratives of black oppression. Captain Marvel was an obnoxious Mary Sue that championed every tired feminist talking point. Captain America was too white and patriotic, therefore he had to be replaced by a black man. Loki is a bisexual because…that’s important to character development.
Not to be outdone, Disney also purchased LucasFilm in 2012. The Star Wars sequel trilogy was led by Kathleen Kennedy, who in deciding that the force was female, chose not to develop strong scripts and instead pander to every niche of identity politics. Rey was awesome because she was a woman. Kylo Ren would be weak and effeminate because you can’t have strong male protagonists. The male legacy cast of Harrison Ford and Mark Hammill were reduced to pathetic versions of their prior selves. The female legacy cast of Carrie Fisher, meanwhile, retained her most positive traits. In the second and worst film, Captain Holdo infamously wasted valuable screen time to make sure we all knew women knew better than men, particularly the white male Poe Dameron. This is to say nothing of politics interfering with The Mandalorian; while leftist actor Pedro Pascal regurgitated stale Nazi references to Trump, the show ostensibly pretended that it was bothered by actress Gina Carrano’s tweets The official Star Wars account also tweeted out
Disney is also in the China movie business. When filming its live-action remake of Mulan, which also made sure to include an invincible female lead, it did so in a location that neighbored Uigher concentration camps. Disney has repeatedly gone on record that it stands against systemic racism and oppression in America. Chinese human rights records can’t get in the way of profits. It’s kind of like how the black character of Finn in its Star Wars franchise was shrunk from the movie posters. You can pretend to care about blacks in America, but there’s no point in shying away from the real black-centric racism in China.
This list could go on forever. Disney also owns ABC and ESPN. ABC is responsible for airing The View. That’s enough right there. It also produces Grey’s Anatomy, which started out as a likeable escape from reality with drama and good-looking people. Turn it on for five minutes and the stench of Covid panic porn and racial identity politics runs rampant. ESPN is a hollow shell of its former Sportscenter glory days, and now hires black pundits that overtly dislike and hate white people.
#3: United Airlines
PF: A company’s decision to go woke is problematic for a variety of reasons, but most such judgments don’t put customers’ lives in danger. But that is not the case with United Airlines. In mid-April, United announced their goal of ensuring that “at least half” of their new pilots will be women or “people of color” by the end of the decade.
When Facebook decides to prioritize skin color when hiring a new marketing executive, that approach may be racist and discriminatory, but it’s not dangerous to anyone’s safety. When Ben and Jerry’s decide to hire an operations manager based on her genitalia, that practice may be sexist and unfair, but at least it doesn’t jeopardize the lives of those eating their ice cream; probably. But when an airline openly explains their priority in the hiring of pilots, those same people whose flying skills can determine whether the aircraft we’re flying on lands safely or tumbles into a canyon in a fiery crash, the dangers of wokeness are taken to a new level.
Diversity for the sake of diversity is discrimination. And that’s a problem. But when that pursuit of diversity results in such a blatant bastardization of what’s important, lives could be at risk. We shouldn’t have to weigh such matters when we’re booking airline tickets, but that is the situation in which we find ourselves. Call me peculiar, but I’m going to make sure I fly with an airline that hires pilots based on ability, not on race or gender.
United’s wokeness doesn’t stop with their hiring practices. The airline was in-your-face with their support of Pride Month, they provide BLM pins for their employees to wear while on the job if they so choose, and most recently United issued a directive to employees to include their ‘preferred pronouns’ in their email address signatures. United Airlines is way out there, and one of the wokest of the woke.
#2: Professional Sports Leagues
Parker: In order to maximize our scope, I want to lump in the NBA, NFL, and MLB. Each has taken a brand of athletics that once highlighted superhuman talents and reduced it to, spoiled, ungrateful, and ignorant brats. Not only that, but these leagues actively root against American interests and denigrate the very Americans expected to not only watch, but cheer on, their expensive contests. As with most organizations on our list, none of this is a surprise, but it’s still worth mentioning.
Baseball moved its All-Star game in an overt act of political pandering and cowardice. The NBA allows its stars to wear lies printed on warm-up gear and jerseys, paints slogans on its courts, and permits social activism when said activism follows a script. Mentioning anything in China is bad, but portraying America as a racist hellhole is good. People like Daryl Morey were silenced for expressing concern about personal freedoms in Hong Kong but LeBron James was cheered for essentially doxing a hero police officer who saved a black girl’s life. The NBA is mostly black and has the highest paid athletes in all of sports. Sounds so tough.
The NFL is the worst, though. It started the kneeling craze, and last year players adorn their helmets with the names of rapists and outright liars. The Minnesota Vikings honored the violent felon and giant loser of a human being George Floyd in their first home game of 2020. Most recently, they pandered to the terroristic LGBTQ+ community with a truly bizarre effort at virtue signal. The NFL is gay? Is that a homophobic reference to men slapping one another’s butts? I say it’s just teamwork, but whatever NFL. The NFL is bi and transgender? I don’t even know what that means. But yes, let’s allow a woman parading as a man to play middle linebacker and see how that goes. It wouldn’t be the first time politics intentionally allowed innocent people to die. Just look at Big Tech and Big Government’s suppression of hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin and push for novel “vaccines.”
Wouldn’t it be great if more people finally tuned out? There would be something extremely satisfying about watching pathetic losers take a massive pay cut and ego check.
#1: Nabisco
PF: This New Jersey based company is thoroughly ingrained in American culture, yet it apparently despises the country that produced it. There are so many brands which are owned by Nabisco, avoiding them isn’t easy. Those brands include Trident Gum, Triscuit, Mallomars, and Chips Ahoy. But make no mistake, Nabisco is thoroughly woke.
A year ago, when the country was reeling from the COVID pandemic and racial unrest, Nabisco proudly announced a $500,000 donation to the anti-American, Marxist BLM movement and the NAACP. They made the announcement from the Twitter account of Ritz Crackers (yes, evidently crackers can have Twitter accounts) by stating, “We stand in solidarity with the Black Community and call for justice and change. We cannot be silent. Each of us has a role we can play.” Who knew that crackers can’t be silent? Also note the use of the uppercase “B” in black. The tweet went on to conclude, “We are committing support… towards the fight for racial equity.” Nabisco has mastered their virtue signaling, they are all-in: capitalizing the proper letters, using “equity” instead of “equality,” and focusing on “justice.”
But Nabisco doesn’t just support BLM, and Ritz Crackers aren’t the only snack with a Twitter account. In February, the Twitter account of Oreo cookies felt compelled to jump into the transgender debate by tweeting a picture of various cookies with an assortment of rainbow colored fillings instead of the traditional white filling, a nod to the Pride flag. That tweet also included the statement, “Trans people exist.” If cookies could talk, or tweet for that matter, that’s the type of idiotic declaration they would make, no doubt, which is why cookies should be tasted and not heard. Really, Nabisco? We had no idea that trans people existed. We were all thinking they were kind of mythical, like unicorns and bigfoot.
Putting down your Oreos and finding replacements for Triscuits is unfortunate, but necessary. If you’re buying from Nabisco, you’re putting money into the coffers of radical, anti-American leftists, and that is unacceptable.
Conservative Alternatives
Parker: It is easy to identify the plethora of woke companies. They all submit employees to delusional and dangerous seminars. They all rebrand with colorful virtue signaling logos on their Twitter feeds and email signatures. It’s as disingenuous as it is disgusting. We see right through the fraud when those same logos weren’t changed for truly oppressive societies like those in the Muslim Middle East and Communist China.
In any event, conservatives are bemoaning the rise of woke corporate pandering on a daily basis, but often forget to direct pro-freedom and pro-America consumers in a different direction. United’s diverse pilots might crash all of its airplanes in ten years, but who do you fly instead? Coke might lace its beverages with leftist Kool-Aid, but what else is safe to drink? Let’s explore the options.
#5: Instead of Coca-Cola, buy from Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.
The Dr. Pepper Snapple Group produces a host of well-known sugared, caffeinated beverages such as Dr. Pepper, 7Up, Mott’s, Snapple, A&W, and Crush. Insofar as Americans won’t stop consuming these carcinogenic cocktails, they might as well divert money from Coke and send it to a less woke corporation. Is it perfect? Nope. Is it better? You bet.
#4: Instead of Disney, get entertainment from independent creators.
This is admittedly more difficult. Hollywood is rife with activism. All major film studios produce absolute garbage and most leading actors/actresses are outspoken activists themselves. Every movie ticket purchased supports leftism. Even with movie theaters shut down, streaming options for entertainment are equally biased. Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, and the rest champion progressive causes, with overt attention paid to black and LGBT narratives and voices. Netflix might offer reruns of The Office, but that monthly subscription goes to paying for more wokeism.
Thankfully, media entertainment is slowly shifting. The Daily Wire produced its first live-action film – Run, Hide, Fight – to critical acclaim. They hired Gina Carrano to produce her own film, so that will be worth looking out for as well.
The Daily Wire is a bigger fish in the relatively small conservative ocean, but there is another angle to take here as well. At the risk of sounding like a teenage social media junkie, YouTube is a great place to support conservative causes and voices. While the platform itself is owned by the communists at Google (founded, ironically, by the son of parents who fled communism), it is nonetheless home to channels both big and small. Each view financially supports these creators. Stephen Crowder boasts of the largest streamed show throughout all of Google. My own playlist includes channels like The Officer Tatum, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), Zeducation. And, though not overtly political, a channel called The Critical Drinker breaks down cinema in an insightful, humorous, and loquacious way. His takes on film speak to larger problems with culture at large. He’s worth a listen.
#3: Instead of United Airlines, fly Southwest Airlines. Well, this used to be the case. Then Southwest went woke and started investigating a pilot for saying let’s go Brandon. So, at this point, you more or less have to pick your poison if you want to fly. Unfortunately.
The airline industry is on shaky ground as a whole for freedom. Expansive overreach with masks has curtailed personal choice and common sense. Southwest itself is not without issues.
However, this list focuses on the macro environment of companies. Corporate United declared its diversity manifesto. Delta spoke out against Georgia’s proposed election law. American took a dump on every general boarding passenger by banning alcoholic sales to them while maintaining the same service to first-class passengers. Regional carriers like JetBlue and Alaska Airlines peddle in their fair share of tripe as well by expressing support for Black Lives Matter.
All things being considered, if one has to fly, Southwest the corporation at least makes a dent in the conservative world. It’s CEO,Gary Kelly donated to the right-leaning Responsibility and Freedom Work PAC ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The same PAC benefitted from a donation from the Southwest Airlines Co. Freedom Fund, which is financed through voluntary employee contributions. (United and Delta also made donations to this fund, so take all of this with a grain of salt.) If this matters, Southwest is also headquartered in the freedom-focused state of Texas.
Is this a perfect solution? Probably not. But sometimes the lesser of two evils is the best choice available. At least a diversity hire won’t take down your United flight.
#2: Instead of consuming pro sports, go outside and play your own sports.
I remember as a kid and young adult that the best of sports would inspire me to pick up a ball, racket, bat, or club and emulate my sports heroes. This, of course, harkens a day when athletes were still considered heroes. Finishing up the fortnight at Wimbledon inevitably sent me to the nearest courts with friends. Likewise for the Sunday round of The Masters and even a thrilling conclusion to a Sunday afternoon football game.
I have been slowly dialing back sports for over a decade. Growing up will do that. Rather than invest my time in some narcissistic, overpaid athlete, I preferred to invest in myself. A lot can get done when you’re not glued to the television for a three-hour marathon of commercials – which were sometimes interrupted by the sporting event. The disparaging of our nation by Colin Kaepernick and every anti-American effort since then has only moved my needle from being stuck on passively disinterested to now actively disinterested. I make a point not to get caught up in sports, lest my television or streaming confuse a moderator with higher viewership.
My liberation from Sunday football, Monday night football, nightly baseball broadcasts, weeknight basketball, and the spate of other former must-see spectacles has provided hours upon hours of meaningful opportunities. I spent time with friends, I read, I pursued hobbies, In traveled, I dated, I got married, I’m raising a kid…it’s all better than cheering on angry and spoiled, and ungrateful millionaires who live the Top 1% lifestyle while finding time to pretend they’re enslaved by white team wonders and oppressed by a white-centric system. They can all go to hell.
I got angry just thinking about it again. I think I’ll just go outside.
#1: Instead of Nabisco products, buy from Goya.
I’ll trade one New Jersey company with another. Everyone is familiar with Goya Foods if they’ve ever walked down a grocery store aisle, though the name became much more publicized when it’s CEO gave President Trump credit for being a strong leader. A quick and fierce backlash erupted from the echo chamber known as Twitter, and social activist losers with opposable thumbs let the world know how diabolical this was. AOC called for boycotts. Yada yada yada; all par for the course.
The angry backlash from leftists was enough for me to buy more Goya products. Sure, they don’t have imitation Oreos and nothing compares to real Triscuits, but as with the rest of this list, the power of our collective consumer habits can send a meaningful message to woke corporations. Between the 2,000 or so products, I am sure there is something for everyone. Refried beans, anyone?
In any event, withholding a daily handful of enriched-wheat crackers or corn syrup-laden cookies should be happening with or without a conservative boycott. Nabisco has no problem infecting us with both toxic ingredients and toxic politics. Time to drop them both.
This article originally appeared on the Blue State Conservative
