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This is a mostly-fake, media phenomenon. Most CEOs and most companies do not engage in political activism, we just tend not to notice people not speaking out. W
by georgewfraser 6y ago
This is a mostly-fake, media phenomenon. Most CEOs and most companies do not engage in political activism, we just tend not to notice people not speaking out. What's described in this article is something the authors (and most journalists) want to happen, but it isn't actually happening at most companies.
- tootie 6y agoIt's not strictly political activism though. It's companies that are making voluntary commitments to thinks like diversity and inclusion, managing their ecological footprint, supply chain transparency. And this is all happening due to pressure from employees/customers/shareholders. In some cases it's CEOs having a genuine concern for the country, but more often they are being pushed out of economic necessity.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoDelta? MLB? Coca-Cola? Over the Georgia legislature's attempt to disenfranchise voters? This is fake? I don't believe so. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/4/5/22368566/corporate-response-georgia-sb202 https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/4/5/22368566/corporate-re... Larry Fink's letters to CEOs (Blackrock has $9 trillion AUM) https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1qqdhmzgrwbb3/Evidence-Shows-That-Larry-Fink-s-Annual-Letters-Actually-Work https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1qqdhmzgrwbb3... ("When Fink calls for transparency on issues like climate change, companies with significant BlackRock ownership adjust their disclosures.") "As society became politically polarized, companies became more activist. With a 24-hour news cycle and social media fanning polarization, it’s more problematic for organizations and their CEOs to remain neutral. Consider what’s happened in the past decade: Hobby Lobby — a chain of craft stores that challenged a federal mandate stating companies pay for insurance coverage for contraception — took their case all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Nike featured the controversial athlete and social crusader, Colin Kaepernick, in an ad campaign. Retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped selling certain weapons in response to tragic mass shootings nationwide." https://hbr.org/2020/02/how-do-consumers-feel-when-companies-get-political https://hbr.org/2020/02/how-do-consumers-feel-when-companies...
- dimgl 6y agoExcuse me while I roll my eyes so hard they go into orbit
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- slackfan 6y agoMLB: "These voter ID laws are terrible, let's move the game to a state with stricter voter ID laws, that'll show 'em!" Ok.
- CalChris 6y ago99% of Colorado voters voted by mail with record turnout. There is no voter id when you vote by mail, only when you register. Moreover, Colorado accepts significantly more forms of ID for registration than does Georgia. https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/colorado-voters-set-state-primary-record-for-turnout-with-more-than-99-using-mail-ballot https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/colorado-vote... https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/vote/acceptableFormsOfID.html https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/vote/acceptableFo... https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/georgia_voter_identification_requirements2 https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/georgia_voter_identif...
- mikepurvis 6y ago"So, while it's true that Colorado has fewer days for in-person voting, it also has far less demand for in-person voting. Voters rarely encounter lines here. And the ultimate result of Colorado's system is relatively high turnout." https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/984857562/fact-check-how-colorado-georgia-voting-laws-differ-despite-conservatives-claims https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/984857562/fact-check-how-colo...
- Scalestein 6y agoColorado had just shy of 87% voter turnout. Without getting into specifics that points to a state which is pretty easy to vote in (mail in ballots, easy access to ballot boxes, same day registation, etc.) By contrast Georgia has historic minority voter turnout and voted in 2 democratic senators and voted for the democratic presidential candidate. In response the republican state government passed a law restricting voting under the claims of voter fraud despite there being no evidence showing such fraud.
- bdcravens 6y agoCouldn't the same be said of most people? Aside from being noisy on social media, most people don't do anything.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Layke1123 6y agoThis is how the narrative moves. A few CEOs take a stand, the media jumps on it, people read it, other CEOs see people reading it, jump on board, and that's how it flourishes. The media didn't create it, it only amplified it. The media only ever amplifies what it finds. It doesn't manufacture it.
- endori97 6y ago>>The media only ever amplifies what it finds You mean likes: the media only ever amplifies what it likes and wants more of. There's like 1m people at the pro-life march each year that get zero press.
- Layke1123 6y agoThat is entirely different from the fabrication of stories. There is a reason CNN is different from say the Enquirer. As for the pro-life marches, its telling the something like Fox News doesn't even cover them huh there bub? Your bias showing through?
- CalChris 6y agoTens of Thousands Pack March for Life 2020 Event with Trump Tens of Thousands. This was well before quarantine and for the first and only time with a president in attendance. https://heavy.com/news/2020/01/trump-march-for-life-2020-crowd-photos/ https://heavy.com/news/2020/01/trump-march-for-life-2020-cro...
- endori97 6y agoedit: on video it looks like 100k, but not 1m.
- Layke1123 6y agoGreat, what else you got? A majority of Americans support abortion. Only a minority yell loudly about it.
- stormbrew 6y agothis is nonsense. Most CEOs (and wealthy people in general) and medium-to-large companies engage in a lot of political activism, and always have. Lobbyists don't pay themselves, after all. We just don't call it 'activism' when it's in support of corporate interests (even when those corporate interests have social impacts) for some silly reason. It only gets called activism when it scares someone with power.
- minikites 6y agoExactly. It's somehow not activism when corporations and executives lobby for lower taxes or less regulation, it's only activism when a company or executive say that the police should kill fewer black people or that trans people deserve basic human rights.
- Rule35 6y agoTrans people do have all human rights - your gender expression does not change your access to your other rights. So anyone saying 'trans people deserve basic human rights' is actually saying something else, like about access to women's spaces. That disingenuous advocacy of one thing to get another thing through under the table is more activist than principled. In a company or otherwise.
- drooby 6y agoI think in this context OP meant _social_ justice activism.
- stormbrew 6y agoYes, in other words one kind of activism is considered worse (or less 'neutral') than others. Do you think that lobbying for and getting massive tax exemptions has no social impacts? SCV is basically one of the richest places on the planet, with likely trillions of dollars effectively flowing through it, and it can't even manage to keep enough shelter for homeless people going or have a functioning public transit system. That's not neutral, but we pretend it is. It is social, but we pretend it's not.
- jdoliner 6y agoYup exactly this, such a common headline from modern journalists. "Pressure is building (by us) for thing that society (us) wants to happen."