Ever since 2016, when Donald Trump got elected people have been asking, why do entertainment companies go woke. Everything they do seems to go against their purpose as a company.
The purpose of a company is to make money but it seems that modern day entertainment companies are willing to sacrifice profit for activism and make sure that the “message” gets across. Its called woke capitalism or at least that is the name that it was given.
What Is Woke Capitalism?
To make it simple, woke capitalism is capitalism that is driven by political correctness. This means that these companies push ideas that are suppose to be politically correct at the expense of their own business and profit.
Sounds crazy doesn’t it. Almost as if they plan for their own demise. However, there is a deeper reason that these companies become woke. What kind of business owner starts a business and then pushes for ideas that will guarantee that they will go bankrupt. Well, it all has to do with their investors.
Who Control The Top Entertainment Companies?
There is a trio of institutional investors that control a large portion of the top fortune 500 companies. It sounds crazy but this is really what is happening. This will explain why you see companies like Walmart, Target and a bunch of other corporations promoting things that has nothing to do with them such as LGBTQ pride, BLM and so called “oppressed minorities.”
This trio of institutional investment firms are
Vanguard
State Street
Black Rock
You have probably already heard about Vanguard. If you have ever been in the world of investment, the name Vanguard shows up very often. Also you probably already heard about Black Rock. They own a lot of real estate and during the magical 2020 pandemic they started buying up properties all over the United States and probably hiking the rent.
This Trio of intuitional shareholders control 20% of the fortune 500 companies in North America. That is right. 20% of the companies. So they have a lot of power. Also the people in these firms are very left leaning and very woke and thus they ask the companies they invest in to make these changes.
This is where woke capitalism comes into play.
Stakeholder capitalism claims everyone in the community has a stake in how a company’s activity impacts any number of issues from climate change to minority salaries. It argues that for a greater social good, corporations have a responsibility to take part in political and social causes that may have nothing to do with their business even if it does not benefit their shareholders.
Because these companies are being funded by these firms, they have to listen to what their stakeholders tell them to do.
If their stake holders tell them “you need more diversity hires and LGBTQ characters in your movie,” then companies like Disney and Netflix bend over for them and do as their told. If their stakeholders say “you need a strong independent woman as the main character that kicks the male characters in the balls,” then Netflix bends over and do as they are told.
Why Do Companies Need These Firms?
You are probably wondering, “well why don’t Netflix and Disney just cut ties with these investors.” Well, is not that simple because investors give a company money so that the company can grow and in exchange the investors also make money as the company grows.
Netflix probably would have not grown to the scale that it has without the capital provided by their investors. However, companies also give up ownership of their companies in exchange for capital from investors. Walt Disney only owned about 20% of his own business when he made a deal with these investors decades ago.
Sounds crazy doesn’t it.
The only other way for NO ONE to tell YOUR company what to do is for your company to be private, such as the Daily Wire.
I like to use the Daily Wire by Ben Shapiro because they manage to create a profitable business without going public (meaning being a public stock market company). The Daily Wire is currently a 100$ million a year business and they are making their own films.
They Daily Wire can do whatever they want because they are a private company. The owners, Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreign knew that if they become a public company then other people will have decision making power over their companies. As a private company the Daily Wire can make whatever kind of movie they want without the pressure of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) that is demanded from investment firms like Vanguard and Black Rock.
Is There Any Hope?
Yes there is hope.
You see many companies practice this woke capitalism until there is no capital. Until they run out of money and they start to realize that people hate the tv shows and movies they’ve been making and if they don’t change their tactics soon then they will go bankrupt.
Another way to fight this is to create your own entertainment.
Make your own comic book and publish it. Crowd fund it on Indiegogo or Kickstater.
Start your own movie company like the Daily Wire.
Make your own video game and publish it on Steam or Epic Games.
Most importantly, instead of going public, keep your business private so that way you don’t have crazy investors telling your what to do or how to run your business. A good example of private companies is White Castle which is a $720 million business.
This is one of the reasons why Elon Musk wants to make Twitter a private business instead of public.
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