The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “The view has been gaining widespread acceptance that corporate officials … have a ‘social responsibility’ that goes beyond serving the interest of their stockholders. … Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.” —Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

Double standards: “Coca-Cola and Delta falsely claim that Georgia is rolling back civil rights. But that’s exactly what communist China did in Hong Kong. And these American companies haven’t said a word in protest. In fact, Coca-Cola, Intel, Procter & Gamble, and Visa are all corporate sponsors of the Olympic games, which are scheduled to take place next year in Beijing.” —Gary Bauer

Political futures: “There’s a saying attributed to Vladimir Lenin that communism would ultimately prevail because stupid capitalists would sell the rope that the communists would use to hang them. When the Soviet Union fell, I thought Lenin was wrong. But Coca-Cola, Delta, and other Fortune 500 companies seem intent on proving Lenin right.” —Gary Bauer

Hate bait I: “Though the days of flagrant cross burnings and Klan rallies may be behind us, bigotry and racism are not. To excise these evils from America once and for all, we must recognize and understand how they take shape today. That is exactly what the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Year in Hate’ report really forces us to do, to track and monitor active hate groups, whether they’re plotting insurrections, vandalizing places of worship, or committing other acts of extremism.” —Senator Dick Durbin

Hate bait II: “It is time we extinguish all bigoted beliefs, address the urgent threat that extremism and hate groups pose on marginalized communities, and end actions motivated by hate. I hope you will join me in supporting the Southern Poverty Law Center and their commitment to making a safer and more inclusive nation.” —Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (“The SPLC’s list exaggerates the number of ‘hate groups’ by listing defunct or essentially non-existent groups along with the KKK … but it also tars the reputations of law-abiding mainstream conservative and Christian organizations like the Family Research Council (FRC), Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), and ACT for America.” —Tyler O'Neil)

Grand delusions: “Paid leave is infrastructure. Child care is infrastructure. Caregiving is infrastructure.” —Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (“This tweet sums up the Democrat Party agenda now very well: Obvious falsehoods, repeated with religious zeal, brainwashing the simple to obey the powerful.” —Buck Sexton)

Non compos mentis: “Our flight deck should reflect the diverse group of people on board our planes every day. That’s why we plan for 50% of the 5,000 pilots we train in the next decade to be women or people of color.” —United Airlines (“I’m excited to never fly an airline that insists on hiring pilots by color rather than skill level. Because I’d be insane to fly an airline that does the opposite.” —Ben Shapiro)

And last… “Many conservatives — myself included — deplore the politics of boycotts. We’re not interested in patronizing companies based on political differentiation alone. But if the left is going to hijack the most powerful institutions in America and then weaponize them against voters in red states, conservatives will be left with little choice but to exert counter-pressure. The only alternative is the formation of alternative companies in every industry. … The left has politicized everything. The right has avoided that tactic, because it’s ugly and divisive. But it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle. It’s time for mutually assured destruction. There’s only one thing worse than having nuclear weapons: unilateral disarmament. Better to establish mutually assured destruction now and put corporate America on notice that, by stepping into the middle of fraught political debate, it risks just as much blowback from the right as from the left.” —Ben Shapiro