Tractor Supply Company Joins Bud Light and Target on the List of Corporations Learning that Americans Reject Left-Wing Agendas
If you ask a cross-section of Americans to list their favorite retail chain, Tractor Supply Company (TSC) would be on few lips. Its stores possess nothing of glamor or marketing flair. A store’s atmosphere is deliberate, reflecting a no-nonsense, get-the-job-done-and-get-out crowd. Despite its “under the radar” image, the company has come under fire for adopting … Read more
![The Woke World Traps Many. Here are Some Suggestions for Breaking Free of It To many people, the spirit of “wokeness” is baffling. It is the rough equivalent of saying that truth is a lie and that virtue is harmful. It turns the world upside-down and inside-out. The Path to Absurdity Perhaps the Smithsonian Institution inadvertently provided a guide to the nation’s befuddlement with wokeness in the summer of 2020, when its National Museum of African American History and Culture published an “iconographic” titled Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness and White Culture in the United States. It said that everything from Christianity to Individualism and Science to Justice were parts of a “dominant culture” that alienates and excludes almost everyone. Despite its bizarre affirmations, the woke movement cannot be dismissed as misguided and doomed to failure. It enjoys too much protection and promotion. Wokeness continues to advance as observant Americans regularly see evidence of its power. The recent Congressional hearings in which the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tried to defend the woke worldview merely revealed its intellectual and moral bankruptcy. How can a set of ideas that are so ridiculous survive at America’s (presumably) finest universities? A Slippery Path to Self-Importance This is the environment in which Teresa Mull presents her book, Woke-Proof Your Life: A Handbook on Escaping Modern Political Madness and Shielding Yourself and Your Family by Living a More Self-Sufficient, Fulfilling Life. The book’s greatest asset is its common sense look at the origins of the woke mindset. The author explores how wokeness is present in every aspect of American life. Every city and village contains its adherents. Where did they all come from? What do they have in common? Why do they do the things they do? Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law In answering those questions, Miss Mull emphasizes the presence of social media, which she says allowed the woke mentality to spread far more quickly than it would have twenty or more years ago. Its “critical theory” roots are found in earlier decades but were primarily limited to the far-left on liberal university campuses. Platforms like Tik-Tok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter created an alternate system for disseminating ideas across social classes and geographic limits. Legions of Victims However, spreading such ideas on social media only tells part of the story. One of the book’s most vital points is that it describes the psychological/moral role in the process. “Lacking a sense of self-worth and the dignity they inherently possess in knowing that they’ve been made in God’s image and likeness, the woke look to the capricious world for validation. When this method inevitably fails to satisfy them, they go to greater and greater lengths—tattoos, surgeries, displays of ersatz virtue, increasingly bizarre “identities,” absurd pronouns, and so forth—to gain earthly approval.” These, of course, are the followers, the hoards who search desperately for some meaning in their lives. Such easily led searchers have always existed. In the late sixties, they grew long hair and shouted, “Make Love, Not War!” In Nazi Germany, they donned brown shirts and strutted through the streets in their hundreds. In eighteenth-century France, they put “liberty caps” on their heads and searched for aristocrats to execute. A Satanic Leadership Class Their pseudo-elite leaders have all been the same as well. “[These pseudo elites] orchestrating the woke charade know exactly what they’re doing. They aren’t motivated by their selfless love of others. They want to be like gods, to make men women and women men, to control the population, to make themselves the center of the universe, and profit magnificently…. Many have given into the devil’s temptation, and many are receiving the earthly prize Satan promised, though, of course, it isn’t enough.” Learn All About the Prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success About Our Times True to his malicious nature, the true motivating force controls the whole show, although his strategies vary with each generation. “[T]he latest tactic of the ‘father of lies’ is to implant false accusations of injustice everywhere and turn lies about race and sex into popular opinion, thereby fanning the flames of division, disorder, and ultimately, destruction.” False Promises that Can Never Satisfy As with all of Satan’s deceptions, connections to the woke world exemplified by social media grow less satisfying over time. At first, communicating with—and perhaps influencing—people in other places without leaving the comfort of one’s room is intriguing. A network of “friends” awaits news, opinions and insights that would have gone unspoken in real life. However, an element of competition soon enters into these virtual relationships. Expressing a bit of knowledge first is crucial. Expanding one’s network becomes paramount. Then comes the fear of being ignored and the accompanying dread of rejection. As Miss Mull points out, “Fear is the woke mob’s main tool, and it is an effective one.” A single sentence taken out of context can result in being branded as a racist, homophobe, fascist, bigot, climate-denier or any other imaginative and insulting adjective. That elusive network of friends can vanish overnight. This process is, perhaps, the biggest reason that the number of young people experiencing various forms of mental distress—especially depression—is skyrocketing. Science Confirms: Angels Took the House of Our Lady of Nazareth to Loreto Escaping the ill effects of the woke world takes commitment and courage. The first step is to engage in real life, as opposed to the virtual variety. As Miss Mull illustrates, the life of God and Holy Mother Church should come first. After that, family and community—actual, not virtual—are essential to becoming more securely connected to a fulfilling life. Escaping Wokeness The latter half of the book provides some suggestions for building the “woke-proof” life that the title promises. This part of the book was perhaps less helpful to those whose careers or family connections tie them to a particular place. That is not to say that it does not make some important points, but they come couched in a style of life that Miss Mull finds attractive. For instance, she expounds at some length about the virtues of country as opposed to urban life. Chapter eight is devoted to self-sufficiency, especially in the realm of food production. However, even for those—like this reviewer—who prefer the stimulation of the city and for whom gardening is just a series of chores stacked one upon the other, this section of the book provides some valuable suggestions. After all, everyone can gain by leaving the bluish light of the screen (be it television, computer or cell phone) behind in the search for real life with actual people. There is life after wokeness for those who confide in God and break away from the consensus. [facebook-page-plugin href="Tradition.Family.Property.TFP/" width="400" cover="false" facepile="false" cta="false" small="true" adapt="true" link="true" linktext="Click Here to Like Traditional Values" lang="en_US" ]](https://www.returntoorder.org/content/uploads/2024/01/The-Woke-World-Traps-Many-Here-are-Some-Suggestions-for-Breaking-Free-of-It-300.jpg)
![Can Right Wing Marketing Compete with the Leftward Drift of Many Giant American Corporations? Marketing professors in the nation’s business schools will discuss the boycott of Bud Light, beginning on April 1, 2023, as an example of what not to do. The brand got into hot water with conservatives when they employed a man pretending to be a woman to promote its product. The reaction stunned the liberals, the company and the entire marketing profession by its quick and angry response. A Growing Trend Geoffrey Kabaservice, a vice president at the center-right think tank Niskanen Center, summed up the reason for the anger. The left-wing media outlet VOX quoted him. “The reality is increasingly there is a red market and a blue market. Ultimately here the subtext is America is a pretty divided country.” Before the controversy, Bud Light was the best-selling product in a highly competitive marketplace. It was a kind of “default beverage” for millions. The Bud Light Controversy When the transsexual Dylan Mulvaney released a video promoting the beer, millions of customers quickly abandoned the brand because they wanted no part of the rapidly expanding “woke” ideology. The economic effects were immediate. According to the business journal Forbes, “Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch announced earlier this month its U.S. revenue dropped 10.5% in the second quarter of 2023.” It continued, “Modelo surpassed Bud Light as the best-selling beer in the U.S. in 2023.” The reaction did not stop in the beverage aisle. “The Bud Light boycott was among the first of many instances this year in which companies deemed ‘woke’ were targeted by right-wing social media users and commentators: Companies like Target and Kohl’s came under fire for selling Pride merchandise, and Nike and Adidas faced backlash for trans-inclusive marketing.” Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law However, many liberals still do not understand that this situation resulted from uncoordinated grass-roots actions by millions of consumers. Time Magazine commented, “After Bud Light released an actual sponsored ad with Mulvaney…prominent conservatives engineered a boycott in retaliation.” (Emphasis added.) “Chick-fil-A Day” Rivets a Nation’s Attention This is not the first time the culture war has triggered massive grassroots reactions. Another fundamental demarcation point remembered in marketing history was August 1, 2012, known at the time as “Chick-fil-A Day.” When pro-homosexual activists tried to boycott the chain over donations to certain charities by the firm’s owners, more conservative Americans rose en masse to support the company. Word of the reaction spread without any organization. Friends used the Internet to tell other friends in distant places to patronize the restaurants on that day, and those friends responded. Lines of customers, some of them hours long, formed at locations nationwide. Even international news outlets like Great Britain’s very liberal The Guardian reported the phenomenon. Politics as a Marketing Tool These reactions shows that companies that adopt “woke” politics often stand to lose money. The “red market” can be highly profitable since people can be convinced to buy in accordance with their moral values. In the aforementioned article, Time documents the growth of this growing anti-woke sector of the economy. “In recent years, there has been an explosion of business ventures that position themselves as right-wing alternatives to mainstream products.” They list coffee retailer Black Rifle, an anti-ESG investment platform called Strive, America First Healthcare, Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” media platform, and crypto promoter MAGA Coin. “Many of these firms are drawing investments from A-list venture capitalists and private equity groups…a sign that a growing segment of the business community recognizes the potential for making money in the MAGA marketplace.” Learn All About the Prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success About Our Times Recently, NBC News noted that Epoch Times was exporting right-wing sentiments into the world of print journalism. Remarkably, in a “dying” industry, the new entry is making quite a success of it. “Funded through aggressive online and real-world marketing campaigns and big-money conservative donors, The Epoch Times now boasts to be the country’s fourth-largest newspaper by subscriber count. The nonprofit has amassed a fortune, growing its revenue by a staggering 685% in two years, to $122 million in 2021, according to the group’s most recent tax records.” On the other hand, some very small players in this space are getting together to sell using the anti-woke label. Some 65,000 small companies market their wares on an Internet platform called “PublicSq.” They are proud to manifest their anti-woke sentiments. The platform proclaims its values in five statements sure to warm the hearts of most conservatives. We are united in our commitment to freedom and truth—that’s what makes us Americans. We will always protect the family unit and celebrate the sanctity of every life. We believe small businesses and the communities who support them are the backbone of our economy. We believe in the greatness of this nation and will always fight to defend it. Our Constitution is non-negotiable—government isn’t the source of our rights, so it can’t take them away. Breaking the Myth This this newfound expression of economic power in the lower echelons of the right wing is encouraging. It breaks the myth that only woke companies will prosper. The rise of the anti-woke company shows that those proudly proclaim their values can even expect some return on their moral investment. [facebook-page-plugin href="Tradition.Family.Property.TFP/" width="400" cover="false" facepile="false" cta="false" small="true" adapt="true" link="true" linktext="Click Here to Like Traditional Values" lang="en_US" ] Photo Credit: © RCP – stock.adobe.com](https://www.returntoorder.org/content/uploads/2023/11/Can-Right-Wing-Marketing-Compete-with-the-Leftward-Drift-of-Many-Giant-American-Corporations-300.jpg)
