"you can be true to yourself and be an employee of a large company, if you just find the right one, as I had." therein lies the rub- are there any "right" companies now? or have they just all become mouthpieces for the latest thing, expecting lockstep obeisance from their employees?
in 1980 i came to charleston, SC to work on the wardrobe crew of the Spoleto Arts Festival, mainly because i wanted to collect unemployment and my current boss wouldn't lay me off even though he didn't have enough work for me.
i fell in love with the city and the event, restructured my life so that i could keep doing it, opened a costume company of my own in NYC, bought old houses in the town (when they were cheap) and pretty much dedicated my life to being the costume director, a position i assumed in 1982, of this wonderful organization.
suddenly in 2022, they went all woke and pushed for DEI unless you weren't vaccinated, of course. then it didn't matter how black, female, trans or otherwise oppressed you were. like the arts under totalitarian regimes, they willingly became an enforcement arm of official government public health policy, insisting on boosters, photo ID's (something only hardcore racists demand of voters, right?) and masks, in so doing wiping out a great swath of potential ticket buyers of all races, colors and creeds and making themselves the exclusive purview of the frightened and indoctrinated.
after 40 years of dedicated, brilliant work, i became a non-person. no one called me; no one offered any regrets or thanks for 4 decades of tireless work. had i retired after 40 years, i might have expected a few words in the program, a parting gift and a party. since my sin was non-compliance, i got nothing.
in april, the governor signed into law a bill making medical jim crow illegal in the state and suddenly, the arts festival was forced to sell tickets even to the "unclean," thus betraying the terrified who only bought tickets under the assumption that they would be shielded from anyone who might be harboring an errant germ. so not only did the masses they had ostracized not forgive them, but some of their previous smug and self satisfied ticket buyers asked for refunds, the prospect of sitting next to a typhoid mary being too much for them.
in addition, they had made a massive Black Lives Matter sign on their scene shop so that all the traffic on I-26 could maybe mistake the building for the headquarters of a political movement instead of the warehouse of an arts festival. after a time, one of the Ls fell off and i found it so irritating that i called them. i mean, if you feel it necessary to jump on a bandwagon, at least keep it maintained. recently, the V has started to pivot off the building. since i am no longer good enough to work for them and they no longer have any legitimacy or reason to exist, i'm not bothering to notify them. let their policies bring on their demise; it can't happen soon enough for me.
i'll add your book to my reading list. there is life after woke. thanks for finding a path to it.
Kudos to you, Jennifer! I only wish you'd had some advanced copies available last Saturday at the Rational Ground conference. Anyway, am ordering a copy as soon as I post this. Proud to have also found a voice—a difficult, painful, but quite bright "silver lining" to the woke (and covid) madness.
When you feel the need to share your opinion on everything and ever body you have to learn to deal with the backlash. This is not a slight on you or your opinion, Jennifer. It's just the way it is. The masses will love you one second, and then try and take you down the next.
Since joining Twitter a few years ago I quickly learned that the loudest people do not represent America. They are just the loudest.
I just listened to your interview with David Vance. Excellent 👌 I've been awake for about 20 years and remembered the Swine Flu scandal of 2009 and knew covid, like Climate Change, was a Trojan Horse for Agenda 21 and Eugenics from the start.
The covid period has shown us that we're a rare breed of people who have discernment to detect deceptions and courage to challenge evil. To us, being right is more important than being popular. Big respect to you Jennifer ✊
I've experienced the Woke crushing of a dream myself. In 1999, with my marriage in a rough spot, I decided to revive the teaching dream I'd lost to depression 12 years before. I went back to college with the aim of becoming an English professor. I knew I had the brains and the drive to achieve it.
What I didn't have--as I learned in graduate school--was the correct political views. A classical liberal moderate might as well be a eeeevil conservative. I was constantly subjected to "conversion" tactics that differed from the efforts of my birthmother and her Evangelical Fundamentalist friends only in the nature of WHAT I "had" to believe in order to be considered a decent human being. It wasn't called "Woke" yet, but that's what it was.
Despite the encouragement of my mentor (one of the finest Medievalists in the country, but on the verge of retirement), by the time I earned my M.A. in 2003, it was all too plain that no one in my field got hired for tenure-track positions unless they were Far Left. Pursuing my PhD would accomplish nothing but increasing my student debt (already too high) and subjecting myself to further abuse by Woke zealots. (And I was not willing to pretend to be other than who I am.)
Loved your talk last night (1/10/23) at Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley (for the readers out there, the video should be posted on the Liberty Forum Rumble channel soon). Your message to us about the need to talk to someone (in person or online) every day to expose a lie about a mainstream false narrative or else we'll lose our freedom of speech, which is everything, is so crucial, and you say it so eloquently - thank you! Your story is so inspiring. Although you're left of center politically and I'm right of center, you're a classical liberal in the sense that you value liberty of thought and speech and you're tolerant of different points of view. Also, I like your strategy to leave the 20% hard-core brainwashed alone and focus on reaching the 50% open-minded ones with the truth, who often believe the right things but are too afraid to say so openly. I was surprised to hear that many of the woke capitalist company executives don't really believe the woke slogans they espouse, they just do it to virtue-signal and make money for themselves while doing it. That was a revelation to me. I was also surprised to hear that the older executives are kind of afraid of the young woke "mob" within the company who are so ideologically committed to wokeness. The executives are parents who came up in the era of befriending your children rather than parenting them, so they're trying to befriend their woke employees rather than tell them how it needs to be in the workplace if they want to stay there. What I still don't get is if maximizing profit is still the main goal, why do these executives go along with policies that seem to hurt the business, such as replacing the meritocracy with racial and gender hiring quotas, and implementing ESG policies (environmental, social, and governance) which have nothing to do with growing the business, and therefore are a drain on the company.
Just finished your book. Thanks for publicly taking an unpopular stand. I’m retired, but owned and operated 6 private businesses over 50 years. My last business was a marketing/mailing business. We would mail for any “lawful” business—including organizations with unpopular philosophies or political parties we did not support. I felt they all had a right to get their message out. Even back in 2000, we had a very diverse workforce of dedicated, loyal employees.
Many times, a suggestion would be made by a junior employee. Often we’d “give it a shot”. If it worked we’d order lunch and celebrate the successful idea. If it failed we tried to figure out why and make “tweaks”.
When we had a problem with a mailing, I always took full responsibility—no employee got blamed—I’d try to figure out how the miscommunication occurred and slightly adjust procedures. Of course, the client was always made whole.
It was refreshing to read about your successes. And stands.
I was not brave. I never revealed my personal viewpoints with clients. I operated in a very liberal town and have very conservative views. I did try to always “do the right thing.”
Management never talked politics with employees. We never tried to influenced voting, but we actively encouraged voting.
Your trials and tribulations and sacrifices overwhelm me. Thanks for refusing the one million dollars and writing your wonderful book.
I listened to your podcast on True Thirty and I was totally taken with your story and your opinions, I will order this asap! You spoke about finding your voice and you are an inspiration to me to use my voice.
Way back in the day I used to do advertising business with Levi’s mainly through Art Neuman at FCB. This was the late 90’s. Levi’s, the corporation felt strange even back that far!
UN Agenda 2030 has 17 Sustainable Development Goals, most of which seem noble so that they appeal to the good nature of ordinary people. But the implementation plan for Agenda 2030 is The Global Biodiversity Assessment. As they say, the devil is in the detail. Here's just one excerpt talking about reducing the population to 1 billion people:
"...An ‘agricultural world’ in which most human beings are PEASANTS, should be able to support 5 to 7 BILLION people … In contrast, a reasonable estimate for an industrialised world society at the PRESENT North American material STANDARD OF LIVING would be ONE BILLION..." (Global Biodiversity Assessment, UNEP, 1995, pg. 773)
The book covers other disturbing issues such as using biotechnology to increase value of genetic resources (and yea that includes humans); intellectual property rights of genetic resources ie ownership of genetic resources and yes that includes humans!
"you can be true to yourself and be an employee of a large company, if you just find the right one, as I had." therein lies the rub- are there any "right" companies now? or have they just all become mouthpieces for the latest thing, expecting lockstep obeisance from their employees?
in 1980 i came to charleston, SC to work on the wardrobe crew of the Spoleto Arts Festival, mainly because i wanted to collect unemployment and my current boss wouldn't lay me off even though he didn't have enough work for me.
i fell in love with the city and the event, restructured my life so that i could keep doing it, opened a costume company of my own in NYC, bought old houses in the town (when they were cheap) and pretty much dedicated my life to being the costume director, a position i assumed in 1982, of this wonderful organization.
suddenly in 2022, they went all woke and pushed for DEI unless you weren't vaccinated, of course. then it didn't matter how black, female, trans or otherwise oppressed you were. like the arts under totalitarian regimes, they willingly became an enforcement arm of official government public health policy, insisting on boosters, photo ID's (something only hardcore racists demand of voters, right?) and masks, in so doing wiping out a great swath of potential ticket buyers of all races, colors and creeds and making themselves the exclusive purview of the frightened and indoctrinated.
after 40 years of dedicated, brilliant work, i became a non-person. no one called me; no one offered any regrets or thanks for 4 decades of tireless work. had i retired after 40 years, i might have expected a few words in the program, a parting gift and a party. since my sin was non-compliance, i got nothing.
in april, the governor signed into law a bill making medical jim crow illegal in the state and suddenly, the arts festival was forced to sell tickets even to the "unclean," thus betraying the terrified who only bought tickets under the assumption that they would be shielded from anyone who might be harboring an errant germ. so not only did the masses they had ostracized not forgive them, but some of their previous smug and self satisfied ticket buyers asked for refunds, the prospect of sitting next to a typhoid mary being too much for them.
in addition, they had made a massive Black Lives Matter sign on their scene shop so that all the traffic on I-26 could maybe mistake the building for the headquarters of a political movement instead of the warehouse of an arts festival. after a time, one of the Ls fell off and i found it so irritating that i called them. i mean, if you feel it necessary to jump on a bandwagon, at least keep it maintained. recently, the V has started to pivot off the building. since i am no longer good enough to work for them and they no longer have any legitimacy or reason to exist, i'm not bothering to notify them. let their policies bring on their demise; it can't happen soon enough for me.
i'll add your book to my reading list. there is life after woke. thanks for finding a path to it.
Proud and inspired by you for always speaking your truth. Can not wait to read your book.
Thank you for your courage and integrity
My hero❣️
Kudos to you, Jennifer! I only wish you'd had some advanced copies available last Saturday at the Rational Ground conference. Anyway, am ordering a copy as soon as I post this. Proud to have also found a voice—a difficult, painful, but quite bright "silver lining" to the woke (and covid) madness.
When you feel the need to share your opinion on everything and ever body you have to learn to deal with the backlash. This is not a slight on you or your opinion, Jennifer. It's just the way it is. The masses will love you one second, and then try and take you down the next.
Since joining Twitter a few years ago I quickly learned that the loudest people do not represent America. They are just the loudest.
Keep speaking!
I just listened to your interview with David Vance. Excellent 👌 I've been awake for about 20 years and remembered the Swine Flu scandal of 2009 and knew covid, like Climate Change, was a Trojan Horse for Agenda 21 and Eugenics from the start.
The covid period has shown us that we're a rare breed of people who have discernment to detect deceptions and courage to challenge evil. To us, being right is more important than being popular. Big respect to you Jennifer ✊
I've experienced the Woke crushing of a dream myself. In 1999, with my marriage in a rough spot, I decided to revive the teaching dream I'd lost to depression 12 years before. I went back to college with the aim of becoming an English professor. I knew I had the brains and the drive to achieve it.
What I didn't have--as I learned in graduate school--was the correct political views. A classical liberal moderate might as well be a eeeevil conservative. I was constantly subjected to "conversion" tactics that differed from the efforts of my birthmother and her Evangelical Fundamentalist friends only in the nature of WHAT I "had" to believe in order to be considered a decent human being. It wasn't called "Woke" yet, but that's what it was.
Despite the encouragement of my mentor (one of the finest Medievalists in the country, but on the verge of retirement), by the time I earned my M.A. in 2003, it was all too plain that no one in my field got hired for tenure-track positions unless they were Far Left. Pursuing my PhD would accomplish nothing but increasing my student debt (already too high) and subjecting myself to further abuse by Woke zealots. (And I was not willing to pretend to be other than who I am.)
Even after nearly two decades, that still stings.
Looking forward to reading it. Love following you on all of your platforms.
Loved your talk last night (1/10/23) at Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley (for the readers out there, the video should be posted on the Liberty Forum Rumble channel soon). Your message to us about the need to talk to someone (in person or online) every day to expose a lie about a mainstream false narrative or else we'll lose our freedom of speech, which is everything, is so crucial, and you say it so eloquently - thank you! Your story is so inspiring. Although you're left of center politically and I'm right of center, you're a classical liberal in the sense that you value liberty of thought and speech and you're tolerant of different points of view. Also, I like your strategy to leave the 20% hard-core brainwashed alone and focus on reaching the 50% open-minded ones with the truth, who often believe the right things but are too afraid to say so openly. I was surprised to hear that many of the woke capitalist company executives don't really believe the woke slogans they espouse, they just do it to virtue-signal and make money for themselves while doing it. That was a revelation to me. I was also surprised to hear that the older executives are kind of afraid of the young woke "mob" within the company who are so ideologically committed to wokeness. The executives are parents who came up in the era of befriending your children rather than parenting them, so they're trying to befriend their woke employees rather than tell them how it needs to be in the workplace if they want to stay there. What I still don't get is if maximizing profit is still the main goal, why do these executives go along with policies that seem to hurt the business, such as replacing the meritocracy with racial and gender hiring quotas, and implementing ESG policies (environmental, social, and governance) which have nothing to do with growing the business, and therefore are a drain on the company.
Just finished your book. Thanks for publicly taking an unpopular stand. I’m retired, but owned and operated 6 private businesses over 50 years. My last business was a marketing/mailing business. We would mail for any “lawful” business—including organizations with unpopular philosophies or political parties we did not support. I felt they all had a right to get their message out. Even back in 2000, we had a very diverse workforce of dedicated, loyal employees.
Many times, a suggestion would be made by a junior employee. Often we’d “give it a shot”. If it worked we’d order lunch and celebrate the successful idea. If it failed we tried to figure out why and make “tweaks”.
When we had a problem with a mailing, I always took full responsibility—no employee got blamed—I’d try to figure out how the miscommunication occurred and slightly adjust procedures. Of course, the client was always made whole.
It was refreshing to read about your successes. And stands.
I was not brave. I never revealed my personal viewpoints with clients. I operated in a very liberal town and have very conservative views. I did try to always “do the right thing.”
Management never talked politics with employees. We never tried to influenced voting, but we actively encouraged voting.
Your trials and tribulations and sacrifices overwhelm me. Thanks for refusing the one million dollars and writing your wonderful book.
Kimmis
I listened to your podcast on True Thirty and I was totally taken with your story and your opinions, I will order this asap! You spoke about finding your voice and you are an inspiration to me to use my voice.
Very excited to read!
Way back in the day I used to do advertising business with Levi’s mainly through Art Neuman at FCB. This was the late 90’s. Levi’s, the corporation felt strange even back that far!
UN Agenda 2030 has 17 Sustainable Development Goals, most of which seem noble so that they appeal to the good nature of ordinary people. But the implementation plan for Agenda 2030 is The Global Biodiversity Assessment. As they say, the devil is in the detail. Here's just one excerpt talking about reducing the population to 1 billion people:
"...An ‘agricultural world’ in which most human beings are PEASANTS, should be able to support 5 to 7 BILLION people … In contrast, a reasonable estimate for an industrialised world society at the PRESENT North American material STANDARD OF LIVING would be ONE BILLION..." (Global Biodiversity Assessment, UNEP, 1995, pg. 773)
https://archive.org/details/united-nations-agenda-2030-global-biodiversity-assessment-1995/page/773/mode/2up
The book covers other disturbing issues such as using biotechnology to increase value of genetic resources (and yea that includes humans); intellectual property rights of genetic resources ie ownership of genetic resources and yes that includes humans!