The modern era is a complicated one as more technology and methods of communication have created more nuanced problems. But as Dave Chappelle once joked, “modern problems require modern solutions.”
At this point, it’s not arguable that the majority of corporations have become so infected with leftism that they began to resemble activist organizations more than the product they’re actually built upon. Politics infected everything from the NFL to men’s razors, but of all the examples, Disney stands out above the rest. Its dive into political activism literally caused it to try to start a war with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over a bill securing parental rights against schools, which Disney lost to a great degree.
(READ: DeSantis Officially Torpedoed Disney’s Tax Haven After It Stepped Into the Political Ring)
Thing is, the more I watch many corporations fumble the ball, the more I realize that there are two entities within them. While corporations like Disney may be filled to the brim with activists, including the man at the top, most are just clueless old dudes and board members that are doing what they were told will make them money. With so many activists working in corporate America and the rest of corporate America being afraid of their ability to cancel them and threaten their bottom line, obedience to the leftist ideologies is pretty much a given.
Yet they’re losing money and it confuses them. They were told this is what the people wanted and yet, they’re not buying it. In an effort to stop any inconvenient questions, the showrunners and Twitter mobs will blame the failure of something on a societal ill. The people denouncing the product are racist, sexist, bigoted, etc., and they’re very persuasive to a very rabid audience of racists, sexists, and bigots. If they would only be silenced, people would love “Velma.”
But that’s not reality. The question is, how do we get these corporate big wigs to see reality?
You could write tweets, and letters, make YouTube videos and TikToks, all day that conveys the message directly to the company that what they’re doing is counterproductive to their bottom line. You can speak logic all day to them, it’s not going to matter when these people have a modern-day Wormtongue in their ear.
The answer is simple. The thing that talks louder than anything is still money.
While the boycott is still a valid option, it’s not the hammer it once was. Major corporations don’t really fear boycotts like they used to. They’re so huge and have so many tentacles in so many different businesses that a short loss is nothing. Like taking a cup of water out of a lake, the missing water will immediately be filled in by water from the surrounding area. So it is with corporations.
That’s not to say boycotts aren’t important. It’s still good to refuse to buy or participate in the things that you disagree with, it just now has to be supplemented.
Enter the “acute buycott.”
The concept is simple. A major corporation loves to buckle down on what makes them money. If superheroes work, they whip that horse till it’s dead. If nostalgia makes them a chunk of cash, then everything is getting a remake or a reboot. You can probably look back over the course of your life and think of a myriad of examples of a corporation annoying you with something that was interesting and novel at first, and then just became tired and overdone.
We the people can use this to our advantage.
If we tuned in when something is done correctly, then the corporation will see the bump in attention and the subsequent boost in cash. When they regress, stop giving them attention again. When they do it right, come back.
People, especially people on the right, have a very “pick up our toys and go home” mentality. Once we’re slighted, it’s completely over and no more business will be done with the offender. That may have worked in the past, but as I wrote above, those days are over. A more nuanced approach is needed.
A good example can be seen in a review done by YouTuber “ComixDivision,” on whose shows I’ve been appearing randomly lately. The review centered around the show “Picard,” a reboot of sorts surrounding Jean-Luc Picard of “Stark Trek: The Next Generation.”
The show is now on its third season, with the previous two seasons having been unbearably woke. Yet, Comix couldn’t help but highlight that the show is doing something that brings it into being watchable again and he spoke well of the show for it while still making it clear that it’s doing some things wrong. It’s a very nuanced take and I encourage you to watch it.
At the end of the video, he quotes yours truly about my take on his approach to the video.
I compare corporations (in this case CBS) to a dog that needs training. When training a dog, you don’t just tell it when it’s being bad, you also have to tell the dog when it’s being good. Doing so gives the dog a clue as to what it needs to do as well as what it shouldn’t. Just telling Fido it’s bad all the time can actually be confusing and cause a lot of anxiety and stress that it will relieve in all sorts of destructive ways.
Corporations are the same way. Just telling a giant business it’s bad doesn’t exactly give it the full picture. It needs to know when it’s doing something good. If it gets the message through continued application of reward, eventually it will begin understanding what you and everyone else want.
This will work for most corporations, not all of them, but most of them. This is because capitalism works.
As corporations continue to evolve and morph, so must the people communicating with them. Nuance is necessary, and thus the acute buycott is an important tool.
