While much of the corporate world is starting to get the idea that DEI in its various appellations is not a great idea, Apple is pushing back. They’ve encouraged investors to vote against a measure that would pressure Apple to join the movement where other companies, like Meta and Target, are ditching DEI.

As I’ve pointed out before, to survive in this world, it’s expedient to have a flexibility of mind to adapt to changes. And within the last couple years, one of the changes that has occurred is that companies are dropping DEI and other variants of it, which are not great for companies that adopt it.

In light of this, it’s really disappointing that Apple is among the few companies that are resisting this change. But it’s not altogether surprising.

It seems as though Apple favors virtue signaling over innovation. As expensive as Apple products are, they’re not terribly innovative. Their main selling point is their stability, which one might expect considering that the hardware and the OS are both developed in-house.

So, what’s the signal that Apple is boosting? Did you know that Tim Cook is gay?

No kidding? Was the rainbow that is shown off with product reveals not sufficient to give it away?

Normally, that wouldn’t be known. But for some reason, that information is widely publicated. Ideally, this would have no bearing on the quality of a product being engineered and manufactured. But when a company is putting a visibly high amount of effort in communicating how dedicated they are to signaling, consumers start to get suspicious.

While Tim Cook might not identify with what it’s like to be straight, most people are, and they know what their tendencies are.

It might not be politically correct to say, but let’s acknowledge the reality of the matter: Most straight people would not want to be mistakenly seen as a homosexual.

It’s like a form of self-preservation. And five years of social engineering aren’t going to make a dent in a trait that’s been conductive to humanity’s continuity for as long as humans have existed.

Considering this tendency, it’s understandable that most people might be hesitant to adopt a brand where there’s higher potential to be mistaken for being a homosexual.

They might instead consider a phone from Samsung, which is headquartered in Korea, where the western world’s cultural problems are distant.

It might even be a significant factor in Android having roughly three times the share of the mobile OS market compared to iOS.

Other businesses are on the pivot to profit, whether Apple is enthusiastic about it or not. People speak of dying on their chosen hill, but it’s important to know that not every hill is worth dying on.

It seems the house of mouse is among the growing list of companies that are rolling back DEI initiatives. According to a note sent to employees and obtained by Axios, Disney is going to be focusing more on “business outcomes”.

And we know what that means. It means that Disney is joining the pivot to profit.

The note states that performance factors will focus on “Talent Strategy” rather than “Diversity & Inclusion”, and they’re dropping their “Reimagine Tomorrow” initiative, and have already replaced its website with an updated corporate hub.

Additionally, Disney has removed an auto-playing content advisory for certain programs on Disney Plus, and replaced it with a brief disclaimer in the details section of these programs. Which, as I see it, does suffice.

This development is yet another in a culture which is shifting back towards normalcy. While this may have been attributed to Trump’s resounding victory back in November, the pushback against the likes of DEI has been well underway at that point, with Trump’s victory being yet another indicator of where the US’s culture has been trending towards.

The fact is, DEI and similar notions have been huge liabilities, and it didn’t help the activists’ cause that the venture capital has been drying up.

Now that Disney is coming back around, I suspect that conservatives and those with families will be warming up to them, again. This is great, because this would amount to positive feedback for making better decisions. As I’ve pointed out about Mark Zuckerberg’s redemption arc, forgiveness can be strategically valuable. After all, if a person were presented with no avenue for redemption, they would have no reason to seek it. It’s better to have a Disney that aligns with our values than a Disney that opposes us, and it’s not bad for them to have an avenue to come back around.

And an incentive can help motivate them. The pivot to profit.

Of course, it’s also possible that we might get to watch Star Wars again, without worrying whether it would be undermined by some activist message.

Sometimes, when a guy goes through enough slop, he’ll just stop being nice. Such is the case with the CEO of the struggling company GameStop, who dragged DEI on X.

To him I say, welcome to the club of those who are sick of it.

Here’s an embed of what he said:

And here’s a screengrab, in case the embed fails:

A CEO’s job is basically to keep investors happy. Naturally, this would involve avoiding saying things that carry the risk of devaluing the company, even as the company goes on sale. I bring this up to help make the point that Ryan has evidently run out of cares to give.

The point he’s making is obvious: GameStop is not in great shape, and poor decisions such as allowing DEI to permeate its corporate culture has played a significant role in that.

I’m not pretending to know how to run a company. But I do know that consultants who push DEI can do some real damage. They know just enough about corporate structure to effect some change, but lack the wisdom to understand the second order consequences of their pet policies.

And when it comes down to it, the DEI pushers are like a cult. In a cult, when there’s failure, the ideology not blamed. When a cult encounters failure, the usual solution is to try the ideology even harder. You’ll see this not just in religious cults, but also in the likes of Marxism and corporate cults such as call centers.

What Ryan Cohen has indicated is that GameStop is so heavily compromised by DEI that there’s little chance of getting rid of it without the corporate equivalent of an exterminator.

When a company adopts DEI, it starts spiraling the drain, usually right away. As it’s corrupting influence becomes more apparent, you’ll see more sound-minded people starting to nope out, while a few who stick around who know what’s going on largely just try to extract as much value as they can, often through the DEI grift, itself.

And then you see people like Ryan Cohen, who throw their hands up and show just how they feel about it.

As more companies dump DEI, we’re probably going to be seeing more of this.