In America, if enviornmental, social, and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates are accepted in their current form, capitalism will most likely be destroyed.
The widespread acceptance of ESG and DEI by American business giants is as concerning as it is eye-rolling. Large corporations routinely play games to attract stock buyers’ interest, but this is different. This is not a game. Many aspects of ESG and DEI eschew business and economic fundamentals, and challenge rational thinking by replacing fundamentals with dogmatic doctrines.
To make matters worse, the cult thinkers who monitor ESG and DEI scores want as much power as the credit-rating agencies, such as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. These obsessed “change makers” have passed off ESG and DEI as liberal progress, but, in reality, it is something far more sinister.
In America at least, ESG and DEI are not liberal, or centrist, political initiatives. Rather, they are well-capitalized leftist experiments.
What Is ESG and DEI?
While ESG and DEI began as separate components, since 2020 they have become more and more interrelated. If you are wondering what ESG and DEI are, “E” stands for the environment, and environmental welfare. Carbon emissions are the biggest target, but there are far more obvious solutions to combat environmental welfare than picking, and choosing, where carbon is to be reduced.
Habitat restoration is one of them; so is protecting the ocean and fisheries. On the contrary, however, Norway is considering opening up its waters to deep-sea mining, all in the name of independence from fossil fuels.
What about wind turbines? The rush for wind turbines has led to shoddy workmanship, including instances where 700-foot turbines have literally fallen over. Wind farms have also been placed in the middle of bird migratory flight paths, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of birds.
Yet the ESG change makers rarely discuss such anomalies. When they do, it is hidden in discussions about the “rapid innovation” green technology is experiencing. It seems innovation is so rapid, they are unable to avoid destruction and crucial mistakes.
The “S” in ESG stands for social. The social aspect in ESG is literally double dipping when you factor in DEI. More on that soon. The “G” is for governance, and this is one category the change makers have the most trouble with. When you take a closer look at governance policies, let’s look at the simple metric of how many boards can a director sit on.
According to BlackRock, an asset management firm, that number is a maximum of four boards, but BlackRock breaks its own rules. They have an Ivy league dean on 69 boards, while another one of Blackrock’s directors sits on 71 boards.
What About Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity?
On the surface, it seems harmless to incentivize corporations, and markets to hire people from diverse backgrounds, and to employ people with disabilities. However, much like ESG, the mandates and guidance behind DEI is far different than it suggests.
DEI is really just an extension of CRT (critical race theory), and because of DEI, CRT is now being taught in K-12 schools through a program known as social and emotional learning (SEL).
Proponents of SEL will disagree with my statement, but SEL is no longer as “neutral” as it used to be. In recent years, SEL has become more and more a tool of the left. To better explain, think of CRT as the ideology, DEI as the marketing gimmick, and SEL as the vehicle in which this is delivered. Teaching this at the K-12 level is a dangerous development that must be overturned.
The ‘E” in DEI means equity—not equality—which means equal outcome. In other words, tearing down the free market and forcing a redistribution of wealth. Yet there’s no such thing as equality of outcome in the free market. The “I” means inclusivity. I am at a loss for words with inclusivity, because I question what “social” and “diversity” means, if it doesn’t already check the box of “inclusivity.”
How Can America Stop the ESG–DEI Industrial Complex?
How can America stop this? Citizens can lobby their representatives to pass laws to prevent money managers from influencing theories that usurp our nation’s economic system. They can pass laws that prevent collusion. Remember separation of church and state? Now we need the separation of ideological cult thinking from business and education.
Congress and state legislators can put forth legislation to break up the asset management quasi-monopolies that exist (Vanguard and BlackRock, for example, control just shy of $20 trillion in assets). There should be a law preventing money managers from choosing ideological theories and aligning themselves with certain ideologies unless the client expressively demands so.
Congress and state legislators can also continue to push laws that limit ESG and DEI interference in that state. America has plenty of intelligent adults. We need more of them to speak against totalitarian agendas.
All Americans need to see that these top-down instructions from unelected theorists are not doing anything for the environment, for society, or for diversity, apart from creating a larger cultural divide.
Coffee the Christian way: Promised Grounds
Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
