Corporations should listen to DeSantis’s advice about ignoring liberal outrage cycles
Zachary Faria
Major corporations still haven’t realized that all they need to do to avoid becoming caught in political firestorms is simply to wait out the outrage from left-wing activists.
According to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s memoir, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek privately told him that Disney was going to have to weigh in on the state’s Parental Rights in Education bill. The bill was wildly popular, even among Democrats. Yet gay and transgender activists and their media allies tried to whip up a controversy because the bill would ban schools from teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation to third graders.
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“We get pressured all the time,” Chapek reportedly told DeSantis. “But this time is different. I haven’t seen anything like this before.”
According to DeSantis, he told Chapek that Disney would face 48 hours of outrage if they didn’t comment on the bill, and then another 48 hours of outrage “mostly online” once DeSantis signed it. “Then there will be some new outrage that the woke mob will focus on and people will forget about this issue, especially considering the outrage is directed at a political-media narrative, not the actual text of the legislation itself,” DeSantis said.
Chapek opted not to listen and instead threw Disney’s lot in with the activists who had not read the bill. This invited the wrath of Florida’s Republican government. He turned Disney into even more of a political lightning rod than it already had been, and he lost as a consequence. The bill passed anyway. And as a result of Disney’s cowardice, DeSantis has just signed into law a bill that restructures Disney’s self-governing district near Orlando, putting it under state control.
Had Chapek just listened to DeSantis and let the outrage blow over, Disney would have avoided controversy entirely. We know this because we have seen it happen repeatedly. The Salt Lake Tribune tried to start a boycott campaign against Utah for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, which ended up being played earlier this month with no noticeable outrage. Major League Baseball fell to activist pressure to boycott Georgia with its All-Star Weekend, only for Democrats to turn around and consider placing their 2024 convention in Georgia.
These liberal outrage cycles typically last no longer than one week and have little to no financial impact, but only if they are ignored. They are pushed by just a few dozen activists and journalists (but I repeat myself), and they all quickly move on to the next outrage cycle thinking about the previous one. All a corporation such as Disney would have to do is wait out the cycle so activists have a chance to start whining about the next thing DeSantis does. Chapek just didn’t have the spine to wait it out.
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Other corporations should learn from DeSantis’s advice. Disney did everything wrong, inserting itself into a political discussion in which it had no business or expertise, all because some activists complained. Those activists will go away if you deprive them of the attention they crave. They will move on to a new target with or without your support.