I'm not sure if it belongs in politics specifically, but it's certainly that flavour. I've been working for the past year in this area of 'responsible capitalism' aka ESG or Corporate Social Responsibility and it's grown massively. Note the adverts now which don't bother to tell you how good the product is, but just tell you how many schools they've helped, or tons of carbon they've removed from their fleet of lorries. Got to be good, right? Well, for me, no. It's a fig leaf of deceit over the continuing greed of these corporations. Sure, they now have an office wine and cheese mixer for Kwanza and deck their head office out in rainbow flags for select months of the year and they have a mental health awareness day to let their employees know they care. Except they don't. They'll all cut workforces as soon as they have to, break as many eggs as are needed to make their omelette, but they'll do it all alongside a glossy annual report which shows that they're making the world a better place and that their billionaire shareholders can feel smug, knowing how many bees have been saved to produce their fat dividend. It's really started to depress me as I'm kind of hands on with it in a sense, but honestly, it's so cynical, yet it's huge business and ubiquitous.
It's simple. Most people are intellectually lazy and don't bother looking into things beyond the surface veneer. You are baffled because you're the type to scratch that veneer, and assume everyone else is wired the same way...which most are not. Sad reality is most people are quite happy to coast, as far as thinking is concerned. And the sort of people Moog is talking about it know that. Bread and Circuses.
Hmm, I don’t know. British people have a healthy cynicism and this approach requires people to engage a little. My guess is that the audience is as much internal as external. I remember McDonalds making a big fuss about its Green credentials a while back and about how nutritious its food is. Did that have any effect? I imagine most laughed. Maybe it helped retain waverers, but most McDonalds customers have already crossed several thresholds.
These are subtlety different situations, though. McDonalds was trying to change a mindset that was already (correct) in place: that their food isn't healthy. Most people don't have a Scooby's what your average late-stage capitalist multinational company is doing, so the surface level charm offensive isn't competing against an established opinion. Hey, they're planting trees, that's good! Meanwhile, domestic employees are getting squeezed and overseas workers in developing nations are being exploited....but you have to be looking for that info. Also worth noting that we're talking about the same "British people with a healthy cynicism" who voted for Brexit based on a pack of lies.
The really weird thing is Maccy D's "Fillet-o-fish" (and I don't mean the recipe). This uses the Patagonian tooth fish as the basis in its sandwich. The Golden Arches need a continuous supply of consistent product quality (all processing of patties is done on ship) so they operate and manage, literally, the gold standard of sustainable fisheries. It literally ticks all the boxes (and then some). But, they refuse to pay for accreditation because it would highlight all the greenwash applied to all its other products.
So you moved to the socialist utopia that is the USA? Where the person speaking out most against corporations and the establishment, from a position of power, is the person you dispise most in all the world, and a corporate establishment puppet is your response to him. Your words and your actions appear to be at odds with each other.
Trump lowered taxes and reduced regulation for corporations. He reduced workers rights and benefits. Far from being against corporations he has his own corporation. He absolutely has the Republican establishment and he has always cultivated his establishment connections. Even before becoming President he had his picture taken with anyone and everyone famous. He is the ultimate establishment socialite. His ‘anti-establishment’ credentials are simply an inter-establishment war he exacerbated to rally his base. What you have written is so nonsensical it’s great parody.
Don't knock the great corporate social responsibility swindle! This particular gravy train pulled into my station a while ago. Companies are falling over themselves to shove their cultural, environmental or social 'values' down everyone's throat at the moment. It's all just marketing b0110x of course driven by some belief that consumers prefer brands with 'authentic sustainability stories'. Corporate Sustainability Strategies - Ker-ching! Carbon Neutral Roadmaps - Ker-ching! Ethical Business Ratings - Ker-ching!! I suspect this 5hite is keeping the tills ringing for plenty of people who provide utterly pointless, overpriced services, such as me!
I suppose all advertising is about massaging the ego of the buyer, selling them a dream of individual agency, that your purchases count in some way. Cars are always advertised roaring their way up the Stelvio Pass in the Italian Alps, by perfect yuppies, gurning from ear to ear with pleasure freedom and power gift. They are never shown in the car’s natural environment, which is stuck in the p*****g rain, in a queue of traffic, on the way to Aldi.
There is a huge difference between being pro business and simply handing money to giant corporations and teachers unions because they will enrich you or support you for doing so. I think you will struggle to find large corporations that support Trump politically or reflect his policies, compared to those who despise him and embody CRT and DEI. So parody your self. You say he is having an inter-establishment war and that I am being nonsensical? I am happy for you to make that argument out loud, on my behalf. And, pretty much exclusively, it was celebrities and industrialists who wanted their photos taken with Trump. He likely didn’t even know who the people, literally, standing in line for a photo op with him were. It is absurd that you now claim he sought them out. No one can take such a suggestion seriously; Trump in a one man queue waiting patiently so he can have his photo taken with all those less famous people, hoping they don’t walk off before he gets his op. That really is parody.
I saw this and thought of posting here but decided against it as I have no ******* idea what a ‘fan sustainability platform’ is.
Further down in the article they start talking about carbon footprints, etc. Given this thread I was just amused by the timing, more than anything else!
The carbon footprint of professional football is terrible. 25-minute flights. The energy used to maintain pitches – not just at the stadium but also at training facilities. Merchandising made of plastic halfway round the world, all just making a temporary stop on its inevitable journey to landfill. But, of course, that's all essential to the success of the business so let's put all the focus on how the fans get to the game and shame them for driving instead of paying a small fortune to take the train – especially when about half the grounds in the top two divisions have moved away from town centres and are hard to get to by public transport. According to that article it's 'a dirty little secret' that fans contribute 60% of the carbon emissions. You don't say! Asking people to travel to 46 games a season, fans coming from all over the place, and it's the fans' fault. Of course it is! Tell you what, football, reduce the matches to 10 a season. Scrap European competition. Cap attendances at 10,000 per match, stop away fans travelling, get clubs to pay for train travel so it's free for fans who ditch the car. Ensure the clubs do everything to minimise the 40% of the emissions they're responsible for – including barring overnight stops for away games – and then we'll chat. No? Of course not, it sounds ridiculous. 'Dirty little secret'. Tell you what, we'll stop coming all together. You can win money-can't-buy prizes if you register for the app, says the article. So, the initiative is a data grab then. Rant over. Edit: Actually there's more. Football clubs that have advertised any kind of crypto currency or service, which has a tremendous, wasteful carbon cost, can contribute some hard cash to make amends. After you, Watford.
