Rainbow capitalism appears to be falling apart at the seams (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 2 years ago by iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml to c/latestagecapitalism@lemmygrad.ml

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Now even Starbucks is tossing aside the queer community. I will now paste reporting from the Starbucks Workers United Twitter. I don't recommend you actually go on that site, the replies are full of blue-check fascists.

spoiler

BREAKING: In the middle of Pride Month, Starbucks BANS Pride decorations in stores across the United States. For the last two weeks, Starbucks workers have taken to social media to report that the company is no longer allowing Pride decorations in-store. This seems to be the first year the publicly “pro-LGBTQ+” company has taken this kind of stance. Taking a cue from Target, who bowed to anti-LGBTQ+ pressure and removed pride merchandise, corporate and district management are taking down the pride decorations that have become an annual tradition in stores. In union stores, where Starbucks claims they are unable to make “unilateral changes” without bargaining, the company took down Pride decorations and flags anyway - ignoring their own anti-union talking point.

Starbucks is powered by many queer workers, but management has failed to materially support the LGBTQ+ community. Last October, some workers have reported that their transgender benefit plan changed, causing them to pay out of pocket fees and lose access to certain providers. If Starbucks was a true ally, they would stand up for us, especially during a time when LGBTQ+ people are under attack. A company that cares wouldn’t turn their back on the LGBTQ+ community to protect their already astronomically high profits. True allyship with the LGBTQ+ community is negotiating a union contract that legally locks-in our benefits, our freedom of expression, and ways to hold management accountable.

Starbucks Corporate is denying any change to their policies on Pride this year - but if that were true, why are there countless stories where workers are claiming the opposite? Starbucks partners have been making TikToks about the situation in stores - some going as far back as weeks ago. The company can't ignore what is obviously a huge shift for this year's Pride in stores.

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[-] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 2 years ago

I wonder if right now, (is there a word for it) anti-rainbow capitalism is just too enticing.

There's a huge intersection between the anti-woke crowd and people who are easily fleeced into dubious spending on affiliation cues. (See: any product labelled 'Patriot' up to and including the missile system.)

This means there's a new gold rush in being slightly bigoted: enough to make the bigots feel like they've gotten concessions, but not enough to actually drive away the Gay Money they earned in last year's pandering.

Some of this will doubtlessly go very wrong for the firms doing the dance, but it's a logical endgame: they don't care about the bigots any more than any other demographic, thry'll just service any audience to the level necessary to open their wallets.

I'm surprised they aren't working on quantum marketing: how do you sell rainbow flags and the petrol to burn them in the same flyer?

[-] iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 2 years ago

I’m surprised they aren’t working on quantum marketing: how do you sell rainbow flags and the petrol to burn them in the same flyer?

This kind of exists. For instance, Chick-Fil-A uses its profits to fund LGBT extermination, but has now announced a diversity officer or something in order to court a handful of gays (a lot already still buy their chicken - don't ask me why). Cracker Barrel recently signaled in favor of the LGBT+ community, but the whole theming of the chain is for a conservative demographic. Of course with both cases, the reactionaries had a huge fit over it online.

The holy grail of quantum marketing is to have separate subsidiaries of a giant corporation to market towards different demographics. This probably exists but IDK any examples. I know people like to point out how different international branches pretend or pretend not to care about gays though.

[-] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 years ago

That was sort of rhe original idea that made GM a world-conquering success in the early 20th century-- although the market segmentation was largely price tier, and therefore more age-group/social strata based. If you already know how to sell Cadillacs with a very different marketing message than Chevrolets, it's a small step to put rainbow badges on one brand but not the other.

[-] LightlyButteredToast@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I can't wait until there's a woke and anti-woke version of the same company in every industry, and they're all owned by Blackrock.

[-] ergifruit@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 years ago

didn't the company behind Budweiser literally just do this?

[-] SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.ml 25 points 2 years ago

I remember seeing people make posts about the lack of rainbow capitalism.

Rainbow capitalism is bad and has been critiqued (at least in my circles) every year pride month comes around, but the fact that major companies are backing out of it this year due to the increased controversies (mainly over trans rights) seems to be a predictor of what’s to come. Their words not mine.

I think it’s an interesting perspective and definitely has weight to it. Companies felt comfortable to commercialize pride since it was technically more favourable but now because of rising anti-LGBTQ (again, mostly targeted at trans people but reflects previous homophobic vitriol) sentiment and legislation they’re pulling back on “support.” Hopefully this will start to show people that these companies never had their best interest in mind and it’s always been about profit. Nothing more.

[-] ImOnADiet@lemmygrad.ml 24 points 2 years ago

Guys I thought greedy capitalist pigs were going to save us!!!

~/s~

[-] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago

starbucks is generic capitalism. they support lgbtq only if they profit from it

[-] ATiredPhilosopher@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 2 years ago

they support lgbtq only if they profit from it

quite literally the definition of rainbow capitalism

[-] iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 2 years ago

That's pretty much tautological lol

[-] relay@lemmygrad.ml 22 points 2 years ago

At the moment we exist in capitalism.

The right wing in burgerland is pushing back even more against LGBTQ people.

The capitalists as a result of this political discourse are backing out of supporting LGBTQ people.

The capitalists follow trends to profit from, and this is not good for our LGBTQ friends.

A sad state of affairs.

[-] Wereduck 15 points 2 years ago

Yeah I've been increasingly nervous. It feels like there's such a growing, hyperfocused anti-queerness on the right. I hope it doesn't keep increasing, but my hopes aren't high. We need to be prepared to defend ourselves and our communities from fascism, but I don't really know how.

[-] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 2 years ago

They need a new and more acceptable "Judaism", this is just the buildup in Germany in the 20's and 30's all over again.

[-] Wereduck 8 points 2 years ago

It does feel Weimarish. I hope not. I like to avoid thinking that similarities with past events will lead to the same outcomes, because that type of thinking can be self-fulfilling. History Rhymes, but does not repeat, and sometimes things are metastable when you think your on one side of the slope. We have to fight.

[-] vaguevoid@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 2 years ago

even rainbow capitalism is falling apart

[-] m532@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 2 years ago

Another point marking the empire's fall from colonialism to fascism. The oppression will be directed inwards.

[-] Drstrange2love@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 2 years ago

They supported lgbtqa+ when it was profitable, unsurprisingly they will leave without a second thought.

this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023

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