One of the more insidious ways the woke left has slithered its way into the operations of businesses and the lives of ordinary Americans over the last several years to try and force them into a certain mindset is by way of pressuring banks and large electronic commerce corporations to judge them based on what’s called Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria, also known as ESG, and discriminate against them financially if they don’t pass the test.
In February of this year, Forbes.com wrote about “ESG investing” and charitably described it as “a strategy you can use to put your money to work with companies that strive to make the world a better place.” Here’s how they summarized ESG criteria:
Environment. What kind of impact does a company have on the environment? This can include a company’s carbon footprint, toxic chemicals involved in its manufacturing processes and sustainability efforts that make up its supply chain.Social. How does the company improve its social impact, both within the company and in the broader community? Social factors include everything from LGBTQ+ equality, racial diversity in both the executive suite and staff overall, and inclusion programs and hiring practices. It even looks at how a company advocates for social good in the wider world, beyond its limited sphere of business.Governance. How does the company’s board and management drive positive change? Governance includes everything from issues surrounding executive pay to diversity in leadership as well as how well that leadership responds to and interacts with shareholders.
ESG criteria and pressure from woke online outrage mobs have been credited with getting donation websites like GoFundMe to either freeze or pull fundraising pages for campaigns that don’t meet the woke standards, like the Canadian Freedom Convoy.
It was also revealed in 2019 that PayPal was working with the discredited, far-left Southern Poverty Law Center to ban so-called “far-right” users, oddly enough, in the name of “diversity and inclusion.”
In the days after the Capitol riot, PayPal also blocked funding for the crowdfunding site GiveSendGo after it was used to raise money for some of the attendees of then-President Trump’s Jan. 6, 2020 speech.
In response to these tactics, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week announced his plan to take administrative action and work with the state legislature to implement what he called “initiatives to protect Floridians from ESG financial fraud.”
During a press conference, DeSantis made clear that America should not be a place that is “governed by some of the most economically elite and powerful interests in society” and where everything is “politicized” to the nth degree:
Governor DeSantis said this criteria is used to target “disfavored” individuals and industries to advance a “woke” ideological agenda.“Do we want our society to be governed by some of the most economically elite and powerful interests in society?” DeSantis asked. “And I think our economy is going to be much better off if everything is not politicized. It used to be it wasn’t a political issue. You didn’t have to take positions on every little thing.”“Now almost everything that’s being done, there’s a political overtone to it. You can’t run an economy effectively if that’s the case.”[…]Florida will prohibit the State Board of Administration fund managers from using political factors to determine where to invest the state’s money. This board includes the fund managers that manage the state of Florida’s pension funds. DeSantis said the fund has close to $200 billion.
“We also are gonna prohibit Wall Street banks, credit card companies and money transmitters like PayPal from discriminating against customers for their religious, political or social beliefs,” DeSantis stated during the presser. “They’re using things like social credit scores to be able to marginalize people they don’t like.”
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DeSantis also discussed his plans during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s program:
“So, we’re going to make sure that fiduciary duty is defined very clearly and that they stick to that.We’re — also want to provide protections for people in the financial marketplace from being discriminated against based on ideology. I mean, we have seen Wall Street banks discriminate against contractors who are involved in helping us against illegal immigration or against firearm manufacturers, things they don’t like.So, the upshot of all this, Tucker, is, we want to stop these kind of masters of the universe from trying to do through economic power what they cannot achieve at the ballot box. And it’s really an end-run around democracy, where they’re trying to impose these things. And, here in Florida, I want to be governed by the values of Destin, not the values of Davos.”
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DeSantis’ announcement, it would appear, is already bearing fruit according to one conservative activist who spoke at the presser:
To learn more about DeSantis’ anti-ESG initiatives, click here.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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