Thursday, April 7, 2022

GO. OUT. SIDE. vol. 37

 These various and seemingly endless right-wing "boycotts" of the most ordinary parts of middle American life really aren't about political pressure, as much as Republicans may say otherwise. As Republican are keenly aware — and indeed, it's why they're in a full-blown demographic panic — they are an aging, shrinking minority. Corporations, after all, aren't engaged in what the right demonizes as "woke" marketing out of some moral impulse. They only care about the bottom line, which is fatter when a brand appeals to a younger, hipper crowd. If anything, getting that right-wing outrage is good for a brand. Pissing off cranky old people is a well-worn way to make a product seem cooler. Ask all the musicians who sold more records because of the "parental advisory" sticker back in the '90s. 

As Matt Gertz of Media Matters pointed out, the dogpile of anti-Disney propaganda from the right was coupled with the announcement from right wing demogague Ben Shapiro that his company is "investing $100 million over three years in animated and live-action children's entertainment" as an "alternative" to Disney's children's entertainment. As Gertz notes, the "alternative is explicitly right-wing." 

You have to feel sorry for the kids of Shapiro fans. (Though, thankfully, his audience tends to be more of the grandparent demographic than the parent demographic.) Not only will they be isolated from other kids because they're not allowed to share in the playground passion for "Frozen," but they will be stuck only consuming inferior products that are more indoctrination than entertainment. For Shapiro, it's a money-making enterprise. For the kids being mistreated this way, it's being forced by your parent to be the "weird" kid no one wants to hang out with, so that your only community is vile bigots and MAGA cultists. 


Boycotting Disney and Oreos: The red flags that MAGA is a cult

Cutting followers off from the rest of the world is a standard cult tactic — and a central tenet of Trumpism

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