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The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business
a book by Stephen Soukup
(our site's book review)
The Amazon blurb says that For the better part of a century, the Left has been waging a slow, methodical battle for control of the institutions of Western civilization. During most of that time, “business”—and American Big Business, in particular — remained the last redoubt for those who believe in free people, free markets, and the criticality of private property. Over the past two decades, however, that has changed, and the Left has taken its long march to the last remaining non-Leftist institution.
Over the course of the past two years or so, a small handful of politicians on the Right — Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley, to name three — have begun to sense that something is wrong with American business and have sought to identify the problem and offer solutions to rectify it. While the attention of high-profile politicians to the issue is welcome, to date the solutions they have proposed are inadequate, for a variety of reasons, including a failure to grasp the scope of the problem, failure to understand the mechanisms of corporate governance, and an overreliance on state-imposed, top-down solutions.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the problem and the players involved, both on the aggressive, hardcharging Left and in the nascent conservative resistance—here the mindless Left charges blindly together toward socialist Hell because they've been indoctrinated with lies about it
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the problem and the players involved, both on the aggressive, hardcharging Left and in the nascent conservative resistance. It explains what the Left is doing and how and why the Right must be prepared and willing to fight back to save this critical aspect of American culture from becoming another, more economically powerful version of the “woke” college campus.
The Right must be prepared and willing to fight back to save American business from becoming another, more economically powerful version of the 'woke' college campus
“This book is a real eye-opener about the campaign to politicize corporate America. It’s widely recognized that progressives have been winning the culture wars in our universities and government bureaucracies. Now they are aiming to force corporations to take their side in the battle to re-create capitalism in their own image. They have already made a great deal of progress on this front. Steve Soukup brilliantly reveals how they are doing so, and provides a loud wake-up call for those of us who’ve been largely unaware of what is happening and should be alarmed.”— Edward Yardeni, President and Chief Investment, strategist, Yardeni Research, Inc.
As Soukup says, "As annoying as shareholders may be, activist shareholders are infinitely worse. And by acknowledging the activists' demands, the CEOs of the BRT [Business Roundtable] hoped to satiate them, at least for a while.
"But as some of those CEOs have already learned, and as the others will learn in time, that’s not the way it works. Activist shareholders, most of whom pursue politicized ends and care less about a company’s profitability and more about its alignment with their political posturing—are like sharks. They live to feed, not the other way around. They are always circling, always on the hunt for their next prey, their next tasty morsel.
Activist shareholders are like sharks—they live to feed, not the other way around—they are always circling, always on the hunt for their next prey, their next tasty morsel
"Worse still, they can smell the smallest drop of blood from hundreds of miles away, so any sign of weakness is interpreted as an invitation to attack and whip up a frenzy. By redefining the corporation to sound more ESG-friendly and appear more “sustainable,” the [Business] Roundtable and its members simply chummed the water, exciting the advocates of woke capital and advancing the cause of those who would overtly poliiticize American business.
The Business Roundtable and its members chummed the water, exciting the advocates of woke capital and advancing the cause of those who would overtly poliiticize American business
Big businesses are marching in lockstep with the lying, extorting Leftist dictators, and democracy is taking it on the chin
"The good news is that 2019 was also a year of awakening. In 2019, after years of flying under the radar and, as a result having a free hand to change American business to suit their own needs, the activists of [antidemocratic] woke capital pushed too far and alerted too many Americans previously blissfully unaware, that a concerted effort was being made to undermine the last of the great institutions of the West" [that was not yet undermined by the politically correct Leftists: big business—although lately even businesses are marching in lockstep with the lying Leftists to avoid cancelation or boycott].
The activists of antidemocratic woke capital pushed too far and alerted too many Americans previously blissfully unaware, that Leftists were planning on dumping democracy for socialism: THE LEFTISTS ARE COMING! Soukup is today's Paul Revere.
"According to [Tom] Cotton, 'liberal' CEOs were [and are] using their companies to attack and undermine the will of the American people."
Cotton had discovered the dictatorship of woke capital, effected by extortion, threats, canceling, and indoctrination
What got under Cotton's skin was the fact that Disney, Netflix and Warner Media were launching a campaign to destroy Georgia's economy because they didn't like their Pro-Life stance on abortion. If they can get away with such ugly extortion outrages, our democracy is dead and buried—full stop.
If Leftists can get away with such ugly extortion outrages, our democracy is dead and buried—full stop
Cotton had discovered the dictatorship of woke capital, effected by extortion, threats, canceling, and indoctrination. Democracies decide things with discussions; while fascism, most socialisms, and all communisms decide things by authoritarian decree — tyranny/dictatorship which issues commands in the form of "do this or else." No freedom, no discussion, no democracy.
Liberals goosestep in lockstep—it is demanded of them by the PC Police
Notice that the dictatorship of woke capital that Cotton discovered uses extortion (a person makes a threat, often physical or destructive or canceling or doxing, to obtain something or to force someone to do something—such as ceasing conservative blogging, writing. or speaking), threats, canceling, and indoctrination, which again entails no freedom, no discussion, no democracy. The ass clowns that perpetuate these antidemocratic outrages are supposedly intelligent people in these companies. They don't necessarily believe in such fascist methods, or the lying, racist liberal narrative, but they do want to keep their jobs. Once they experience woke mobs' threats to their jobs and reputations, they can choose between caving in to their demands or getting in the unemployment line. Few people choose the latter. So they opt for mindless conformity to the lies, radical racism, leftist identity politics and the lying liberal narrative and their atrocious, racist critical race theory lies.
Once they experience woke mobs' threats to their jobs and reputations, they can choose between integrity and mindless conformity—most people conform
"From the recent alignment of Delta Air Lines, Major League Baseball, and Coca-Cola in opposition to Georgia’s new election law, to the prevalence of ESG, environmental, social, and governance seminars and workshops in offices across the United States, Soukup pulls back the curtain on a handful of powerful “woke” Wall Street firms, whose reach into corporate financing run so deep that they can leverage the political positions that publicly traded firms across the U.S. must present in order to thrive." (Source: A conversation with Stephen Soukup: Author, The Dictatorship of Woke Capital , Doug McKelway, Washington Examiner.)
"In The Dictatorship of Woke Capital, financial analyst Steve Soukup examines how corporate America, traditionally focused on non-political goals of production and profit, has been changed in recent years by progressive ideology. Activists, and some insiders, are now demanding that for-profit companies endorse a laundry list of left-wing political positions in order to be acceptable members of society. Concepts like corporate social responsibility; socially responsible investing; and environmental, social and governance (ESG) theory are increasingly driving investing and regulatory decisions." (Source: The Dictatorship of Woke Capital Book Forum featuring author Steve Soukup and Richard Morrison, Competitive Enterprise Institute)
Soukup advocates depoliticizing business and markets, convincingly writing that such would preserve liberty 'and the spirit of innovation and expression that harnesses liberty to create wealth and prosperity'
"It is, as detailed by Soukup, a deliberate and undemocratic attempt to achieve through leveraging [polite word for threatening] big business what could not be achieved through traditional political means." (Source: The Dictatorship of Woke Capital and the Politicization of American Business, Robert Stilson)
The Left are true believers in naive, foolish, racist lies in a religious system called political correctness
"Soukup concludes The Dictatorship of Woke Capital with a declarative call to depoliticize business and markets, convincingly writing that such would preserve liberty 'and the spirit of innovation and expression that harnesses liberty to create wealth and prosperity.'" (Source: Philanthropy in The Dictatorship of Woke Capital, the Giving Review editors)
"Wokeness is directed at transforming America, using Wall Street and corporate America to help bring it about. The Dictatorship of Woke Capital provides the best account so far of how finance capital involuntarily ended up on the woke side of the culture wars. The book’s great strength is tracing the lineages of woke back to their sources. Soukup identifies two principal streams." (Source: How Wokeness Captured Big Business: A Review of Stephen R. Soukup's "The Dictatorship of Woke Capital", Rupert Darwall)
Woke capitalists ignore the thousands of African Americans killed annually in the nation’s cities (mostly by other blacks), while also overlooking the destruction of nonwhite small businesses during the recent BLM protests
"Soukup is correct to point out that woke capitalists are hypocritical. Woke capitalists boycott companies that lack diversity in the boardroom, but then overlook egregious human rights violations in China and other countries. They rail against sexual assault when it involves Republicans but often ignore the issue when it involves Democrats. They protest the murder of George Floyd but then ignore the thousands of African Americans killed annually in the nation’s cities, while also overlooking the destruction of nonwhite small businesses during the recent BLM protests." (Source: Woke Capital: A Dialectical History, Ronald W. Dworkin, American Affairs Journal)
Woke capitalists boycott companies that lack diversity in the boardroom, but then overlook egregious human rights violations in China and other countries
"For decades, Democrats and the media labeled the GOP the “party of Big Business.” This was never true in the first place, but even if it were, the opposite is the case today. On Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, and indeed throughout the country, big businesses have unofficially declared war on free and fair capital markets, free and fair commerce, and free and fair political expression. This is the Dictatorship of Woke Capital." (Source: How lefty corporate titans have declared war on the will of the American people, Stephen R. Soukup, NY Post)
Big businesses have unofficially declared war on free and fair capital markets, free and fair commerce, and free and fair political expression—censorship is the new normal
The Political Forum is an independent research provider that delivers research and consulting services
Stephen R. Soukup is the senior commentator, vice president, and publisher of The Political Forum, an independent research provider that delivers research and consulting services to the institutional investment community, with an emphasis on economic, social, political, and geopolitical events likely to have an impact on the financial markets in the United States and abroad. He is also the director of The Political Forum Institute, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating and preserving community, primarily among those who earn their living and create wealth for the nation through the capital markets. Soukup has followed politics and federal regulatory policy for the financial community since 1996, when he joined the award-winning Washington research office of Prudential Securities. He is also a fellow in culture and economy at the Culture of Life Foundation.
Hopefully this wise, insightful book The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business will awaken America before it is too late
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business has the truth about the entire woke movement and how it affects American politics in a very negative way. Stephen Soukup shines his bright light on one of the greatest issues of our times. Corporate America once served the people by giving the customer what they wanted and needed. Now, however, corporate boards have been taken over by a nauseatingly racist woke leftist agenda intent on dictating what Americans are supposed to want, need, and think. It's no longer about the people. It's no longer about the shareholder. Both are told to take a back seat to the progressive, Marxist, utopian vision that will tell us all how to think and live. No use thinking—we'll be told what we think, or better think, or else. The direction we are headed is terrible. Hopefully this wise, insightful book will awaken America before it is too late.
Stephen Soukup shines his bright light on how business has been taken over by a nauseatingly racist woke leftist agenda intent on dictating what Americans are supposed to want, need, and think