XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.equality, alt.politics.trump   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: democrat-insurrection@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://nypost.com/2024/09/03/us-news/how-robby-starbuck-is-prompting-   
   brands-like-ford-to-ditch-dei/   
      
   Over the summer, Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson, John Deere and Tractor   
   Supply have dropped controversial DEI practices in the workplace — and one   
   man is behind it all.   
      
   “Companies are starting to realize the whole DEI thing has been a house of   
   cards,” activist Robby Starbuck told The Post. “Somebody just had to press   
   the cards. The majority of CEOs in America are very happy to have an   
   excuse to get rid of this stuff.”   
      
   Starbuck puts companies with divisive DEI programs on blast in online   
   exposés that he posts to his more than 500,000 followers on X.   
      
   On Tuesday, Starbuck announced on X that Molson Coors is “preemptively   
   making changes” — including nixing DEI-based training and hiring metrics —   
   after, he said, he messaged with executives and warned them that an exposé   
   could be forthcoming. (The Post has reached out to Molson Coors, the   
   parent of more than 100 beer and spirit brands including Miller High Life,   
   Leinenkugel’s, Foster’s, Blue Moon and the Coors’ varieties.)   
      
   The move is similar to Jack Daniel’s reversing its policies once Starbuck   
   simply said he was going to protest the whiskey brand.   
      
   Last week, Ford said it would scale back DEI initiatives and stop using   
   diversity quotas.   
      
   And late last month, Lowe’s buckled under Starbuck’s pressure too. The   
   big-box retailer agreed to combine all its identity-based employee   
   resource groups into one and to stop participating in LGBTQ+ parades that   
   are unrelated to its business.   
      
   While critics have accused Starbuck of riling up mobs, he says he’s merely   
   shedding a light on corporate values that he feels are out of step with   
   everyday Americans’ values.   
      
   “You have to be in alignment with your customers — [otherwise,] if someone   
   else is, they’re going to eat your lunch,” Starbuck, 35, said. “That’s how   
   capitalism works. Customers don’t ignore it when you’re violating their   
   values every day.”   
      
   Born and raised in California to Cuban-American parents, Starbuck was   
   always acutely aware of Marxist ideology, which he says is echoed in DEI   
   initiatives that promote equity: “Communism took everything from my   
   family, so the warnings about Marxism were constant in my upbringing.”   
      
   Living in a notoriously progressive state, Starbuck saw localized spread   
   of the ideology before it became a mainstream concern after the summer of   
   2020.   
      
   “I caught onto DEI and CRT really early because, when you’re living in   
   California, it’s kind of unavoidable,” he said. “I realized it was a virus   
   that was going to spread across the country.”   
      
   Before becoming a full-time activist and podcaster, Starbuck owned a   
   successful production company. He has directed music videos for the likes   
   of Snoop Dogg, Akon and Sara Bareilles, and worked with celebrities such   
   as Natalie Portman and Jamie Foxx — until he found Hollywood “too   
   inhospitable” as a conservative.   
      
   “In the back of my head, I always knew that I did not fit into that world   
   because my value set was always conservative, and I knew the industry at   
   large was very, very left wing,” he said.   
      
   He started publicly speaking out about wokeness while working as a   
   producer in Hollywood and publicly endorsed Donald Trump in 2015.   
      
   As a result, he said, he lost 80% of his clients. Rather than put his head   
   back down, Starbuck decided to sell his production company and start a new   
   life with his wife and children on a farm in Franklin, Tennessee.   
      
   The ensuing moral panic of the summer of 2020 launched him into an all-out   
   war against corporate DEI initiatives he describes as “fascist.”   
      
   “Corporate executives were terrified of being called racist,” he said.   
   “The majority of the Fortune 500 right now are essentially prisoners to   
   this ideology, even if the executives hate it.   
      
   “Executives rolled over after George Floyd, but we’re at a different   
   moment now, and it’s time to course correct and unify all of our   
   customers.”   
      
   When he zeroes in on a company with inflammatory DEI infrastructure,   
   Starbuck posts video exposés and blasts offending companies in tweets. The   
   bad publicity often leads to brand boycotts and mass anti-woke backlash   
   from his followers.   
      
   His recent campaign against Harley-Davidson, which inspired a boycott, was   
   successful in getting the company to reverse course on DEI programming and   
   drop diversity standards with suppliers in August.   
      
   However, the motorcycle manufacturer said in a subsequent statement that   
   they were “saddened by the negativity on social media” and claimed the   
   campaign was “designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community.”   
      
   But Starbuck, of course, sees things differently.   
      
   “In some way, we’re doing a favor to these companies by giving them a   
   reason to stop divisive ideology from continuing to infect their company,”   
   he said. “Corporations do not have a responsibility to stand up on social   
   issues at all. They have a responsibility to make money for their   
   shareholders.”   
      
   As a farm owner, he considers Tractor Supply’s dismantling of its DEI   
   program his biggest success so far. After Starbuck called them out for   
   that, as well as lofty climate change goals, the company cut all DEI   
   roles.   
      
   Tractor Supply also reoriented its corporate activism toward animal   
   welfare and veterans’ causes, saying in a statement that the company   
   endeavors to reconnect with “rural America priorities” and is committing   
   to “being a good neighbor.”   
      
   Now that enough executives have watched other corporations be made an   
   example of on social media, Starbuck says some are proactively scrapping   
   DEI policies before he even puts them on blast.   
      
   “We’re at a point where enough companies have seen other companies suffer,   
   and they are deciding to change,” he said. “I’ve heard from some   
   executives who didn’t even realize that some of this stuff was going on at   
   their own company.”   
      
   Ultimately, Starbuck said, his goal is to get politics out of the   
   workplace entirely — and he has no plans on letting up on corporate   
   America until he achieves this goal.   
      
   “Work is about work. It’s not about who you want to have sex with. It’s   
   not about what your skin color is. It’s not about who you vote for,” he   
   said. “The end goal here is to make work a very neutral environment where   
   people simply do their work.”   
      
      
   --   
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.   
      
   No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.   
   Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden   
   fiasco, President Trump.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)