The Left’s Long March, Enabled by Corporate America
CAIRCO note: while this article focuses on the Kellogg's assault on Breitbart News, it illuminates how corporate interests generally - and monetarily - support the politics of the open borders progressive left.
... the days when corporate chieftains were plump Republican harumphers, always railing against liberalism, are long over; today, the new-style CEO is more likely to be an ideological hermaphrodite, constantly groomed and loaded with talking points, ready to appear onstage at some corporate benefit or roadshow alongside Oprah or Arianna. Moreover, this new breed of CEO is probably at pains to emphasize his or her “sensitivity” to any and all issues of “gender.” Indeed, he or she is likely always willing to write a big check to politically correct activist groups (using shareholder money, of course).
Given this new kind of corporate culture, it’s no wonder that during the 2016 presidential election, The Wall Street Journal surveyed the CEOs of the 100 biggest American companies, finding that while Hillary Clinton had plenty of support, none of them—zero—backed Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, at a notch below the CEO level, the revolving door between the Democratic Party and corporate America is spinning rapidly...
So now we are starting to see that Kellogg’s strike against Breitbart wasn’t just some goofy PR stunt; instead, it was another step in what the left and the Democrats hope is a not-so-long march back into power...
... let’s make ten points that provide some context for Kellogg’s action:
1 — Kellogg’s attack on Breitbart is new for Kellogg, but such attacks are not new for the left.
In fact, the left has long understood how to use its power within every sort of institution, including corporate America... Back in the 1930s, the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci coined the phrase “march through institutions” to describe the advancement of communism/progressivism in the West. That is, it would be cautious evolution, not violent revolution...
2 — Corporate America is more left than right.
...However, as executives rise through the ranks, the temptation to move left looms larger. And why is that? One reason is that the left, working through the Main Stream Media, does a great job of dangling liberal carrots. That is, the MSM is always highlighting, and lionizing, those “visionary” business leaders who are Democrats and liberals, starting with Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Howard Schultz of Starbucks...
3 — The perspective of the governing elite is at variance with that of the governed population...
4 — Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the power of wealth, too, corrupts...
5 — The Problem of Donor Intent.
It’s a familiar pattern: A mogul works hard, builds a business, and then, in a final act of altruistic generosity, leaves a giant bequest to a foundation or philanthropy. And oftentimes, the tycoon’s last will and testament stipulates that the activities of the foundation accurately reflect the values of the benefactor.
And yet soon thereafter, the survivors—family members and their lawyers, plus assorted other opportunistic jobbers and hair-splitters—find a way to distort the benefactor’s wishes. And so it was, for example, that Henry Ford, an arch conservative, inadvertently ended up endowing the left-wing activism of the Ford Foundation...
6 — Activism can be a good business—or worse.
As the 20th century philosopher Eric Hoffer once observed, every new entity starts out as a crusade, becomes a business, and then turns into a racket.
And so it is with social-justice warrior-ing...
7 — Political warfare by other means—“Lawfare.”...
8 — Digital Media is especially susceptible to leftist penetration.
Anyone who reads Breitbart—anyone who reads, period—knows all about liberal bias in the media. And the same with TV.
Yet as bad as that bias might be, at least it can be seen. That is, when The New York Times, or the Bezos Post, or George Stephanopoulos, commit their familiar atrocities against fairness, we can all easily detect it.
But now there’s a new kind of bias: online digital bias. And that’s much harder to detect, because it can’t be seen. That is, the Internet surfer is not likely to know about what’s not shown on the screen—in other words, what’s been made to disappear by an algorithm.
This digital bias is at the heart of the current Main Stream Media-propagated debate over “fake news.” In the MSM’s relentless telling and retelling, “fake news” is the unique product of “right-wing fever swamps,” including, of course, Breitbart and other carriers of real news.
For openers, there’s the remarkable case of Reddit, which was supposed to be an absolute free-speech haven. Yet Reddit seems to have used sneaky algorithms to suppress conservative thinking, and more recently it has engaged in some astoundingly un-sneaky censorship: An actual person—the CEO of the company, no less—has personally been doing the thought-policing.
All the facts aside, the MSM has its solution at the ready: make the “fake news” disappear. And this can be done, of course, by jiggering the algorithms at Google, Facebook, and other big digital companies. News accounts of this sort of subtle bias are almost too numerous to chronicle,...
9 — Crony Capitalism isn’t just about making windfall profits—it’s also about naked political power.
For a long time, the political right has understood that governments can be oppressive. And in addition, the right has further understood that when governments and corporations get in bed together, the resulting “crony capitalism” can be costly to both consumers and taxpayers.
Yet now the right must come to a further realization: Crony capitalism can deprive the people of more than money; it can deprive them of their freedom. And in the course of this suppression of liberty, companies can be just as guilty—or even guiltier—than the government....
10 — And so the populist-nationalist right must think hard about needed reforms.
If corporate America is just as capable of crushing the individual as is the government—and indeed it is—then conservatives need to rethink their overall strategy. That is, it’s not enough to keep an eye on Uncle Sam, it’s also necessary to watch out for the Fortune 500. And of course, the myriad “lawfare” groups, starting with the highly weaponized ACLU, also should to be watched closely...
Furthermore, perhaps we need to take a closer look at some of the sources of corporate power. For example, there’s the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which unleashed a seemingly unlimited flow of corporate campaign donations; at the time of the ruling, most conservatives hailed it as a victory for “free speech.” And yet now that we’ve seen what companies such as Kellogg’s choose to do with their corporate speech, perhaps it’s not such a good idea to give them the unchecked power to try to buy elections.
CAIRCO Research
Media Bias, Censorship, and Political Correctness Run Amuck