Bright Brief - World War Woke

The Tide is Turning

We’ve all heard the term. Hell, we’ve probably all used the term.

‘Woke.’

It’s the rare catch-all that managed to bubble up from alternative sectors of the internet—including the Chans and more renegade YouTube channels—to the mainstream without really losing its form, function and overall meaning on the way there, despite repeated attempts to cut the label out at the knees.

To be ‘woke,’ is not simply to be liberal, left-wing, diverse or any other straw man the establishment corporate and media industrial complexes attempt to subvert the label with. Rather, ‘woke’ refers to the knowing, insidious and ultimately cringe-worthy practice of introducing such concepts in an inorganic, preachy, insulting and cynical manner.

What ‘woke’ means to every person is slightly different. How much each person is or is not bothered by the infection of virtually all significant legacy American intellectual property with this barely-concealed Marxist ideology is subjective and difficult to predict. Even the definition might change depending on the perspective of the labeler.

That said, ‘woke,’ is something that, by and large, every American knows when they see it. And, while there are dedicated adherents to its core, institutionalized and tradition-subverting philosophies, an almost equal number of them—from the politically and socially active to the ignorant and even complacent—loath it.

We could spend several features (and probably will in the future,) going over the various origins of the woke mind virus, as it’s often described, from its Marxist and communist start to its cultural, societal and yes, even political intent—namely, to humiliate, subvert and ultimately, destabilize western identity, cohesion and unity—but that is not the intent of today’s Brief.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the more practical reasons for woke content, for surely not ALL companies that engage in wokeness are married to it at a root, ideological level, and we’re going to see if there is any light on the horizon that might ride in to purge this cultural virus from our midst.

What’s that I hear? Wokeness, you say is antithetical to the cultivating of an engaged, growing audience and therefor to profit margins? And it’s still been profitable for the last half decade?

Why yes. That is correct.

What’s that? Wokeness, you say does long-term brand damage, rendering once-valuable entertainment properties toxic, inert and ultimately lifeless, and there are still corporate boardrooms advocating for its continuance as a matter of practicality, and NOT ideology?

Correct again.

How can this be, you ask?

Well, have you ever heard of ESG scores?

ESG is another one of those beautiful, Orwellian acronyms employed by the (totally nonexistent) New World Order that stands for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance.

This is a score—an algorithm of sorts—assigned through varying methodologies by NGO think tanks funded by wealthy (and totally not evil) Deep State oligarchs, some of whose names and melted wax faces you would no doubt recognize, and many of whom you would not, and yet who seek to rule the world regardless.

At a base level, an ESG score is a social responsibility score—think China’s social credit system writ corporate—that seeks to put a new age score onto every major organization. The higher the score, the more money said company can earn not only from the shadow investment of the aforementioned billionaire movers and shakers, but also for a bevy of ESG-focused hedge funds and investment firms who sell such scores to their ‘socially-conscious’ investors as being not only a moral thing, but a practical thing.

For some time, the synergistic effect between the artificial pumping of corporate ESG scores to the artificial injection of cash INTO the companies with elevated ESG scores resulted in a positive Marxist feedback loop. On the one hand, most observers, from investors to complete novices to ESG and the stock market in general have an innate understanding that wokeness should equate to eventual brokeness. And yet, companies with high ESG scores continued to rise, building ESG capital on the back of false promises, distorted metrics and, mostly, highly optimistic projections.

So … how are said projections looking these days? How is World War Woke going?

In a word, it’s going great.

Only, for a change, this time I’m not referring to [them.] I’m referring to fiscal and cultural sanity.

You see, the stock market has been injected with more false, B.S. capital in the last decade than at any other time in American history. That goes for woke, ESG-fluent companies as well. Projections BECAME reality, and investor sentiment, though heavily manipulated came to define the success of a given stock irrespective of whether or not said stock was derived from a company that actually, you know, earned a profit.

Well, for all of the negative consequences the Biden Economy has thrust onto the working class, it seems that some of the companies on top of the globalist fiat pyramid are beginning to shake, and could soon start toppling one after another.

(For a more detailed breakdown on where I see this trend going in the fall, and how it will pave the way for a golden era for American small businesses, check out the recent Too Small to Fail Brief.)

Over the last 18 months, things have been … tight, from an economic perspective. As such, hedge funds that engage in risky behavior (ie: hedge funds that invest based on projections and ESG rainbow dust as opposed to underlying market and production fundamentals) are beginning to go under. Retail investors—also known as Main Street—don’t have as much money to throw around as they did in 2020-21 during a brief, highly damaging era of mass stimulus and zero accountability. They are either sitting on the sidelines or putting their money into more safe haven stocks. Again, stocks derived from companies that actually run sound businesses.

As a result of this bullwhip effect in markets, companies without solid fundamentals are being forced to show investors their first truly negative quarterly reports in years, and as many sound investors have remarked, capital flees to where it is treated best, and the market is beginning to learn that capital is NOT treated best in the care of companies whose corporate boards are more busy debating whether to use the Ukrainian or Gay Pride flags on their Twitter profiles for a given week than those developing or continuing logistical, sound and productive business models.

ESG funds are tanking. Capital is getting scared, and therefore, smart.

And woke is the opposite of smart.

The following is an excerpt from ZeroHedge that echoes my sentiments:

“They'll never admit to it openly, but getting woke makes companies broke … There's a weakness within woke productions that the alternative media has been pointing out for a long time – They don't make a profit because they are designed to appease a minority of leftist zennials that don't have any money.  This is the wrong crowd to rely on for cash flow.     

[…]

Some companies are finally realizing this fact and are taking action to reduce their exposure to woke content, or otherwise perish from loss of viewership.  Here's the thing – Leftists could take over every platform for media distribution (they almost have), but they still can't force the public to consume woke content.  Eventually, the loss of viewers and profits is going to hurt their bottom line.”

If you’re looking for some specific examples, two of the most recent Actual (rather than Potential) Events that point to a slowdown and even reversal in the cult of woke are the twin decisions by both Netflix and Warner Media to cancel outright woke content for projected backlash from prospective fans.

Netflix even recently fired off a warning letter to its own employees—many of whom have since been released on the heels of corporate layoffs—telling them that, in an effort to appeal to a broader (and more solvent) consumer base, they will be shifting production goals toward developing a wide range of entertainment, including programs appealing to actual Americans.

Additionally, new Discovery and Warner Media head David Zaslav seems to be taking on woke content head-on, purging nearly-finished woke projects within his entertainment divisions even after a reported $90 Million was spent on one of them. Zaslav also made the decision to flush CNN+ just a few weeks after its dismal launch.

While it is far too early to tell whether or not these more fiscally—and ultimately, socially—responsible moves will translate to a rebound in viewership and thus, money, the moves are indicative of one refreshingly-optimistic takeaway:

The War OF Woke has turned quite quickly into the War ON Woke … and for a change, this one might actually be fun to watch.

Until next time, stay Positive, stay Based and most importantly … stay Bright.  

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