We live in the world of Taylor Swift and Barbie, not Elon Musk.
Republican politicians like Ron DeSantis may rail against “woke” corporations. The reality is that when companies like Nike and Disney—no progressive angels themselves—seem to align with the left by promoting anti-racism and LGBTQ causes, they are catering to the tolerant demographic that matters most to the bottom line. It’s understandable why older conservatives would feel business has left them behind, ranting about supposed lefty strongholds like Blackrock and Disney. But there’s no top-down conspiracy of woke corporations as defined by Tucker Carlson. It’s just capitalism.
This is especially true given the Republican Party’s increasing reliance on far-right religious voters, whose cultural power is also waning rapidly despite recent judicial and legislative wins. Americans are becoming rapidly less affiliated with organized religion. Younger people are markedly less religious than their elders. In 2021, membership in religious organizations fell below majority levels for the first time, and “nones”—those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or nothing specific—now account for around 30 percent of Americans, up from just 9 percent thirty years ago. White evangelical politics is the province of mostly older voters disconnected from the broader culture and economy.
I feel that this really sums up the sentiment that I notice in my area.
"Most crucially, major corporations crave younger consumers and lifelong brand loyalists. Outside of cable news, older consumers are less attractive to most advertisers. And younger people (meaning anyone under 45!) lean decidedly to the left. The most coveted 18-29-year-old demographic leans farther left than any other. Long gone are the days of the Reagan youth, when 18-24-year-olds backed the Republican over Walter Mondale by over 30 points in the 1984 presidential election, and corporate America catered to them accordingly."
The 55+ demographic has had the cultural and political focus on them their whole lives. Now that it's not catering to their opinions they are throwing a tantrum.
To be clear, Reagan youth were on the generational cusp between Boomer and X. The "quintessential" Boomer youth experience was the Vietnam war, ~15 years prior to the cited 1984 election.
Also at the time somehow Hollywood was really on board with pushing this young up and coming corporate business guy image as being sexy and cool. I don’t think that image plays well with young people today.