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> Corporations “went Woke” because they misperceived that as having popular support while only 8-10% of people supported it — and the rest hate it. > That misp

> Corporations “went Woke” because they misperceived that as having popular support while only 8-10% of people supported it — and the rest hate it. > That misperception has lost hundreds of billions in shareholder value, adding up just Disney, Warner, and Netflix. How so? Do any of those companies have competitors who didn't "go woke," and are now profiting off their missteps? Those companies may have lost a ton of value, but I don't think it's because of that cause. > Democrat politicians seem to have similarly misperceived — and now are facing widespread public backlash to their policy. But that may not matter. They're also cultivating a backlash against Republicans, hoping that will counter any backlash against them. IMHO, in our political moment, the major parties don't even try to make the middle happy; they try to make the middle mad at the other guys, so they can coddle their respective activist bases. This is why "democracy all the things" is kind of a shitty system. Primaries push the adults out of the room and give extremists too much say, which then requires toxic behavior to salvage an overall victory.

zmgsabst 4y ago
Yes — imported and independent media have done well over that same period. They’re literally setting records. You can also compare within a single studio, such as Prime Video: why did Reacher and Terminal List succeed where Wheel of Time and Rings of Power did not? Edit: > IMHO, in our political moment, the major parties don't event try to make the middle happy; they try to make the middle mad at the other guys, so they can coddle their activist bases. I agree.
- ssully 4y ago
  "Why did two military thriller TV series succeed when two fantasy TV series (one of which isn't even out yet) did not?". Seems like a lot of competing factors here chief!
- kirankp89 4y ago
  Just wanted to point out that Wheel of Time is one of Amazon’s most popular shows ever and Rings of Power isn’t out yet. Struck me as an odd comparison.
- mcphage 4y ago
  > where Wheel of Time and Rings of Power did not? So far, Rings of Power has pulled in Infinity dollars per episode. Probably won't stay that way, but that seems pretty successful to me.
throwaway894345 4y ago
This seems like a good point. Also, did these companies lose value relative to the last couple of years when we were all hunkering down binge-watching TV or did they lose value relative to their pre-pandemic years. In the latter case, I would guess it has something to do with the absolutely abysmal quality of 99.9% of content on those platforms ("woke" being just one of many kinds of lazy, low quality content).
hammock 4y ago
Even inside of Big Media you can see the relative commercial success or failure of a movie like Toy Story compared to a disinterested one like Top Gun
AndrewUnmuted 4y ago
I was with you until the very end. Democracy as a whole is a poor system for doing just about anything. For example, free & open source software is not a democracy and it would never work if it was. We got here today explicitly via hierarchies, and with some participants being a lot more productive and "correct," than others. That's not an issue of economics or even politics; democracy as defined & even practiced today goes against the way human beings make progress. The problem with the primary system is that it imposes significant guardrails upon intellectual debate, by making the partisans who coddle large vocal minorities appear to be the furthest you can go while still being successful. In fact, we have needed to think well outside even those boxes for many decades. We need the citizenry to hold more radical political views. Radical politics indicates an understanding of political concepts, things which today very few people with a voice actually have. I don't care if you want to be a communist, a libertarian, or even a fascist authoritarian. As long as we stop having dull, ridiculous conversations comfortably within the tiny ring of globalist technocracy. That is what's literally killing the civilized world.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  > Radical politics indicates an understanding of political concepts... It can. Or it can indicate a very distorted understanding, based on badly flawed assumptions. Within that distorted worldview, the most bizarre proposals can seem perfectly reasonable, even "scientific". There are radicals of several different flavors. They can't all have a (working) understanding of political concepts.
  - AndrewUnmuted 4y ago
    It's easier to talk somebody down from an insane point of view that is meaningless, than one that fits within the index card of allowable opinion yet is nonetheless very dangerous.
    - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
      My point is, everybody's got a point of view where their position is within their index card of allowable options. (And maybe one where the sane viewpoints are not on it...)
lrem 4y ago
> This is why "democracy all the things" is kind of a shitty system. Primaries push the adults out of the room and give extremists too much say, which then requires toxic behavior to salvage an overall victory. I'd say this has a deeper root cause - first past the post voting. Since merging your votes is a winning strategy, it just naturally tends towards a two party system. And once you have only two serious contenders on the ballot, you have to choose them somehow... And having that decided by a central committee, of which you have two, sounds like an even more slippery slope than primaries. The most annoying bit is the two parties. You either religiously belong to a blue tribe or a red tribe, or you're resigned to picking which of your values to sacrifice to have representation aligned with the others. STV seems to make things much better. Look at the current composition of Dáil Éireann - three large parties capturing a bit above 20% seats each, then almost as many independents, then a bunch of smaller parties. And every voter can truthfully say that their vote contributed to the elected candidate they liked most, not against a candidate they hated.

zmgsabst 4y ago

Yes — imported and independent media have done well over that same period. They’re literally setting records. You can also compare within a single studio, such as Prime Video: why did Reacher and Terminal List succeed where Wheel of Time and Rings of Power did not? Edit: > IMHO, in our political moment, the major parties don't event try to make the middle happy; they try to make the middle mad at the other guys, so they can coddle their activist bases. I agree.

ssully 4y ago
"Why did two military thriller TV series succeed when two fantasy TV series (one of which isn't even out yet) did not?". Seems like a lot of competing factors here chief!
kirankp89 4y ago
Just wanted to point out that Wheel of Time is one of Amazon’s most popular shows ever and Rings of Power isn’t out yet. Struck me as an odd comparison.
mcphage 4y ago
> where Wheel of Time and Rings of Power did not? So far, Rings of Power has pulled in Infinity dollars per episode. Probably won't stay that way, but that seems pretty successful to me.

throwaway894345 4y ago

This seems like a good point. Also, did these companies lose value relative to the last couple of years when we were all hunkering down binge-watching TV or did they lose value relative to their pre-pandemic years. In the latter case, I would guess it has something to do with the absolutely abysmal quality of 99.9% of content on those platforms ("woke" being just one of many kinds of lazy, low quality content).

hammock 4y ago

Even inside of Big Media you can see the relative commercial success or failure of a movie like Toy Story compared to a disinterested one like Top Gun

AndrewUnmuted 4y ago

I was with you until the very end. Democracy as a whole is a poor system for doing just about anything. For example, free & open source software is not a democracy and it would never work if it was. We got here today explicitly via hierarchies, and with some participants being a lot more productive and "correct," than others. That's not an issue of economics or even politics; democracy as defined & even practiced today goes against the way human beings make progress. The problem with the primary system is that it imposes significant guardrails upon intellectual debate, by making the partisans who coddle large vocal minorities appear to be the furthest you can go while still being successful. In fact, we have needed to think well outside even those boxes for many decades. We need the citizenry to hold more radical political views. Radical politics indicates an understanding of political concepts, things which today very few people with a voice actually have. I don't care if you want to be a communist, a libertarian, or even a fascist authoritarian. As long as we stop having dull, ridiculous conversations comfortably within the tiny ring of globalist technocracy. That is what's literally killing the civilized world.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
> Radical politics indicates an understanding of political concepts... It can. Or it can indicate a very distorted understanding, based on badly flawed assumptions. Within that distorted worldview, the most bizarre proposals can seem perfectly reasonable, even "scientific". There are radicals of several different flavors. They can't all have a (working) understanding of political concepts.
- AndrewUnmuted 4y ago
  It's easier to talk somebody down from an insane point of view that is meaningless, than one that fits within the index card of allowable opinion yet is nonetheless very dangerous.
  - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
    My point is, everybody's got a point of view where their position is within their index card of allowable options. (And maybe one where the sane viewpoints are not on it...)

lrem 4y ago

> This is why "democracy all the things" is kind of a shitty system. Primaries push the adults out of the room and give extremists too much say, which then requires toxic behavior to salvage an overall victory. I'd say this has a deeper root cause - first past the post voting. Since merging your votes is a winning strategy, it just naturally tends towards a two party system. And once you have only two serious contenders on the ballot, you have to choose them somehow... And having that decided by a central committee, of which you have two, sounds like an even more slippery slope than primaries. The most annoying bit is the two parties. You either religiously belong to a blue tribe or a red tribe, or you're resigned to picking which of your values to sacrifice to have representation aligned with the others. STV seems to make things much better. Look at the current composition of Dáil Éireann - three large parties capturing a bit above 20% seats each, then almost as many independents, then a bunch of smaller parties. And every voter can truthfully say that their vote contributed to the elected candidate they liked most, not against a candidate they hated.