Blackrock and Vanguard are forcing ESG and DEI initiatives on corporate America: Anson Frericks
Former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks weighs in on why companies like Target and Bud Light are alienating their customers in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’
Mark Kern, a former team lead of the popular online game "World of Warcraft," claims the video game industry and entertainment at large cater to progressive views in their content in exchange for access to money.
Fans of beloved franchises like Indiana Jones have become frustrated when they think movie studios and writers have adopted divisive identity politics or gone "woke." Kern puts the blame on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) consulting companies that often work with a movie, series, or video game in development and help write or influence their stories.
While some games with DEI consultancy influence such as "Marvel's Spider-Man 2" and "God of War: Ragnarok" have met commercial success despite pandering to liberal identity politics, the recently released "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League" has been widely panned for both its gameplay and its story. This game was so poorly received that Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels on February 23rd amidst the company’s Q4 2023 earning calls declared, it "has fallen short of our expectations since its release earlier in the quarter, setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1."
In the video game industry, one consultant agency made headlines recently for being at the center of controversy over pushing diversity politics in certain video games. Sweet Baby Inc. (SBI) describes itself as an "inclusion-focused narrative and consultation company" working toward "diversifying and enriching the video games industry." On the video game digital distribution service Steam, over 250,000 gamers have followed a list called "Sweet Baby Inc. Detected." The list consists of games that SBI is affiliated with and doesn't recommend them for purchase.
Mark Kern, famous for having been the Team Lead for World of Warcraft at Blizzard, has spoken out extensively about the modern issues of the gaming industry. (Mark Kern screenshot from Sodapoppin YouTube channel. Headphone wearing gamers by: Chepa Beltran/Long Visual Press/Universal Images Group via Getty Images. Controller photo from istock)
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Kern has weighed in on the controversy involving SBI and told Fox News Digital, saying "there is a coordinated effort to insert diversity politics into games by ALL parties involved to the detriment of the quality of the games themselves. Sweet Baby’s Inc.’s very public and self published involvement is just the tip of the iceberg."
In light of what Kern calls a "system of suppression and fear and forced politics that has permeated gaming, comics and movies," he shared why he believes companies continue to change, replace, or demean characters beloved by fans.
"Gamers have been disappointed with poor stories and changes to existing characters in their games for a long time now in AAA gaming," he said. "While gamers did not have a problem with being inclusive, they did wonder why being inclusive meant killing off, deriding or insulting their favorite male characters of the past."
As a longtime insider of the gaming industry, Kern offered an explanation as to why such "woke" entertainment keeps being made despite alienating audiences.
"Over the past decade we have seen the rise of ESG investment and ESG based loans. For people who don’t know, ESG focuses on a sort of ‘credit score’ for investments," he wrote. "Companies must score high on equality and inclusion, so-called DEI initiatives in order to quality for this funding. During the time of cheap interest rates, this type of funding proliferated."
The video game industry is one of many in entertainment that have fans up in arms about identity-politics being shoehorned into their stories. (iStock)
BLACKROCK AND VANGUARD ARE FORCING ESG AND DEI INITIATIVES ON CORPORATE AMERICA: ANSON FRERICKS
He went on to claim that in order to boost their scores, companies pitching for financing had to show their DEI progress.
"This is where you get board shuffles, hirings and creation of DEI departments, management and employee ratios and quotas, and, yes, the hiring of firms like Sweet Baby Inc," he said. "Not for their track record, but because they are loudly and actively advertising DEI as their mission statement. You can point to them as part of your checklist to bolster your DEI score and quality for this funding. You can also point to your games, and say we made XYZ changes to make our games more inclusive and diverse."
Kern asserted that such DEI companies go far beyond writing games, but are actively reshaping the industry on a corporate level, and argued Sweet Baby Inc. is merely the most prominent example.
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"There are firms out there that specialize in helping companies change their hiring and management practices to achieve quote numbers and promotion strategies that, in the blind pursuit of balance, end up excluding White developers from positions and jobs. It’s in writing, it's in hiring, it’s in HR, it’s in training firms that do struggle sessions," he wrote. "This is all over gaming. So yes, Sweet Baby Inc. is not the mastermind of some agenda. But they are a tool, a tool of a much larger machine that pushes for these changes that make games worse and that push a very specific set of politics that enforces itself through fear and cancel culture."
The gaming industry is due for a reckoning, Kern argued.
"AAA games are failing. DEI without true quality writing and characters in games is a kiss of death," he said, later noting that "Thousands are being laid off as [ESG] funds dry up and gamers have turned their backs on these terrible quality games. It’s time to stop."