As USA Today reported in May, a handful of corporations are looking to tone down their Pride celebrations after being hit right in the bank accounts due to backlash over previous celebrations of queerness and transgenderism, an increasingly divisive topic and for good reason. 

Target and Bud Light, in particular, seem be hesitant to go full bore into Pride Month like they used to, with Bud Light still not fully recovered from the nationwide boycott it received for putting Dylan Mulvaney on one of their cans. 

Hilariously, Jon Stewart's segment on corporations puts their "morals" in spotlight, and indicating that they don't actually have any. They just value the money. 

Jon Stewart asks why corporations pretend to have morals when we all know the only thing they value is money. Watch the full segment on YouTube: https://t.co/UVNkKjqZng pic.twitter.com/dwcm2UaMmT

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 11, 2024

My reaction? "Duh." 

As I wrote last week, "Pride Month" isn't a celebration of the LGBT community, it's a show of obedience to the LGBT activists so it qualifies for ESG bucks, business-to-business deals with other corporations, and good media attention. If all that dried up tomorrow and there was no financial benefit to celebrating Pride Month, you wouldn't see one rainbow display in major corporate outlets. 

(READ: It's Only Pride Month for Corporations)

This is pandering, and pandering does not equal care. In fact, I'd argue that pandering can be a lot like predation in that it lures in people to hand over their time and resources while not actually caring about their well-being. You see it in politics all the time when poor schmucks are lead to the voting booth with false promises and bad "I'm just like you" acting and then receiving nothing in return from the person they put in power. It's all nonsense, but it works. 

But let's get something straight here on Pride Month. 

Corporations do not have "morals." As Stewart made clear, corporations have one concern and one concern only, and that's making money. If tomorrow, a corporation knew it could make a solid chunk of cash and good will in the media by supporting the beheading of puppies, then it would publicly shell out money to organizations that do that. It might even sell guillotine kits for home use. 

They're certainly doing what they can to minimize their commitments to Pride Month, despite signaling their virtues about it in previous years. 

Walmart, Target, Bud Light, Kohl's, and any other business who paints their logo a rainbow color in June (but not in countries that outright reject homosexuality of any variety) are not LGBT allies. There may be people in the company that actually do care, but their cacophony of demands on inclusivity and acceptance would fall on deaf ears if it meant celebrating Pride was so detrimental to the bottom line that practicing it meant a steep drop in stock price. 

But whereas this lesson needs to be learned for the LGBT community, this is a good reminder to everyone else as well. 

Corporations don't care about you. They will legitimately harm you if it makes them a buck. They will turn your society upside down if it makes them billions. They will reach their hands into the deepest recesses of our government and make it a puppet for their own agendas if they can. 

You can ask Pfizer all about that.