The Patriot Post® · Disney's Deep Disgrace
Disney is one of those U.S.-based mega companies with its hands in many pies. It owns ABC, Freeform, The Disney Channel, ESPN, and has a 50% stake in A&E, The History Channel, and Lifetime. It owns Marvel, Pixar, LucasFilms, and franchises like The Muppets, Winnie the Pooh, The Chronicles of Narnia, and so many more. Disney has long been left-leaning in its content and supportive of more liberal causes, but it crossed a line when CEO Bob Chapek abandoned the company’s mostly politically neutral stance to champion the woke and the radical activists of the LGBTQ+ community.
Chapek recently decided to excoriate Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill (a.k.a. the anti-grooming bill) that the lunatics who call themselves activists have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. After a meeting earlier this week, Disney brass announced they are also going to go after Texas for a bill that treats parents who allow their children to undergo permanently damaging, irreversible, non-medically necessary “transgender” surgeries as abusers and criminals.
The reason for this overt push on the part of the company, says Chapek, is because “the pain this community experienced was not just about this one piece of legislation but about not being there anytime this community has been hurt.” This change of heart probably has more to do with blackmail and extortion through Hollywood and “human rights” groups. Bob Chapek does not speak for America at large, and using Disney to speak for a radical few is disgraceful.
As it turns out, Texas doesn’t need Disney’s help or encouragement. Earlier this week, an elementary school had its young students march around the school carrying pride flags. Granted, this was in Austin, which is known for its homosexual population and leftist politics, and which one of our Texas readers quipped “is a pimple on the state.”
But please, tell us again how this is not about indoctrination. Tell us again how this is not abusive toward kids who cannot consent or fully understand what they are being coerced into doing. Tell us again why Disney, a company that purports to be an entertainment giant for children, would dare side with these nutcases.
In a podcast this week, Ben Shapiro noted that he loves Disney movies and parks, but he also takes a firm stand, saying: “Parents for thousands of years have lived without Disney. … I promise you, if you turn your company into a propaganda tool specifically designed to indoctrinate my kids into your values, I will not use Disney products anymore. It is that simple. And there are a lot of parents who are like me.”
It’s not only the parents who are standing up. Disney’s religious and socially conservative employees are also coming out against this hostile takeover. In an open letter, they beg Disney leadership to take a breath, step back, and not let the company be driven by a loud minority.
In the last paragraph, they plead: “Disney shouldn’t be a vehicle for one demographic’s political activism. It’s so much bigger and more important than that. More than ever, the world needs things that we can unite around. That’s the most valuable role The Walt Disney Company could play in the world at this time. It’s a role we’ve played for nearly a century, and it would be a shame to throw all of that away in the face of left-wing political pressure. Please don’t let Disney become just another thing we divide over.”
Others are not so sanguine about the effectiveness of this letter. One anonymous employee pointed out: “These activist employees and outside organizations recognize Disney’s cultural significance. They want to use the company to make an end-run around parents through content creation and political pressure. They see it as their mission to rescue the next generation from their conservative parents.”
This radical stance on the “transgender” agenda is too much even for some Democrats. But keep going down this road, Disney. Hide in your bubble of elite privilege until there is virtually no one at your parks buying tickets and no one in the movie theaters buying your films. Going up against parents is the most effective self-sabotage this author can think of.
We didn’t elect Disney to be arbiters of our political views. We pay Disney to entertain our children. If the company wants to become political, we can vote with our business by taking it elsewhere.