Walmart, Amazon and other corporate giants donated money to the reelection campaign of a Tennessee state lawmaker who had used social media to amplify and promote the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records and the candidate’s posts.
Who cares if they’re provably insane as long as we can keep undercutting businesses that actually have people pay sales taxes, amirite? - Jeff B
Seen this headline without much follow up on details yesterday:
The Detroit News (not Paul Harvey) had the rest of the story. Only 165,000 employees will see wage increases, and most of them will see small increases. They have 1.5 million employees in the US.
I’m not sure drawing such distinctions is useful. Frankly, “global warming denier” and “unitary executive proponent” are descriptions that should be more alarming for both sentient individuals and well-run corporations. “QAnon” is a freakshow, but is it really any more dangerously irrational or cultish than what a large part of the GOP has become?
For that reason, using QAnon support as a litmus test for corporate irresponsibility is sort of a distraction.
It’s almost as if maybe companies shouldn’t be trested like people and allowed to support candidates. Brainlessly amplifying the crazy for nebulous benefit. Tax cuts and money to burn. Too bad that horse left the barn years ago.
I’d say it’s valid as a litmus test but certainly not the only one and as you say perhaps not the most important. And yes, using it alone helps normalize other, potentially dangerous nutball beliefs such as climate denial.
*Meant to say potentially more dangerous
And maybe corporations that have PACs should really pay fucking attention to who they are backing. I mean do they just meet with state chair of the RNC and they tell them the PAC “I need X amount, and divide it up this way”, and the PAC says, “sure no problems”.
Public financing of all federal elections is the only way we can dig ourselves out of this hole. It should have been done decades ago. Lobbyists could make appointments to meet with legislators, but leave the checkbook at home.
How much research does one have to do to make sure the candidate has an “R” after their name?
How stupid can they be? Looks like I will have to reconsider my buying habits.
“Now that our awareness is raised, we will reevaluate our criteria for giving to help identify affiliations like this in the future,” Elizabeth Conway said in a statement.
Yeah! Let’s reevaluate the criteria - iron words in a velvet glove.
Is QAnon an amateur operation? Or is the core of it run by psychological warfare specialists allied with, and paid by, Putin and/or Republicanarchist interests?
More than likely the latter, but they suck-in fools who are easily lured to conspiracy theories.
After reading this thread I tried to email Southwest Airlines to complain/comment about their contribution to QAnon candidates. But their “contact us” link did not allow me to actually send them a message. They used to be fairly user friendly, but evidently those days are gone. My message, had I been able to send it, would have been to say that after about a million miles with them, I will not buy another SWA ticket. I may use up my remaining frequent flier miles, assuming that COVID does not keep me grounded forever.
So she’s either crazy or clueless. Obviously, she’s qualified to be a state legislature. Mark Twain would guffaw and take another nip of corn likker.