Why is Big Tech "woke"?

Follow the money

For a long period of time, I was confused why business leaders of America’s largest and most profitable companies were embracing left wing values that are inimical to their existence, and why they promoted “woke” ideology over common sense. It was hard to understand why Harvard MBA’s and ex-McKinsey people who became CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies promoted progressive socialist ideas such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) in grade schools, LGBTQ++ “rights” that differed from the rights enjoyed by all citizens, ESG (Environmental Social Governance) policies or “climate change” rhetoric. Corporate hierarchies used to be ladders of success based on merit and are becoming bastions of “woke” ideas such as “diversity and inclusion” rather than knowledge and competence.

Then I read Vivek Ramaswamy’s excellent book “Woke, Inc.” and it started to become clear. Embracing “woke” crap is profitable and eschewing it dangerous to corporate success in global markets.

There is a culture war raging and China is the enemy of Western democracies. It is in China’s interest to see Western democracies self-immolate with divisive and costly policies that damage their economies while China’s economy flourishes without being hamstrung by left wing nonsense. While China is the primary geopolitical concern, all of Asia is becoming the economic rival of America and Europe is becoming less relevant.

Still confused? Some data help.

Google (GOOG) gets 19% of its revenue from Asia.
Facebook (FB) gets 19% of its revenue from Asia, about half of that from China alone
Apple (AAPL) gets 20% of its revenue from China alone and depends on Chinese manufacturers to assemble most of its iPhones
Disney (DIS) gets only 10% of its revenue from China but China is its fastest growing market growing at a compound annual rate of about 7%
Microsoft (MSFT) gets only 2% of its revenue from China but 90% of Chinese corporations use Microsoft software. Microsoft sees China as a key growth market.
Amazon (AMZN) relies on Chinese vendors who comprise over 60% of Amazon’s third-party sellers
Wal-Mart (WMT) sources 70% to 80% of its products from China.
Tesla (TSLA) gets 40% of its revenue from China

American companies doing business with China recognize that the profitable relationship comes with strings attached. If they are critical of the Chinese communist regime, their access to China as a market or source of product will suffer. If they are critical of domestic policies or parties, China is fine with that. The Republican Party is antithetical to Chinese human rights abuses, geopolitical threats, intellectual property theft, and American dependence on Taiwan for semi-conductors to name a few issues. The Democrats socialist ideology is more compatible with Chinese communism and Joe Biden less a threat to China than Donald Trump was or might be if he returns to the White House in 2024.

Asian giants like China and India benefit from weakness in the White House and pandering by Silicon Valley CEO’s to the Xi Ping regime. India and China capitalize on cheap and reliable fossil fuels to expand economically while United States and other Western democracies destroy their own economies pretending that CO2 is harmful. China and India leaders know CO2 is harmless and are building dozens of coal fired electricity plants, importing a storing a lot of oil, building LNG facilities and preparing for economic expansion while United States and Canada are on a track to self-destruction curtailing fossil fuel production and shrinking the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for short term political gains. China may well be planning a direct attack on United States and the “balloons” shot down by United States and Canada just collecting intelligence on where the nuclear deterrent sites are most vulnerable.

I don’t see a direct nuclear attack as a “first strike” by China but an invasion of Taiwan as a real possibility. If Biden attempts to prevent it (unlikely since he is a weakling) or reverse it (even less likely with a wimp at the helm) and deploys military force against China, it would be met with an attack on North American sites that would be a calamity.

Leaders like Biden, Trudeau and Sunak are promoting costly and inefficient “renewables”, embracing a silly NetZero goal (If NetZero were achieved for the world it would be only a few decades before atmospheric CO2 levels fell below the 150 ppm by volume needed to support plant life), and taxing their citizens into poverty while fueling inflation with reckless government spending and stupid leftist energy policies.

The “woke” tech giants based in United States promote the Democrats and their socialist agenda because there is money in it.

How much money? If the companies mentioned above lost their China-Asia business in total they would see $1.8 trillion of their market value erased, assuming all revenue makes a similar contribution to profit. Seven CEO’s or major shareholders would suffer massive personal losses including the billionaires Larry Paige, Sergei Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, the Walton family, and Tim Cook.

Of the companies and CEO’s listed, the only one with the self-confidence and personal integrity to push back against the “woke” mob is Elon Musk. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple publish reams of misinformation and disinformation and suppress conservative voices, Disney is a cess-pool of “wokeness” and Walmart is absent without leave on ideological issues (for which they should be praised). Elon Musk is having none of it. Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion to restore free speech to a “woke” platform promoting left-wing ideology and censoring the public square to ensure conservative voices were suppressed or not heard at all. He stands alone in this group.

Underneath the “wokeness” which threatens all the institutions of American democracy is nothing short of personal greed by a handful of powerful executives who will throw America under the bus to keep gaining wealth and power. As socialist voices gain in power, freedom is sacrificed and capitalism put at risk. America needs a President with the fortitude and courage to end the charade of “wokeness”, dismantle the nonsensical “climate change” narrative that has no basis in science, and end the abuse of corporate power to perpetuate socialist ideology which threatens democracy.

Karl Marx theorized that capitalism would fail under its own weight owing to inequitable distribution of wealth and power and decisions made by capitalist leaders motivated by greed rather than social goals. It is shaping up like Marx was right, unless democratic electorates vote to restore common sense in the halls of power, dismantle the left wing regimes pillaging our nations, and elect strong leaders willing to protect our democracies with whatever it takes.

Sadly, corporate leaders have become “useful idiots” for China’s global ambitions.