No company’s fall from grace is more disappointing than Disney’s.
The house that Walt built went from being a kingdom of magic and innovation that seized the hearts and minds of children and adults alike to a mere shadow of its former self. In the last decade, the company left behind its family-friendly goals and began embracing radical leftist politics with a focus on the feminist and LGBT agendas.
This focus on social justice corroded everything under the Disney banner. Two major brands, Star Wars, and Marvel, went from being the goal of any major studio to a cautionary tale as both franchises were stuffed full of bad writing, bad CGI, and even a mountain load of politics that few people could actually stomach.
Moreover, various other programs really showed Disney was heading down a path that few people could follow. One episode of “The Proud Family” on its Disney+ streaming service attempted to push the 1619 Project lie that “slaves built this country.” The episode immediately set the internet ablaze with plenty of people swearing they were canceling subscriptions to the service.
(RELATED: No, Slaves Didn’t Build This Country)
Sure enough, it would appear that the threats that people were going to walk away proved to be true. Disney+ has been suffering a subscriber loss in the millions.
I have no doubt in my mind that Disney won’t suddenly crumble into dust. It’s a massive corporation with a lot of brands that bring in a lot of money. While I can’t predict how the company will look in 20 years, it’s a safe bet that it’ll still be around and still a major player in entertainment.
This doesn’t mean that Disney can’t feel pain when it’s inflicted. It’s taken some very heavy blows over the course of the past few years, both at the box office and at its parks. In fact, when it attempted to step into the political ring with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, it lost its Reedy Creek district, which was another heavy financial blow to the company.
The company is bleeding out and as I previously reported, it’s having to slash 7,000 jobs in order to try to save $5.5 billion in costs.
Interestingly, a good chunk of it is having to come from its entertainment division according to CNBC.com:
The second round of cuts, which will be completed Thursday, will affect various divisions across the company, including Disney Entertainment and ESPN, as well as Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. The jobs affected will span across the country from Burbank, California, to New York and Connecticut. CNBC reported last week layoffs would soon commence at ESPN.
The firing of Victoria Alonso, a former Marvel VP, was possibly a sign of things to come. Alonso was a massive social justice advocate who pushed for Marvel to venture ever leftward. With that knowledge, one has to wonder if Disney has learned what its former fans have been trying to tell it.
The 7,000 employees to be cut would be a great way for Disney executives to weed out the radicals in their midst. Politics has clearly been a cancer on the company and the best way to cure itself is to cut the cancerous growth out. So problematic were these employees that apolitical and conservative employees would report being nervous to do anything at the company for fear of the mob within the company turning on them.
If Iger and his team are smart, they’ll begin ridding themselves of the thing dragging the company down; their resident activists. The company is infested with them and it can’t get back on track unless it rids itself of them. The cuts, while necessary, would be the perfect cover to do so.
Once that’s done, they can begin bringing in talent that actually cares more about storytelling and running a business than using the company as a vessel for their own political agendas.
If this happens, and Disney begins to return to the values that set it apart from everyone else, it may very well recover its reputation within a decade at the very least.
Sadly, this is easier said than done and the cancer has had a very long time to spread. Even one small group of activists can bring it back and there’s no possible way that Disney will fully commit to an ideological purge at the company, especially when that purge is of the leftist variety.
The faith that Disney will do this is low as evidenced by a poll I recently put up on Twitter.
Do you think Disney terminating 7,000 jobs, including those in its entertainment division, is the beginning of its attempt at redemption and change?
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) April 24, 2023
Anything is possible, and time will tell.
We’ll know within a couple years if Disney actually learned their lesson by the products they begin putting out.
