For many years now I have been pointing out that there is a false public perception of the relationship between governments and corporations. In the past the belief has been that government is supposed to keep private business in check while private business is supposed to limit government intrusion through the assertion of property rights. But when it comes to major corporations there is no such game of balance. In reality, international conglomerates like Disney generally do whatever they please because they are PARTNERS with government.
For whatever reason, certain companies are afforded special treatment by state and federal institutions and what this does is create problems. This is not a free market system, rather, it is socialist and monopolistic. Subsidies and incentives can sometimes be used to encourage business growth, but when they are afforded to only a tiny handful of mega-corporations the result is the opposite; the growth of competition is stifled and small to medium businesses will never be able to compete with the giants that have already garnered government protection.
It’s interesting to me that the political left, which was once supposedly anti-big business, is now suddenly so enamored with corporate oligarchy to the point that they rabidly defend it as long as those companies espouse woke rhetoric. What this confirms is something that conservatives have always known – That leftists don’t have any concrete principles or morals, they only care about winning no matter the cost.
I 2020 I published an article suggesting a potential solution to Big Tech and woke corporate censorship of conservative ideas: That solution would be for conservative state governments to take away the very incentives and subsidies that they often use to entice these businesses into setting up shop within their borders. That is to say, all they have to do is take away the special goodies that these corporations never should have been handed in the first place.
At the time, I thought that no state government would actually have the guts to carry out such a strategy, but things have changed. Corporations like Disney have now crossed the line into the realm of open indoctrination; asserting that they will upend any Florida law that prevent the sexualization and indoctrination of children into the leftist fold. Disney picked a fight; they strutted around as if they owned the state, and now they are paying the price by losing the very subsidies that made them successful.
This in itself is not the overt use of government power as a means to oppress the rights of businesses. These corporations have no right to such subsidies and they are not entitled to special treatment. Taking it away is not a violation of any business’ rights or of private property rights. Subsidies are something that certain corporations have come to expect, and maybe that should change.
In my recent article on Elon Musk’s ongoing plan to buy out the leftist hive mind known as Twitter, I made this argument:
“Musk’s surprising pursuit of Twitter is interesting no matter which way it goes. He could take control and shut the whole thing down, which is what I would suggest given the platform is a cancer on society and rife with government and corporate surveillance. Scattering the blue check cult to the four winds would be one of the best gifts Musk could give the the world right now. They can always complain about everything on other platforms, just not with so much concentrated corporate and government power at their disposal.
They’ll say this is all an attack on free speech, but these people don’t understand what free speech is. They believe that it is free speech if they walk up to people and say “I’m going to destroy you and your way of life.” And then when those people react to stop them, they cry that they are victims and claim that this is a violation of their rights. Where I come from, you don’t make threats against people and then expect them to do nothing about it. The leftists on Twitter and elsewhere are going to learn this lesson soon, one way or another.”
The Cry-Bully tactic used by leftists is ever present and embarrassingly evident in their response to the battle between Disney and the state of Florida. Disney has enjoyed extensive subsidies and special incentives from Florida through their Reedy Creek municipality agreement. Of course, when this deal was signed Disney was not seen as a hostile entity that would seek to supplant Florida’s legislature and voters.
The lies that leftists are using to attack Florida’s anti-grooming bill and the state response to Disney’s woke corporate hostility are bizarrely tone deaf. These people clearly have no understanding how businesses the size of Walt Disney World function and make money and how they integrate into state tax systems. They also appear to be oblivious to the trespasses of their own side, or they are gaslighting as if the woke cult has done nothing wrong and Florida’s reaction is completely unprovoked. The amount of disinformation being spread by leftists on this issue is truly staggering.
If you want a prime example of this I suggest taking a look at THIS ARTICLE from the Florida Politics website as well as the responses from leftists in the comments. The level of delusion is shocking. Here are just some of the lies perpetrated by the left so far in reference to the Reedy Creek situation:
Governor DeSantis Is A “Bully” And Authoritarian Picking On Disney?
This is pure idiocy. A state governor is “bullying” a massive international conglomerate with its tentacles wrapped around numerous facets of our society including considerable control over the mainstream media? Yeah, I don’t think so. If anything, Disney is the bully on the block that has finally for the first time been punched in the face by a kid he thought he could shake down for lunch money. And now Disney, in typical gaslighting fashion, is pretending to be the victim and the leftists are eating it up.
It was Disney that started this fight by stating they would do everything in their power to undermine the legislature and the majority of voters in Florida and dismantle a law which protects young children from gender identity indoctrination and sexualized lessons which have no place in public schools anyway. Not only that, but Disney has been exposed as a leftist indoctrination machine as they openly admit in Zoom conference calls to injecting gender identity and LGBT propaganda into their content directed specifically at young children.
The leftist strategy basically boils down to this, and it stems from classic Marxist disruption of a society: Keep stabbing at the bear and try to kill him with a thousand cuts, and when the bear decides to bite back, act like you’re a poor victim that needs protection from the bear. Beg some hunters to kill the bear for you, and see who you can con into doing it.
The Florida Anti-Grooming Law And Response To Disney Is A “Violation Of Free Speech?”
No, it is not. Again, corporations are not entitled to special subsidies that give them monopolistic power. Governments should not give out such subsidies, but if they do, they can certainly take them away any time they want. Disney’s speech has not been impeded by the end of Reedy Creek; now they have to operate on a level playing field along with other businesses. God forbid…
Teachers have no free speech rights inside the classroom. They are employees of the district and work for the parents that pay the taxes that pay their salaries. They do not have the right to teach sexualized lessons or ideological cultism to children that are not their own.
Also, leftists have no concept of what free speech actually means. They are constantly engaged in censorship and cancel culture and argue with an ends-justify-the-means attitude. They like to call it “consequence culture” instead of cancel culture. Now that they are getting a taste of their own medicine, they don’t seem to like it very much and suddenly consider it “authoritarianism.” In other words, their definition of tyranny is when they are not allowed to do whatever they want whenever they please no matter how criminal or immoral.
There Is No Sexualization Or Indoctrination Of Children, So The Law Is Pointless?
If there is no intent to sexualize children in public schools, then why are leftists so enraged by the law? If it changes nothing, then why are they against it? I have yet to see a leftist actually answer this question with any logic or reason.
Furthermore, their argument is based on a lie. The facts show that there has been a growing program of gender identity indoctrination in schools including teachers openly admitting online that they are engaged in sex lessons for young students. These teachers even argue that children as young as kindergarten are “sexually aware” and are “already asking questions” about gender and sex. I defy any leftist to show me an example of a young child interested in this nonsense that hasn’t been groomed into it by a teacher or a parent.
Libs Of TikTok has been an excellent source for collecting and showcasing the open admissions of leftist teachers discussing how they indoctrinate children with their ideology. All the account does is show these people speaking in their own words about their own activities. Yet, their Twitter account has come under attack by the media for doing nothing more than letting the teachers speak for themselves.
Some examples of grooming in schools include leftist states like New Jersey, which are adding gender identity and sex lessons into the curriculum for 1st graders and above. There are also numerous online courses and resources published by leftist groups designed to show teachers how to build gender and sex lessons into their lesson plans. Leftists have been attempting to make gender ideology a pillar within the education system by using the Equality Act to adjust discrimination standards. This would essentially make it discriminatory to NOT include gender identity and alternative sex lessons in public school curriculum.
This is happening across the nation and yet leftists continue to claim it is all a “conspiracy theory.”
Conservatives In Florida Are “Burning Books?”
This meme is popping up often in conjunction with the DeSantis response to Disney’s transgressions. Leftists can’t win the debate on Reedy Creek so they then turn to disinformation on Florida’s discernment on school textbooks.
Math and STEM books should not contain ANY sociological commentary, including critical race theory or gender identity propaganda. They should teach math and science. That is all.
There Is No CRT Being Added To School Textbooks?
Yes, there is, and Florida just released some examples of the lessons they are finding hidden in new textbooks, which include math problems that “measure racial bias using polynomials,” and using an “Implicit Association Test” to measure racism. Critical Race Theory in school textbooks IS A FACT. There is no debate.
Leftists can deny reality all they want, but the truth does not care about their fantasies.
Florida Needs Disney Revenues And Will Fold Under Pressure From Lobbyists?
Uh, no, they won’t fold and DeSantis has already proven this. Reedy Creek is over. Sure, Disney will try to fight this in court but they will fail because no company can argue that they have a legal entitlement to special treatment from a state government, which is what Reedy Creek is.
As far as revenues are concerned, there is zero chance that Disney will be able to relocate their theme park, which is around the same size as the city of San Francisco. The cost would be prohibitive and would destroy the company’s bottom line. Leftists don’t understand logistics and they don’t understand business. They think that Disney has some kind of economic leverage to exploit here, which just goes to show how ignorant they are on how these companies function.
Everything Disney does comes down to cost vs. benefit. Even though they claim to have high ideals rooted in leftist illusions of “equity,” when all is said and done the shareholders of the company are their only concern. To move the park would be pointless because the cost would far exceed any subsidies they might get from another state for many years to come, causing their stock prices to plunge even further. This means they will continue to operate in Florida or they will be forced to shut down completely, which again, would collapse their stock price.
Disney is not the “hand that feeds Florida,” Florida is the hand that feeds Disney. Many people don’t understand that Disney is reliant on park revenues to keep the company afloat, their movies are peripheral to the parks. And, with California going down the tubes as a vacation spot, Florida is where the money is at. Disney’s only option is to stay in Orlando, pay their taxes and remain under the watchful eye of the stage government or they will die as a company. It’s that simple.
At bottom it’s amazing that leftists have chosen this hill to die on. Standing against a bill that prevents indoctrination and sexualization of young children automatically makes them suspect. They claim it’s not happening, which is a provable lie. They claim it’s authoritarian, but can’t produce a logical argument as to how preventing such lessons in public schools violates anyone’s rights. They say that conservatives are bullies for going after Disney, but ignore the fact that Disney started the whole thing by attacking Floridians that support a legal and constitutional bill.
Frankly, these people deserve what they get. There is no reasoning with them and their insanity should be held up as an example of what not to do as a society for generations to come. They should be kept as far away from power as possible because they are dangerous zealots who do not care about facts, science or core principles. They only want to destroy their enemies, and they see us as the enemy. If they can get to us through our kids, then they are fine with that. I feel no empathy for them when they get hit back.