Upcoming Supreme Court Cases May Help Restore Free Speech on Social Media

The Supreme Court recently announced that it is going to hear two major cases relating to the right of free expression.

Both cases will examine the constitutionality of state laws that were created to prohibit tech companies from discriminating against social media platform users who are ideologically conservative.

At the heart of the cases is Big Tech’s pattern of targeting and eliminating select content.

The passage by state legislators in 2021 of the laws in question came in response to censorship of user-generated content, which was taking place on social media sites.

The Texas and Florida legislatures were acting on behalf of their constituents in using their lawmaking capabilities to try and restore freedom of expression to the portion of the digital world that was being impacted by selective censorship.

It is regrettable, to say the least, that the redacting of factual information, political ideology, faith expression, and the like, which frequently runs contrary to today’s progressive and/or radical narratives, is routine business for a majority of Big Tech companies.

The Texas and Florida legislators engaged in the appropriate processes in an effort to address the censorship problem.

Texas law H.B. 20 bars social media platforms with at least 50 million active users from blocking, removing, or demonetizing content based on a respective user’s point of view. Similar to phone companies, the law re-classifies social media platforms as “common carriers.”

Florida law S.B. 7072 forbids large social media platforms from censoring or banning political candidates and what the law refers to as a “journalistic enterprise.” The Florida bill also mandates that social media companies publish standards for the removal of content as well as for exercising consistency in the application of such standards.

Technology industry groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association have challenged each of the state laws. Members of the groups include TikTok, X, formerly called Twitter, and the owners of Facebook and Google.

The Biden administration joined with the technology groups, arguing that social media platforms’ rights include those of censoring the content of customers.

Two appeals courts have given conflicting rulings over the two state laws. One of the appellate courts upheld the Texas law, but another struck down the Florida statute. In both cases, implementation of the state laws during appeals has been temporarily halted by federal courts.

In May of 2022, the Supreme Court (by a 5-4 ruling) kept the Texas law on hold during the process of litigation.

Justice Samuel Alito was part of a dissenting opinion, which said that the law should be left in place and that the issues were so novel and significant that the Supreme Court would have to consider them at some point. The justice wrote, “Social media platforms have transformed the way people communicate with each other and obtain news.”

Justice Alito added, “At issue is a groundbreaking Texas law that addresses the power of dominant social media corporations to shape public discussion of the important issues of the day.”

The justice also expressed skepticism toward the argument that social media companies have editorial discretion protected by the First Amendment, such as the kind that newspapers and other traditional publishers enjoy.

The aforementioned tech trade groups, along with the Biden administration, are contending that the Constitution protects the social media platforms’ elimination of so-called disinformation.

Tech companies claim that taking away their unfettered right to censor will mean that their platforms will be filled with the vague categories they are claiming pose a danger, e.g. bullying, extremism, and hate speech.

However, the High Court will look closely at the carve-outs that state legislators placed in the laws to permit platforms to perform legitimate functions. These exceptions allow categories of content, such as pornography and foreign government speech, to be removed by the tech companies.

The above mentioned cases, which will be heard in the new nine-month term that recently began, will ultimately answer a single question of utmost importance: Do states have the ability to put a halt to speech discrimination by tech companies?

Social media platforms have become essential communication components of everyday life.

They allow us to connect and interact with individuals, organizations, educational institutions, governmental bodies, health agencies, etc.

Pray that the Supreme Court decides in favor of a free internet so free speech can live.

Why Historical Statues Need To Be Preserved

We are living in truly disturbing times.

Although much could be said on this topic, in the interest of time the following commentary will be limited to a discussion of the destruction of historical monuments and statues that were intended to commemorate past individuals and/or events of national importance.

Centuries old historical figures and their counterpart statues are presently being deconstructed by activist left-wing zealots.

Rather than focusing on the character, courage, and altruism of former civic ancestors, those bent on destruction are purposefully displacing them from the context of their respective historical time periods, only to hold them to modern-day standards.

The following example is one that is currently in the news.

The Democrat-led New York City Council has advanced a bill that, if passed, will result in the removal of works of art, including statues that depict some of America’s most influential historical figures.

Statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus, and many others are on New York City’s potential chopping block.

These are individuals who have played enormously important roles in the creation of America. Their statues serve as reminders of the contributions that they made and ideals they held, which enabled them to lead a people from autocratic rule to representative democracy.

The removal of such statues is part of a woke handbook, which seeks to redact from the pages of history those whose life stories don’t fit the desired narrative of those presently in power.

The Long Island town of Brookhaven is coming to the rescue, offering to take possession of the statues and even cover the costs for dismantling and shipping them.

Reportedly, officials have indicated that they already have spaces available for placing the statues in Brookhaven’s 20-plus parks.

In a letter to NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Edward Romaine detailed how important some of the historical figures are to the community, including how Washington had toured the town and founding father William Floyd had called it home.

“The Brookhaven Town Board knows the importance of our history in bringing us to the place we are today,” the letter states. “If we look through our eyes today and try to judge them for what they did years ago as some people may do they come away with a different view. I look at their contribution to history overall, I look at what they’ve done.”

When deciding whom to commemorate, either by statues, monuments, holidays, currency, stamps, or names of towns, schools, and streets, we choose individuals who have made exceptional contributions to society. In so doing, we sometimes prefer to look at the greater good that has been done and permit it to outweigh the human failings.

If you are puzzled as to why someone would demonize Washington, the Father of the Country, or Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, you are not alone.

The reason may be rooted in a lack of appreciation for and understanding of the destiny-altering period in our nation’s birth, the Revolutionary War.

One of the finest films ever made dealing with this historical period is “The Patriot.”

Roland Emmerich directed the epic movie, which stars Mel Gibson, Chris Cooper, Heath Ledger, and Jason Isaacs.

Although fictional in nature, the film’s story is based on the reality of Revolutionary War times, a period during which our nation was coming into being. It tells the story of Benjamin Martin (portrayed by Gibson), a widowed farmer who is reluctantly drawn into the war.

Martin is a veteran of the French and Indian War. He has sworn off violence but is forced to take up arms once again when his son is murdered by Colonel Tavington (portrayed by Isaacs), who is a particularly cruel British officer.

Martin’s farm is burned down by the British, and he and his remaining children are forced to flee. He joins a militia group and begins to fight back. He instructs his men on how to use guerrilla tactics to defeat the British and soon becomes a legendary figure among the colonists.

Director Emmerich, who is of European descent, understands the importance of America’s birth. He summed up his attraction to the project on the film’s DVD, stating, “These were characters I could relate to, and they were engaged in a conflict that had a significant outcome, the creation of the first modern democratic government.”

“The Patriot” is a tale of loyalty, sacrifice, and the unquenchable thirst to live free.

These are the intangibles that we honor when we erect statues of historical figures who left an indelible mark to the benefit of all of their progeny.

And that progeny includes you and me.

Cultural Marxism Being Used in Teacher Hiring

Cultural Marxism is a far-left intellectual movement that seeks to systematically destabilize society from within.

For a considerable length of time now those who subscribe to this ideology have been hard at work materially altering the values of the Western World, with a particular emphasis on values conveyed in society’s schools.

Some in the establishment media and institutional elite make the assertion that Cultural Marxism doesn’t even exist.

So what’s in a name? Well in this case, it’s a lack of truth in labeling.

Karl Marx, co-author of The Communist Manifesto, was of the political philosophy that human society develops through class conflict. The conflict takes place between the ruling class that controls the means of production and the working class that facilitates the production.

Marx espoused that a capitalist system eventually self-destructs, and communism is the ultimate governmental answer.

When World War I ended, some Marxist thinkers came to believe that in trying to achieve communist goals, Marx hadn’t really paid close enough attention to the need to infiltrate culture.

There was an influential group of European thinkers that methodically carried out an assault on the foundational pillars of society: religion, patriotism, marriage, family, and the criminal justice system.

Cultural Marxism adopted the viewpoint that traditional culture is a source of oppression and existing conventions, institutions, and even history must be torn down in order to rebuild a society with new Marxist structures.

More contemporary Cultural Marxism primarily tries to destroy the notion of absolute truth and replace it with relativism, political correctness, multiculturalism, and communist revolutionary theory.

We are at a point in our society where this replacement ideology has saturated our colleges and universities. Now there is quite a bit of evidence that in large part it has made its way to the elementary and high school levels of education as well.

Parents have disturbingly discovered that the Cultural Marxist concepts of “systemic racism” and “unconscious bias” are embedded in much of the school curricula, oftentimes under the label of DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

One of the ways in which the far-left has increased and actually solidified the presence of Cultural Marxism in educational institutions is through the screening process for prospective K-12 hires.

Public school districts across the country are using a screening process for potential teachers that is apparently designed to ensure that future educators will be singularly aligned with Cultural Marxist ideology.

The National Opportunity Project (NOP), a nonprofit government watchdog and educational organization, has produced the first survey and overview of the DEI-model hiring process in K-12 education, with nearly 70 public schools participating.

The NOP found countless examples of the restrictive underlying ideology in the teacher hiring process.

Unfortunately, the notion of seeking out the most qualified candidates for open teaching positions appears to be taking a back seat. Instead would-be teachers are being evaluated on whether or not they adhere to desired DEI tenets.

For example, districts are using politically loaded language within job postings, seeking candidates who “demonstrate the qualities of an equity-literate educator” or who “demonstrate a commitment to diversity and recognized equity and inclusivity.”

Across the nation public school job postings are setting forth ideological pre-requisites that are rooted in Cultural Marxism.

Here is a sampling of some of the school districts that are apparently all-in with the ideology, along with some of the language that is being utilized:

–Evanston Township High School District 202 is seeking those applicants who demonstrate a commitment to “social justice” and “equity.”

–Denver Public Schools is looking for candidates who have an “anti-racist mindset” and will “work to dismantle systems of oppression and inequity.”

–The public school district in Washington, D.C. is recruiting teachers who are able to “define, understand, and promote equity” in order to “systematically interrupt institutional bias.”

–City Schools of Decatur, Georgia is looking to hire educators that are committed to “dismantling systemic racism and generating racial equity.”

In a similar vein, questions being posed during interviews appear to be attempting to screen candidates on the basis of their allegiance to DEI-Cultural Marxist concepts.

Here are some examples of such school districts, along with questions that are being employed:

–Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools asks prospective hires, “How would race and diversity impact your classroom?”

–Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Illinois asks candidates to “provide an example of how you have created equity in your classroom.”

–Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland inquires, “How do you ensure that student outcomes are not predictable by race, ethnicity, culture, gender, or sexual orientation?”

It is up to all of us to continue to monitor our local school districts and hold school administrators accountable with regard to the teacher selection process.

Yes, it’s one more thing to worry about and one more thing to have to contest.

But aren’t our children truly the best of what we’re all fighting for?

‘Sound of Freedom’ Producer Eduardo Verástegui Offers Mexico a Presidential Choice

In Mexico, Eduardo Verástegui is a household name. He’s a musical entertainer and telenovelas superstar.

His career blossomed in the United States as well as in Mexico, with his celebrity status rising as he worked with high-profile industry figures, such as Calvin Klein, Jennifer Lopez, and Sofia Vergara, to name a few.

Over the years he acquired a number of movies and television shows under his belt, which include “Chasing Papi,” “Bella,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” “CSI: Miami,” and “Charmed.”

Most recently, he played the roles of lead producer and cast member for the international film phenom “The Sound of Freedom,” which has now reached a level close to $200 million in global box-office.

In his latest project, he has chosen to enter the political arena, and he’s going for a top-tier spot. The necessary paperwork has already filed for his run as an independent presidential candidate in Mexico’s June 2024 election.

Verástegui’s motivation to have a role with a purpose in the public square may relate to the time period in which he experienced one of his big Hollywood acting breakthroughs.

After being cast in the comedy “Chasing Papi,” he sought voice coaching lessons to up his English pronunciation skills. As providence would have it, his language tutor was a committed Catholic Christian named Jasmine. Evidently, she affected his thought processes far beyond mere diction lessons.

Over the course of a six-month tutoring period, he re-discovered his faith and resolved to turn away from any involvement in films that would conflict with his Christian beliefs.

To this end, with fellow founders and partners Sean Wolfington, Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, and Leo Severino, Verástegui co-founded a production company called Metanoia Films, the purpose of which was to create media that contained edifying content.

In his recent Mexican presidential candidate announcement, he emphasized life and freedom as the key driving principles in his decision.

“After a period of discernment, I made the most important decision of my life: I have just registered with the INE [National Electoral Institute] my intention as an aspiring independent candidate for the presidency of the Mexican Republic for the elections on June 2, 2024,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

“My fight is for life. My fight is for freedom. It is time to remove the same old people from power. Our country needs a new way of doing politics, to eradicate corruption and impunity,” he stated.

In the past, he campaigned for pro-life causes and even conducted prayers on social media. In addition, he put his faith into action, establishing Manto de Guadalupe, a pro-life organization based in Los Angeles, which includes a crisis pregnancy center.

His announcement of a presidential run comes after the Mexico Supreme Court issued an unthinkable landmark decision that legalizes abortion in a once-fervently faith-filled country; a decision that paves the way for a massive increase in the killing of pre-born infants.

Prior to the Supreme Court decision, only 12 Mexican states and the Federal District had legalized abortion. However, this current decision allows abortions to take place across all of Mexico.

In his independent run for Mexico’s presidency, Verástegui faces quite a difficult path. As an independent, he is challenging both of the nation’s established political parties, each of which has already selected its candidate.

Verástegui is portraying himself as a new kind of leader. This may be advantageous for him because he is able to stand in stark contrast to the established parties, which the public, in large part, distrusts.

The Pan, Mexico’s purported right-of-center party, is likely to be targeted by Eduardo’s presidential campaign in a manner reminiscent of U.S. candidates that have run against Republicans of the establishment kind.

Last year Verástegui enhanced his bona fides by hosting the Conservative Political Action Conference in Mexico, an international forum for populist conservative leaders from around the globe.

Should he succeed in gaining a place on the ballot, he will be able to offer voters in Mexico an alternative to two left-of-center establishment candidates, Pan candidate Mexico Senator Xóchitl Gálvez and the governing left-wing Morena candidate, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.

To win a place on the June 2024 ballot, he has until January 2024 to obtain signatures of support from 1% of voters, which are distributed across 17 states.

An amazing arc of success surrounds Verástegui’s life. A providential win of the presidency could be forthcoming.

If this happens, positive changes will surely be in store for our neighboring country South of the Border.

And the world will get to see a glimmering example of how celebrity power can work for the good.

Strike Two: Hollywood Actors Union Goes After Video Game Companies

For months now the Hollywood actors union has been on strike against the movie studios.

Now the union is seeking to authorize a second strike, this one involving major video game companies.

The current labor actions began when the Writers’ Guild of America union (WGA) went on strike in May of this year.

In mid-July, the WGA was joined by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

It was historical in nature because a simultaneous strike of both actors and writers hadn’t happened in 63 years.

The actors union hasn’t gone on strike against video game companies since 2016. The strike back then lasted 11 months.

If the sought after strike addition materializes, video game actors most affected would be ones who do motion capture work and voice-overs for the video game producers.

The largest producers of video games in the world are big-name companies like Disney, EA, Activision, Epic Games, and Take Two. These are companies that are parties to the SAG-AFTRA video game contract.

The union has stated that it is asking video game companies for an 11% raise, with two 4% increases during the term of the labor contract, along with protections against AI technology.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher issued a statement about the proposed new strike.

“Here we go again! Now our Interactive (Video Game) Agreement is at a stalemate too. Once again we are facing employer greed and disrespect. Once again artificial intelligence is putting our members in jeopardy of reducing their opportunity to work. And once again, SAG-AFTRA is standing up to tyranny on behalf of its members,” she said.

Use of the term “stalemate” by the head of a prominent union doesn’t bode well for those seeking a speedy resolution to the labor turmoil in Hollywood.

SAG-AFTRA’s strike has almost completely shutdown the activities of Hollywood studios.

Talks between the industry and the unions have not been promising. There have been no breakthroughs over a long summer. The unions seem to be far away from the better wages, residuals, working conditions, and AI protections that actors and writers seek.

SAG-AFTRA needs to supplement the picketing and negotiating with additional action. Adding video game companies to the labor lockout list is one way of increasing leverage while raising public awareness.

Evaluating these strikes is a complex calculus, one with multiple variables.

Entertainment companies are very much in need of content, and the preference would be to have the labor disputes come to an end.

Powerful studio heads are concerned about how the strikes are perceived by Wall Street. The entertainment industry had been in the doldrums before the strike began. And layoffs at production companies and talent agencies certainly didn’t help the overall economy.

Additionally, the strikes have caused significant disruptions to film and television productions all over the world. According to the Financial Times, the ongoing strikes have cost the California economy about 5 billion dollars.

The consequences of the shutdown of Hollywood productions have set off a ripple effect across a large swath of local businesses; those that provide services to the movie industry, including catering, dry cleaning services, drivers, rental companies, etc.

Hollywood jobs seem to be in constant flux. The entertainment industry in general is not known for its job security. People are routinely thinking about getting out of the industry and opting for something with more employment stability.

Workers and businesses that have been affected by the strikes may decide to relocate elsewhere, and would therefore not be available if and when productions actually resume.

On the other hand, if the unions push too long and too hard on the studios, the studios may find an alternative way to obtain the content that they need.

During the 2007-08 WGA strike, the studios were unable to hire union writers. So they turned to the reality TV genre that propelled reality shows to a level in which they still lay claim to a large portion of television production.

Then there’s the elephant in the room, Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Do the work stoppages and production-set standstill become incentives for studios and production companies to accelerate the use of AI technology?

The strike may just push content executives to expedite their AI capabilities.

In fact, this seems to be happening as job postings for AI product managers offering compensation packages of $300,000-$900,000 would indicate.

The studios and streaming services are already using AI technology in the script-screening process, synopsizing stories and diminishing the need for human story analysts.

When writers and actors strike because they are afraid of being replaced by technology, will the content executives be tempted to hire compliant robots that are programmed not to picket?

Hopefully, something will give soon so the cameras can get rolling again.

Children of the Lockdown

It’s been almost three and a half years since public health officials first urged the locking down of America in order to prevent the spread of a virus.

As talk of a possible repeat scenario grows louder, perhaps it might be prudent to stop and reflect on what we have gone through psychologically, socially, and emotionally, particularly our children.

When the lockdown was implemented, some prominent professionals questioned the policy. For doing so, they were maligned and sometimes even censored.

Dr. Martin Kulldorff (Harvard), Dr. Sunetra Gupta (Oxford), and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (Stanford) are three highly qualified epidemiologists, who at a pivotal point in history came together to publish a document.

The document, titled the Great Barrington Declaration, made the case that lockdowns have a deleterious effect upon children. Additionally, an argument was made that denying children the opportunity to attend school was particularly harmful.

The scholars were subsequently disparaged by public officials and certain media figures, as if there were some kind of effort in place to avoid open debate of the document’s content.

In recent coverage of the “Twitter files,” journalist and former New York Times reporter Bari Weiss brought to light the story of Dr. Bhattacharya, whose social media accounts were systematically banned.

Evidently, the professor of health policy at Stanford University ended up becoming one of the victims of high-tech suppression.

Dr. Bhattacharya, who holds both an MD and PhD from Stanford, had published 135 articles in top peer-reviewed scientific journals of medicine, economics, health policy, epidemiology, statistics, law, and public health. The doctor was treated outrageously for having countered the lockdown narrative.

Weiss documented how Dr. Bhattacharya was attacked and censored for asserting that the lockdowns could cause harm to children.

“Still trying to process my emotions on learning that @twitter blacklisted me. The thought that will keep me up tonight: censorship of scientific discussion permitted policies like school closures & a generation of children were hurt,” the Stanford professor tweeted.

During a podcast, Dr. Bhattacharya also spoke of the cost to the children as a result of the lockdowns and school closings, calling them “devastating” and “almost unimaginable.”

He pointed to Sweden as a compelling case study.

“Sweden did better than most countries, certainly better than the United States, despite not putting in place school closures and a whole host of lockdown-related policies,” he said.

The doctor revealed that shortly after the Great Barrington Declaration had gained attention he received hate mail and death threats.

Time, of course, has passed, and although Dr. Bhattacharya’s ideas were once rejected and hidden away, data have been gathered, indicating he was correct.

Here’s a look at some additional studies:

— Nine researchers published a systematic review, using multiple databases from December 2019 to December 2020. The review is titled “Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of children and adolescents: A systematic review of survey studies.”

It showed that the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents was multifaceted and substantial. Survey studies indicated that anxiety, depression, loneliness, stress, and tension were the most-observed symptoms of children and adolescents during this time period.

Thirty-five survey studies involving 65,508 participants, ages 4 to 19 years-old, revealed anxiety (28%), depression (23%), loneliness (5%), stress (5%), fear (5%), tension (3%), anger (3%), fatigue (3%), confusion (3%), and worry (3%) to be the most common mental health issues reported.

— Another recent study from the University of Virginia Health showed that suicide attempts among children (via overdose) rose sharply during the pandemic.

The rate of suicide attempts (via poisoning) reported to U.S. poison centers among children and adolescents ages 10 to 19 showed an increase of 30 percent during the year 2021, when compared to 2019.

2021 was the first full year of the pandemic and its attendant lockdowns. The rate of suspected attempts by intentional poisoning among children ages 10 to 12 showed an increase of 73 percent, when compared to the year 2019.

“These findings suggest that the mental health of children and adolescents might still be affected by the pandemic, raising concerns about long-term consequences, especially given that previous attempted suicide has been found to be the strongest predictor of subsequent death by suicide,” the researchers wrote.

— Boston Children Hospital epidemiologist Dr. Mainuna Majumder and colleagues assembled data from 14 states on suicides in 2020. Findings indicated that 10 to 19-year-olds accounted for a more significant share of suicides in 2020 than in prior years, with percentages going from 5.9 in 2015 through 2019 to 6.5 in 2020 (a statistically significant increase of 10 percent). The study appears in JAMA Pediatrics.

The two-year study period (spanning 2019 through 2020) looked at approximately 3,800 children, ages 4 to 18, who were admitted to inpatient units for mental health-related reasons. In the year prior to the pandemic, 50 percent of admitted patients had suicidal ideation or had made suicidal attempts. This figure jumped to 60 percent during the first year of the pandemic.

— A separate study by the communication charity I CAN asked primary and secondary school teachers across England, Scotland, and Wales about the impact of lockdowns on their pupils.

I CAN found over two-thirds (67 percent) of primary school teachers believe the children they teach had fallen behind in their speaking and/or understanding and were worried that these pupils would not be able to catch up.

The I CAN data indicated that 1.5 million children were having difficulties with speech and comprehension.

— Independent provider of mental health services Cygnet Health Care, which operates over 150 centers with more than 2,500 beds across the UK, recently provided important data regarding the mental health of children who had suffered lockdowns.

Data indicated referrals to Cygnet’s psychiatric intensive care units in its hospitals that treat children and adolescents had more than doubled between 2019 and 2022. Following the lockdowns, young people were referred for problems that included low mood, insomnia, stress, anxiety, anger, irritability, emotional exhaustion, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms.

— A recent study in the UK by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and University College London connected children’s social and emotional development with the lockdown-related employment status of their parents.

Forty-seven percent of parents reported that their children’s social and emotional skills had declined during the pandemic. Fifty-two percent of children 4 to 7 years-old experienced a decline in social and emotional skills, and 42 percent of 12-15 year-olds reported the same.

Proof of collateral damage to children due to lockdowns continues to surface. Still, many public health officials and politicians seem to be urging a revival of the lockdown policy.

In retrospect, the doctors and other professionals who were disparaged and/or censored were accurate in their assessments of the negative effects of lockdowns on school-aged children.

Millions of young people could have been spared the negative psychological, social, emotional, and academic ramifications of the lockdowns.

Heaven forbid that we have a repeat of this history.

Voice of the Silent Unwoke Majority

The need to speak is fundamental.

Whether accomplished through verbal, non-verbal, or myriad other means of connecting, communication is a rudimentary part of just being human.

Even if denied we remain resilient, and we try again to hear and be heard.

Despite recent efforts to inhibit free communication, our human connection was made manifest, albeit in a roundabout way, as necessity dictated.

An analysis of consumer choices that have been made over the past several months is providing a window into repressed public opinion.

To put it plainly, the silent unwoke majority sure seems to have found its voice.

We can hear it in the consumer purchasing activity of wildly popular music, movies, and streaming products, including Jason Aldean’s “Try This in a Small Town” music chart-topper, Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” download phenomenon, “The Sound of Freedom” motion picture triumph, and “The Chosen” series streaming success.

In a free marketplace, brands can quickly become tainted if companies do things that their customers find offensive. Retail giant Target is the latest company to hear the silent unwoke majority’s roar.

Recently, the company reported its first sales and revenue decline in six years, with comparable sales in its second quarter falling more than 5%, when compared to last year. It suffered a drop in number of transactions as well.

The plunge in sales occurred following a boycott by those who were outraged at the store’s promotion of transgender ideology and related merchandise for children as well as adults.

Target’s CEO told investors that the company’s sales fell because of “multiple headwinds” that had slowed down business. However, the biggest cause of the company’s woes is most likely the corporate decision to go woke.

One of Target’s merchandise partners, U.K.-based brand Abprallen, was discovered to have produced apparel depicting satanic imagery. Even though the demon-draped items were not sold at Target, the partnership appears to have intensified the anger that had fueled the original boycott.

Similarly, Bud Light continues to suffer financially from a boycott that was prompted by the decision to associate the formerly popular beer with a transgender social media personality.

Needless to say, the customer base was not pleased by the company’s woke left turn. Bud Light sales dropped more than 25% for the week ending August 5, with volumes down nearly 30%.

It is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, which has found its entire portfolio of beers severely hurt in the woke implementation process. Anheuser-Busch InBev shares fell 6% during a six-month period, while the S&P 500 had simultaneously gone up 8%.

Bud Light’s losses led the company to place its marketing vice president on leave, and hundreds of workers had to be let go.

Disney is another company that has severely damaged its brand, incoming revenue, and reputation, particularly when it comes to its most needed fans; i.e., the paying population of parents, grandparents, and guardians. The Mouse House is currently more famous for its family-unfriendly content, and its political stance against the State of Florida’s child-protecting education bill.

With their significant losses following multiple boycotts by the silent unwoke majority, Target, Bud Light, and Disney now serve as cautionary tales for other business concerns.

If avoiding a similar fate is the goal, the above-described consumer reaction provides an ideal lesson for companies that are thinking about implementing woke practices and policies.

In order to preserve their valuable brands, companies need to be extra attentive to the potential minefield of a polarized society amplified by social media.

Additionally, possessing a basic knowledge of the human need to relate to one another, and actually caring about the beliefs, attitudes, and aspirations of the customers to which you cater, are simple common sense business axioms.

The voice of the silent unwoke majority may not exactly be music to the ears of woke corporations.

But it sure sounds sweet to those of us who still live free.