In Orwell’s novel, 1984, the main character – Winston Smith – finds himself in the cellars of the Ministry of Truth, having committed ThoughtCrime by reading The Book – a manifesto produced by a supposed underground revolutionary movement. And for writing down his thoughts in a journal. The door of the cell opens and in walks O’Brien, the Inner Party member from whom Winston got The Book.
“They got you, too!” Winston exclaims.
“They got me a long time ago,” replies O’Brien – who motions to the guard behind him. Winston is then taken to Room 101 – to be tortured by O’Brien.
Well, they just got Subaru, too.
It has committed the crime of not “electrifying” its lineup fast enough. Or even at all. Subaru is one of the few car manufacturers that does not have an EV in its U.S. model lineup. Instead, it has models that sell really well – like the Crosstrek, which just happens to be the only remaining small crossover you can still buy with a manual transmission. It is the antitheses of everything EV. It is affordable – $23,645 to start. Thousands less than the least-expensive EVs, the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt – neither of which can travel almost 500 highway miles, as the little Soobie can.
It does not require doling out “incentives” to persuade people to buy it. They line up to buy it – especially with the manual transmission, which is a feature no EV offers but which many people want because it makes driving more involving. And because it gives them more control over how their vehicle drives.
Most fundamentally, it gives them something that isn’t an EV. It is precisely why they buy models like the Çrosstrek. And they have bought a lot of them.
How many?
How about 27,522 . . . over the past eight weeks.
That is about 10,000 more Crosstreks in two months than Ford has sold Lightnings – the electric Turducken version of the otherwise-appealing (and best-selling) non-electric F-150 pickup – last year. During the entirety of last year, Subaru sold 155,142 Crosstreks, amounting to an increase of almost 22 percent over the previous year. It’s a lot of Crosstreks – of cars, period – for one of the smallest car companies doing business in the United States. Subaru having only about a 4.1 percent market share.
Ford’s share is about 13.3 percent.
But the more interesting number may be the EV’s market share. As in all of them. It is about 5 percent – and 2 percent of that is Tesla’s share. In other words, Subaru sells about as many cars – none of them electric – as electric cars are sold, in total. And about twice as many cars as Tesla sells.
Instead of building on that success, Subaru will be replacing cars like the Crosstrek with what has failed. Electric cars. It was announced last week that there will be “sweeping changes ahead” – the first of which is the replacement of current Subaru president and CEO Tomomo Nakamura, who joins Akio Toyoda in Room 101 for not loving electric Big Brother enough.
The new guy-in-charge, Atsushi Osaki, whom the board of directors tapped to replace Nakamura, will “accelerate the company’s efforts to address the automotive industry’s profound transformation.” According to news reports, this “profound transformation” will entail “… moving the current lineup of its top-selling Crosstrek subcompact SUV, Outback midsize SUV, and Forester compact SUV models to hybrid and all-electric powertrains sooner than was previously planned. In addition, more all-new battery-electric vehicles (BEV) models will also be produced in the next five years than previously announced.”
Osaki himself says “We at Subaru want to survive the age of electrification by being nimble. We will put various systems in place while focusing on flexibility and expansion.” 
Back to that italicized couple of words above – about the board of directors.
This can be translated as ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – the force behind these “transformations.” The same force that led Akio Toyota to Room 101 just a few weeks ago. Toyota – and Subaru – were among the few remaining car companies that had not “fully committed” to make the “transformation” to “the age of electrification.” Probably because the men running them – until just now – looked at the numbers and saw that it made no business sense to stop making cars hundreds of thousands want in favor of tens of thousands of electric cars that even the few who bought them probably wouldn’t have if they weren’t being bribed to buy them via extravagant tax-kickbacks. These latter operate the same as the huge discounts car companies used to offer as inducements to clear the lot of loss leaders – vehicles that weren’t selling.
But – under the tenets of ESG – cars that sell are bad. Because they aren’t “environmental.” Of course, that term really means political. If it were not so, electric vehicles wouldn’t be being pushed as their manufacture as well as their use entails more actual harm to the environment than cars with engines, which burn up fewer resources in the course of their manufacture and use. They do not require 1,000-plus pounds of toxic battery packs each. Batteries that – unlike lead acid batteries that can be recycled – use up non-renewable materials such as lithium, more of which must be mined (and leached) to make each new EV battery pack. Each EV requiring a new battery pack years before a non-EV would need a new engine.
Lifetime-use models also show that EVs end up causing the release of more “carbon” – the “environmental” bogeyman that serves the same purpose as “the cases” did as regards the “health” bogeyman used to further another but closely related “transformation” over the past three years.
But EVs serve a larger purpose. They are the vehicle for getting most of us out of vehicles. That is the metric of success these days, as regards cars. Not sales. Definitely not ownership.
ESG aims at our diminishment. You do the hokey pokey and discover that’s what it’s all about. ESG acolytes have taken operational control of the boards of major corporations, the apotheosis of the Left’s 100 year-old “long march” through the institutions. To sit on the board of a major corporation does not require knowledge of, interest in – or even liking of – the business. It takes shares. Which takes money. Those who have it can buy the direction of the company.
And so they have.
It is one more to their liking.
. . .
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Don’t wait if you want a manual Crosstrek. They won’t be available with the 2024 update.
It started in 2001. After the FAA ordered a ground stop on 9/11, it took weeks just to get equipment repositioned to get back to anything that resembled normal. And no one was traveling. So instead of letting airlines go bankrupt and reorganize, the government bailed ’em out. Now that investors knew airlines stock prices had an abslute floor, even Warren Buffet, who got burned badly in the 1980s buying airlines and vowed never again, invested heavily.
Then came 2008. Most 401(k), pension plans and endowments were way overweight on banks because they were performing so well. This is the fundamental reason for too big to fail. You’re a regulator looking at 10,000 people a day reaching retirement age, and what the heck are you going to do when the banks all fail? So they scared the hell out of everyone by holding transactions and business insurance for a few days, then started bailing ’em out.
This set the stage for 2020 and the unprecedented meddling in the system. Companies were worried about losing their workforce, either temporary or permanently, so the shutdown scheme was implemented. It was the sequel to 9/11, except this time every business in the western world. But again, instead of bankruptcy, they got bailed out. Keep the stock price up, keep the markets safe for retirement.
Now that the camel’s in the tent, what do you expect? A free ride? Hello! This is progressive politics! There’s no choice but to meddle and experiment with all sorts of ways to “fix” the broken systems. And you’ll do it too, or you don’t get to play.
Very sad about Subaru. You can tell whpever designed my 2017 manual Crosstrek loved cars and car design. Just a perfect little ride. And can’t forget the legendary WRX’s and the like with the awesome boxer motors. Sigh. Oh well
I still have my ’07 WRX. Manual trans, and it has 254,000 miles on it. Granted, it is not as reliable anymore, but it still makes a good back-up vehicle, and I had it faithfully maintained every 30,000 miles. I left the turbo alone, and did not try to tinker with it, either. I just replaced the original clutch at 219,000-hee hee. No nanny bells and whistles, no back up camera. It really is a breath of fresh air to sit in the driver’s seat and relish in the non-big-brother aspects of having an “older” vehicle. It is too bad that Toyota is trying to “fix” something that was never broken. Well, as the saying goes, “get woke, go broke”. I surmise they will have to learn that lesson the hard way, just like all the other fools (companies) did.
My non-turbo 2008 Subaru Impreza is doing well enough I suppose. Bad cats and a head gasket starting to leak, however. Sadly, it was driven hard by my temper when I was younger. 170k miles on it, and barely any issues until now though. I’m just gonna ride it til it dies, I guess.
“They” sure got a lot of people worldwide into complying with draconian, authoritarian COVID measures in 2020 & 2021 by running a MASSIVE fear porn campaign. While it was awful in the U.S., it was actually worse in the UK, as their ex-health secretary, Matt Hancock, wanted to “Frighten the pants off the public” over some COVID strain…..
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/matt-hancock-leaked-texts-covid-strain-b2294763.html
They got them too: If you want to rob a Sam’s Club, you may want to make sure the EV is charged first. Busted at the charging station.
https://accesswdun.com/article/2023/3/1171820/two-people-arrested-after-allegedly-robbing-buford-sams-club
In other news…
I’m thinking about building (in all my spare time, haha) a diesel hybrid.
Possibly, I’d use a 3-cylinder diesel engine, like the one in my tractor, combined with nickel-iron batteries, which could last for 80-years, if maintained properly.
This could yield a very high MPG hybrid, capable of being powered by vegetable oil, and which also would have no possibility of auto-immolation.
Hi BaDnOn,
There is a circa ’96 right-hand drive, diesel (and manual) HiLux for sale at the Duncan Auto store… if I’d sold my soul to Beelzebub I could have bought it….sigh…
Hey Eric!
I had to look that up. What an awesome place, with such an eclectic inventory!
And yes, I’d love that truck, save for the left-hand drive, which would confuse my little brain. 🙂
Well, you could always move to the UK or former British colonies in Africa.
Years ago, I saw someone did just that, putting a 3-cyl diesel Kubota engine in their 1994 Geo Metro, getting over 80 mpg
Et tu Brute?!
“Back to that italicized couple of words above – about the board of directors”…
I would never, and will never, let a “board of directors” control my business. As soon as a business owner cedes ownership to such an entity, their entire vision, their principles and values, no longer guide the business. It formerly would then become only about the “bean counters”, in previous years. Now it is becoming only about “ESG”, “wokeness”, “equity”, and other assorted, sordid nonsense.
Yes James O’Keefe the Project Veritas guy would likely agree
As if we needed another electric vehicle headache:
‘The electric-bike craze now has a dark side: uncontrollable and deadly fires from the lithium-ion batteries that power them. The number of blazes is rising rapidly, triggering warnings from fire officials.
‘The fires appear to be concentrated in New York City, where the number of blazes more than doubled last year to 216, according to the New York City Fire Department. Fires from e-bikes and other so-called micromobility devices such as electric scooters have injured 40 people and killed two this year, the fire department said.’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/e-bike-battery-fires-are-soaring-especially-in-new-york-a3c1e45c
If e-bike fires are frequent enough to elicit warnings from the Fire Department, what about the much larger batteries in EeeVee autos?
Hi Jim,
Not only are fires a concern when it comes to EV cars and bikes, but we have yet to see the outcome of EMF radiation on the body. Electric cars and motorcycles are like sitting in a microwave every time you turn it on. Bluetooth, smartphones, ignition push start buttons, etc. are just as bad, but are avoidable. Where is the CDC on any of this? People wonder why cancer rates are skyrocketing. We are constantly hooked up to phones, laptops, smart meters, etc. One can walk away from their microwave to the other side of their kitchen how does one do that in a car?
I guess we can look at the upside to all of this. The rich apparently believe they are immune from electric and magnetic fields. Even Gates purchased a Porsche Taycan in 2020. I guess we can just keep rooting for the rich to keep purchasing their electric cars and see which kills them first: the jab or the radiation.
RE: “Electric cars and motorcycles are like sitting in a microwave every time you turn it on.”
Add forklifts to that list. I used to operate one and I hated every single minute on that thing.
I could feel it. And, it wasn’t nice.
Never again.
I always liked the propane forklifts too… I’ve driven both and yes, the seat gets a little too warm for my liking on the electric ones.
It wasn’t just the warmth of the seat.
It was an overall sensation,… have you ever touched a livestock fencing hot-wire?
A bit like that, only there’s no jolt.
Hard to describe.
And, yeah, the propane ones could be fun to drive at times.
I didn’t even know they made electric forklifts. Our family business always owned propane ones. I bet you never went into labor on a forklift…that was fun (sarc).
The WEF’s Stakeholder Capitalism Is Just Global Fascism By Another Name
Authored by Brandon Smith
The concept of “fascism” was originally entered into the Encyclopedia Italiana by Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile, who stated that “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
Despite the fact that leftists today often attack conservatives as “fascists” because of our desire to protect national boundaries and western heritage, the truth is that all fascism is deeply rooted in leftist philosophies and thinkers.
Mussolini was a long time socialist, a member of the party who greatly admired Karl Marx. He deviated from the socialists over their desire to remain neutral during WWI, and went on to champion a combination of socialism and nationalism, what we now know as fascism.
Adolph Hitler was also a socialist and admirer of Karl Marx, much like Mussolini. It is actually hard to find where Marx, the communists and the fascists actually differ from each other – A deeper sense of nationalism seems to be one of the few points of contention.
corporations are viewed as a tool for the eventual transition to a socialist “Utopia” and the death of free markets. Once again, we see there is very little difference in motive between the political left and the fascists. The natural progression of every form of Marxism, communism, socialism, fascism etc. all ultimately lead to a kind of globalist ideology and erasure of cultural separation.
Globalism requires an overarching social dynamic, a single hive mind, otherwise it cannot survive.
The new fascism is a re-branded philosophy best represented by something called “Stakeholder Capitalism.” It is a term often used by globalists at the World Economic Forum and the head of the WEF, Klaus Schwab. The media friendly definition of Stakeholder Capitalism is:
A form of capitalism in which companies do not only optimize short-term profits for shareholders, but seek long term value creation, by taking into account the needs of all their stakeholders, and society at large.
SHC requires all major corporations to act as a single unit with a single purpose and a unified collectivist ideology – An ideological monopoly.
The SHC concept is deceptive on its very face because it pretends as if corporations will be held accountable by the public within some form of “business democracy,” as if the public will have a vote on what the corporations do. In reality, it will be corporations telling the public what is acceptable to think and do and corporations in conjunction with governments using their power to punish people who do not agree.
The great magic trick is that these same unified corporations use the shield of “private property” and business rights as a means to control society without repercussions
As long as they receive protections from government including monetary stimulus and bailouts, corporations should not enjoy the same private property protections as regular businesses do.
What are some examples of this kind of corporate/political governance (fascism) in action?
How about Big Tech social media censorship leaning HEAVILY against conservatives and liberty activists? How about evidence of collusion between Big Tech companies and government, such as the Biden Administration and the DHS working closely with Twitter and Facebook to actively remove voices and viewpoints they don’t like? How about corporate leaders colluding to destroy conservative based social media competitors like Parler?
How about ESG loans funded by corporate backers such as Blackrock or globalist non-profits like the Rockefeller Foundation?…NOTE: there is the money funding the EV push and all the surveillance high tech equipment and 5G for the new 15 min city/ghetto prisons…
And, what about the Council For Inclusive Capitalism? This is the most blatant expression of open global fascism I have ever seen, with money elites and politicians working in concert with the UN and even religious leaders like Pope Francis. Their goal is to institute a single centralized world governing platform built around the same agendas outlined in ESG and SHC, making corporations members of a new global council which they refer to as “The Guardians.”
Klaus Schwab takes special care to mention often that global crisis events are the “opportunity” that is needed to push the public into the arms of Stakeholder Capitalism through a nexus point called “The Great Reset.”
like the climate change hoax….you lose your car and end up walking around/confined to a 15 min zone in a city/ghetto/prison…policed by high tech AI bots….until you are dealt with…
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wefs-stakeholder-capitalism-just-global-fascism-another-name
it is absolutely real fascism, but so is almost every economy in the world, so what would we expect?
The WEF sends directives to the WEF owned politicians…..
Federal Agencies Become ESG Activists
the Biden administration has been relentless in redirecting virtually every federal agency toward activism for “climate and social justice” and aligning the federal government in lockstep with the corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement.
ESG Criteria are Breaking The Law………
According to legal experts, ESG initiatives can cause companies to break antitrust, civil rights, and Employee Retirement Income Security Agency (ERISA) laws.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/federal-agencies-become-esg-activists
Limiting then banning cars….
What is ‘C40 Cities’ about and how does it link ULEZ Expansion with The Clinton Foundation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9yRYYz3mNY
Globalist utopians demand that we fall in line with their “cure” for climate change…..like no cars, imprisoned in 15 min city/ghettos….
Dr Jordan B Peterson explains why the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is absolutely preposterous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–QS_UyW2SY
Jordan Peterson destroys the climate change hoax…
climate change bs is based on defective, fraudulent computer models….fake science…
Globalist/marxists demand that we fall in line with their “cure” for climate change…total behavior modification…..like no cars, own nothing, imprisoned in 15 min city/ghettos….
Their climate change solutions will break everything…they admit everyone will be poorer, the people on the bottom will be wiped out, the middle class gone, the poor poorer…
These globalists are eugenicists… so….the people on the bottom will be wiped out…is a goal
Their climate change solutions will destroy the environment/planet more….they are insane
the global elite say the serfs on the bottom are evil because we don’t believe they are gods…but…the elite are equal to all other sovereign citizens…not better….they are insane…
If these elite believe their own green bs they should give up their own wealth and mobility first…set an example…
give up this…… …the marxist/globalist elite nobility and billionaires at the top will still own ten $100 million mansions, 50 multi million $ collector cars, 300 foot yachts, 2 private jets and fly all over the planet enjoying life and the beautiful wilderness areas exclusive for their use now…..
but gates says he doesn’t have to because he is the solution….
As if you needed more proof that the one world government system is already in place.
Brandonjin:
This is a very astute observation.
The achievement of the one world government is not the type of thing that will be declared as being completed. It will have been furtively achieved and then denied as a conspiracy theory. It very well could have already been achieved at this point.
Eric, it does look grim for the auto industry, but luckily, the first signs of resistance to ESG are showing up. On Wall Street, the dollar talks, and ESG costs dollars.
Vanguard, the largest institution that makes investable funds, said they’re not into politics, but fiduciary duty to customers, and so, aren’t considering ESG: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vanguards-ceo-bucks-the-esg-orthodoxy-tim-buckley-net-zero-emissions-united-nations-initiative-nzam-f6ae910d
Blackrock, another huge hedge fund, is also extracting itself from ESG. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-12-15/blackrock-is-caught-in-the-esg-crossfire-and-struggling-to-get-out
There is hope. You can only live in an imaginary world for so long before reality catches up with you. Hopefully, reality will also catch up with the auto industry before combustion engine engineering is forgotten.
what is that saying? “money talks & BS walks”
EV’s that can’t go anywhere…no range, can’t charge, the power is off… is not a flaw…it is the reason…..
schwab of the WEF says there is only 3 classes of people …. them…the elites…serfs and slaves…
in their new globalist/marxist world serfs and slaves don’t own cars or anything else, they walk…and own nothing
First they destroyed ice cars through regulations, making them over weight computer filled junk, then they ban them outright replaced by far worse EV’s, which can be more easily controlled, have very short range, are too expensive to buy, limiting the mobility of serfs….
then later on they ban the EV’s……zero mobility and freedom……there will be no cars for the serfs, only for the elite at the top.
The slaves and serfs will be herded into, confined, imprisoned in 15 min. walking only, cities, where they can be processed and dealt with soon.
Why does every car and truck have grills that look like Star Wars Stormtroopers?
Dot gov is just like the La Brea tar pits. Once you’re in, you’r not getting out.
EV production is a dead end.
The immense manufacturing capacity to build all kinds of machines and vehicles, locomotives, jet planes, ships, all across the globe is astounding, really.
It takes hydrocarbons mostly to make it happen.
The world’s largest machine is the electrical grid from coast to coast. Well, everywhere, unless you live in Ukraine.
An EV in Kiev is just plain stupid.
When you are moving west to Stuttgart, have a car with an internal combustion engine.
Time to get out of Dodge.
The Solterra is in production, the Subaru website has it for sale for 44,995 USD.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/01/12/moore-americans-arent-plugged-in-to-electric-vehicle-push/amp/
“All of this is to say that there’s a decent chance the American auto companies’ shift to all EVs is going to fail. This could even be the most epic failure for American car companies since Ford introduced the Edsel. (For youngsters, that was the 1950s ugly car that nobody wanted to buy.)”
I think it’s going to be far far worse than the Edsel. When you close down that ICV assembly line in favor of EVs, you lose that workforce that was needed to make them. Not a whole lot of such people entering the job market these days.
And that’s leaving aside the capital losses from switching one way, then trying to switch back.
Well, the Psychopaths In Charge do enjoy death and destruction, so perhaps we should not be surprised.
In the end ev won’t work. Like prohibition, it is doomed to fail.
You don’t stay in business making a car most don’t want.
Esg will fail as businesses main job is to make a profit, not keep a cult happy (in this case the climate cult).
at this point, i am totally fine with letting them try and fail with the hope that just /maybe/ people will realize they are being scammed.
some woke up due to covid con. maybe this will serve the same purpose.
Damm it Eric….It`s almost to the point I can`t even look at EP Autos anymore.
Is the Toyota situation really a coup? Akio Toyoda is becoming chairman of the board.
He was resisting the EV push, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to believe some DS actors threated him into stepping down from his role as they installed someone who was aligned with them into becoming president.
I just wonder if when the “EV Craze” dies down, who will be left standing and who will need to be absorbed or merge with other companies to stay afloat (https://s3mag.com/most-of-the-legacy-car-manufacturers-wont-make-it/)
The big three will be the only ones left standing. Because of bailouts and that they happen to still be producing ICE vehicles, i.e. heavy 2500-4500 pickups. They will be the only companies still producing vehicles that have engines. By design. While “everything” is going ev, quietly, the vehicles that keep the world moving forward are not ev’s. The problem is that they will continue to become more and more unaffordable for the average American. I also wouldn’t put it past them to require special permission to even be operating one.
We’ve been constructing this prison around ourselves for decades. It’s starting to take its final shape. And it’s damn ugly.
Truth,,sadly
As soon as I saw “Lordstown” I immediately remembered my Vega station wagon (aka the raped ape) was made in Lordstown, Ohio. Looked on google maps & Lordstown isn’t terribly far from East Palestine. So the EeeeeVeeee manufacturer can blame their shitty sales numbers on the toxic stew produced by the derailment.
Hi Mike,
My ’76 TA was made at Lordstown, too. The other GM “F” car line was in Van Nuys, CA.
From EeeVee Man Al Rooooooot:
‘Lordstown (ticker: RIDE), Monday morning, reported a fourth-quarter loss from $194,000 in sales. Wall Street was looking for roughly $7 million in sales.
‘Production has just begun. Lordstown recognized the sale of three vehicles in the quarter. There isn’t a 2023 outlook for production.
‘When Lordstown was raising money from investors in 2020, it expected to produce 31,600 trucks in 2022 and 65,000 trucks in 2023. The company estimated the 2023 target would generate about $3.5 billion in sales.’
https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/lordstown-motors-sales-stock-revenue-ev-electric-vehicle-tesla-3164a0c8
Three trucks sold, comrades! We’re on a roll!!!
And you know what you know in your head
Will you, won’t you, do you, don’t you want to make more bread?
What a bringdown!
— Cream, What a Bringdown
I love feel good stories!
They’re trading around $1.05 at the moment. Well on their way to becoming a literal “penny stock” which is exactly what they should be after going all in on a pipe dream.
All of these manufacturers deserve nothing less than miserable implosion and destruction. Not only have they earned it but their customers *did* “vote with their wallets” and were summarily ignored.
Too bad they have to drag everyone else down with them but they just wouldn’t have it any other way.
What happens when The DS no longer run’s the shower and countries drop this ‘35 or bust EV agenda?
This article always comes to mind: https://s3mag.com/most-of-the-legacy-car-manufacturers-wont-make-it/
Normally corporate boards in Japan are compliant, rubber-stamp cronies of management. Rather than an unwonted wave of board activism, the rapid-fire defenestration of CEOs at Toyota and Subaru likely reflects behind-the-scenes pressure from MITI, the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Japan doesn’t like to see one company obtain too much dominance over its peers. So as in Kurt Vonnegut’s story about a ballerina obliged to wear ankle weights to reduce her to the level of talentless non-dancers, Toyota and Subaru must embrace the EeeVee tar baby, so they won’t soar wild and free when EeeVee Fever crashes and burns.
‘We’re all in this together,” global auto makers cry, as they tote dat load for Ol’ Massa.
I heard screamin’ and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long? How?
EeeVee change gonna come at last
Now your batteries are burning fast
EeeVee man
— Neil Young, Southern Man
What Is ESG? (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) It’s A Leveraging Tool For The Woke Communist Takeover
The term “ESG” was originally coined by the United Nations Environment Program Initiative in 2005, but the methodology was not fully applied to the corporate world until the past six years when ESG investment skyrocketed.
Corporations are at bottom creations of government; they are chartered by governments, receive special legal advantages including corporate personhood, and they often receive special protections from governments including central bank stimulus and a shield from civil litigation. They call it “too big to fail” because the government and the corporate world work hand in hand to keep certain institutions alive.
One could call this an odd mix of communism and fascism; the point is, the lines have blurred beyond all recognition and the ideology of the people in power is specifically leftist/communist/globalist. Corporations already have government incentives to protect the corrupt status quo, but ESG is designed to lure them into supporting vocal political alignment even at the cost of normal profits.
ESG is about money; loans given out by top banks and foundations to companies that meet the guidelines of “stakeholder capitalism.” Companies must show that they are actively pursuing a business environment that prioritizes woke virtues and climate change restrictions.
These loans are not an all prevailing income source, but ESG loans are highly targeted, they are growing in size (for now) and they are very easy to get as long as a company is willing to preach the social justice gospel as loudly as possible.
These loans become a form of leverage over the business world – Once they get a taste of that easy money they keep coming back. Many of the loan targets attached to ESG are rarely enforced and penalties are few and far between. Primarily, an ESG funded company must propagandize, that is all. They must propagandize their employees and they must propagandize their customers. As long as they do this, that sweet loan capital keeps flowing.
The list of companies heavily involved in ESG includes some of the largest in the world, with influence over thousands of smaller businesses. The ESG rating system is much like the social credit scoring system used in communist China to oppress the citizenry.
The tactic is pretty straightforward – Banking elites are centralizing control of social narratives by incentivising businesses to embrace social justice and globalist ideals, like climate change.
They control who gets the money and anyone who doesn’t play ball will be at a distinct disadvantage compared to companies that do.
Businesses not cooperating get starved/pushed out, demonized.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/what-esg-its-leveraging-tool-woke-communist-takeover
It is insane what car companies are doing and who is controlling this? There is a limited supply of the minerals needed to make batteries for EVs, so what comes after? Horses? I’ve read what some call the ‘long game’ by these wackos. Everyone lives in huge apartments like China, 15 min city zones ect. But do the elites really think this will not affect them in the long run?
I don’t think it will work out to be their utopia.
Do you know what I miss? People with balls. People who aren’t scared to go against the crowd. People who are innovators, creators, and pioneers. People who see an opportunity and take it. I thought Akio Toyoda had some until he was even quieted and replaced with Koji Sato. I, so, desperately want to see an auto manufacturer (or hell, any company) give the middle finger to the ESG and woke overlords. Someone who is anti-Davos and sees the evil perpetrated by the elite. That is the company (and people) I will happily write a check to.
I cannot comprehend the willing destruction of businesses that succeed. What are companies like Toyota, Dodge, and Subaru doing? They have a dependable thriving product. Why would they destroy it to fit into a little box with every other dimwit? I don’t care how many promises of success and financial incentives the governments and Davos are willing to offer them. Their businesses will be destroyed. The money belongs to the people and the people will be the ones that choose what they wish to spend it on. And EVs aren’t it.
They can shove it down our throats as much as they want, but fossil fuels are not going away. What do these governments and manufacturers do when these batteries go kaput around 2030? Build more dumps? Start burying lithium batteries underground? That’s safe and environmentally friendly! What about the mining of the ores that it takes to build these batteries…the cobalt, nickel, and graphite? Will they be using electric loaders and backhoes to dig them up?
I am thinking about opening a horse and buggy lot…I see a future in this. If I start now, I shall be ready when 2030 rolls around and everyone is back on foot.
Here ya go, Raider Girl – balls, for you – too bad they’re currently all sold out,… for now:
https://forum.ericpetersautos.com/forums/topic/good-ways-to-take-action-fight-back/
Don’t get me started on the Hershey transwoman saga. My poor husband had to listen to me rage on about a few nights ago. I would boycott them, but I don’t buy their bioengineered chocolate to begin with.
You watched the video though, right?
…Their ingredients looked great, btw.
I did. It was a cute video and he was right on point. I just preordered a 4 pack, to try them. We have to put our money where our mouth is.
[Where’s the, ‘Thumbs Up’ button?]
I found that elsewhere (probably on Daily Wire) over the weekend and ordered a huge bunch. TBH, I probably won’t really like their chocolate much as I prefer much better gourmet chocolate than the likes of mass produced shit like Hershe or Nestle, etc.
But I ordered a pile of ’em because people like that need support and to know that there’s plenty of people left that don’t want any part of this bullshit.
Heck, for that matter, I won’t hate their chocolate either. I think every bite will taste a little better knowing the ultimate goal.
Hi XM,
There is a lot of money to be made by angry people. It was a brilliant marketing strategy for Jeremy’s Razors to put the chocolate commercial out there. Not only will he make a mark up of 200-300% on chocolate bars, but he has reintroduced his product (razors, body products) to people that were not aware of it.
I am all for helping a fellow anti-wokester.
Hi RG, any boycott of Hershey’s will be painless for me, since it tastes like it was made with milk that they left sitting on the front porch for two weeks in July. I thought I was alone until I searched for “Why does Hershey’s chocolate taste like puke?”
Hi Roland,
I used to love Mr. Goodbars while I was growing up. I tried one a few years ago and the ingredients had been altered so much I couldn’t finish it.
The older I get the more bitter I like my chocolate. If it is not at least 70% cocoa content, it tastes funny to me. Chocolove makes a 70% Almond and Sea Salt bar that is very good. I stockpile a good number of Endangered Species bars, too. Also, an hour down the road from where I reside, we have a chocolate maker that makes delicious candy. She has been around since the mid 1970s, but I always spend a small fortune when I visit.
Life is too short to eat bad chocolate.
Hi RG,
I think the tipping point was when Volkswagen submitted to the punishment from Uncle for “cheating” on the emission test. What they should have done was give Uncle the finger and pull out of the USSA completely and tell everyone who was losing their job because of that precisely why. Maybe enough congressional districts would lose enough jobs to make their Clowngress person take note and stop or at least slow down the runaway train of climate hysteria but at this point in time it’s going over a cliff.
Hi Mike,
Absolutely right. I urged VW – people I knew there – to fight. To hire some PR heavies and buy air time and explain to people the nature of the “cheating” and what it would mean for them if the government succeeded in portraying VW’s superb TDI diesel as “dirty” and “bad for the environment.”
Corporate poltroonery has done much to hasten the end of what was Western civilization.
Well, corporations are a creation of the state. The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Agree RG. I was really hoping VW would fight on the diesel thing, they didn’t.
Was hoping Dodge would fight back, they didn’t.
To me, they would have continued to get fined, as Dodge was, but Dodge should have done marketing on it “they are stealing your Charger, this is how”. “This is how much in fines we pay, meaning added to the cost of the car, to make it”
Stuff like that.
Eric, can Dodge separate from Stellantis? Go back the the Dodge Brothers days.
100 top ESG money hand out grabbers (businesses), with their face deepest in the trough, getting cash for pushing the ESG, climate change, EV lies 24/7…..
boycott these bastards….lol
https://www.investors.com/news/esg-companies-list-best-esg-stocks-environmental-social-governance-values/
rg,
this is america where strong people have been bread out 20+ years ago.
we are fat, lazy, mentally & physically weak.
if you want to be strong, stand for the unapproved, or disagree; you are a racist, homophobic, hitler loving nazi.
They wouldn’t be doing this out of pure insanity alone. It is a bad business decision. Its almost as if the biggest corporations the world over have made a secret handshake with leviathan. Go woke, and we’ll make sure you don’t go broke. The Fed is probably behind it all. No accountability will ever be forthcoming, let alone something as simple as an audit. It wont end until the new replacement CBDC system is operational. Let the devaluation, money printing, and future bailouts begin
Hi Norman,
I agree with you that it is insanity, but these companies are like sheeple. They are so stupid when one jumps the cliff, they all will. I plan to bring my popcorn, a cold beer, and a lawn chair and watch the entertainment unfold.
Hi RG,
I know some people in middle management working at several car companies and they are mortified – but can’t do anything about it. I feel for them. And for us all. A handful of insane people – and dicks – are pissing in the soup and ruining it for everyone.
No doubt, the auto execs are laboring under the impression they’ll have a seat at the table when the U.S. goes full-blown commie. But a careful reading of history reveals that when the communists come into power and start nationalizing everything (and make no mistake, the automakers WILL be nationalized), CEOs are just as likely to be kicked to the curb as they are to be retained as custodians of the newly minted, government-run operations.
Hi Norman,
Yup. One of the first Subaru EVs will be an electric WRX STi. It will, of course, be “ludicrously” quick but it will also have no soul, being another iteration of the same goddamn thing, again. Don’t they see? The WRX STi was different. It was not a Tesla. That growly boxer six and manual transmission. Even if its EV replacement is “better” on every metric/stat by which performance is measured… who gives a flip? It’s just another disposable appliance, to be disposed of as soon as another one bests its stats.
I love my old Pontiac because it is almost alive and something unlike other cars.
I think cars are like people. All the souls are taken and they aren’t releasing any new ones.
I owned a old beater Subaru in my early twenties. Man the places that gar could go, all on a small amount of fuel. From Rocky point to the badlands of Utah, and New Mexico, there wasn’t a place in the west that little 5 speed front wheel drive bastard couldn’t take me. Don’t even remember why I sold it now.
“I love my old Pontiac because it is almost alive and something unlike other cars.” – Eric
I’ve had the good fortune to compete at great circuits like Road America, Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta (before they took away The Dip), mostly in roadracing karts. There is nothing like having a living, breathing racecar under you, but I fear that these might not be long for this world either. Why risk hurting yourself to be hauled round and round in a glorified sewing machine?
Roland,
Funny you should say that…
Toyota started out making sewing machines, and still does. They are supposed to be very good.
Might be interesting to see how an electric WRX STi does in a rally race. Being 1000 pounds heavier, and catching fire the first time it runs a bit off the road.
An electric WRX STI? Good grief, that is like drinking warm beer on a hot day. Or someone pissing in the punch bowl at a party. I mean, what is the point? It is a sports car with no balls, no guts, no get-up-and-go, and no reason to purchase. I did not need anymore reasons to keep my ’07 WRX, but damned, here is one more reason to keep it forever
Hi Shadow,
An EV WRX STi will probably be very quick – and very homogenous. Another EV that’s very quick. Whoop-te-doo. Just another shell over the same thing. GM destroyed Olds and Pontiac and Buick this way.
Gramsci’s comment at the end gets to the core. As he said, “the root”. Christianity is the enemy of these people. I know many on EPAutos are not Believers however, it was the essence of Christianity that gave people Individual worth. The glory of The Creator is the basis of each and every person. It it the rejection of THAT principle that is at the core of Marxism as revealed by Gramsci. It is the ideology of our current “ruling” class whether they know or profess it. Some I know even profess to be followers of Christ.
Think about it for a moment.
When Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes He rejected, in total, the idea of “useless eaters”.
Hi Mark,
I think you’re right. I’m not a Christian, per se. But I admire much about it, especially the concepts of the uniqueness and worth of each of us and all that flows from that.
I find no particular fault in religion, until it gets “organized”. Then it becomes a political organ. I am a Christian, but a member of no church. The Sermon on the Mount is a near perfect guideline on living a moral and ethical life. The “church” assuming authority to dictate what it says is a “moral and ethical life” bears no weight with me. None!
Agreed, John K. The “organizers” tend to be of the same mentality, in many cases, as those who form governments. It’s more about governing than about following the teachings of Christ and fulfilling his Commandment to love others as He loves them. (John 13:34-35)
Someone said the quickest way to get rich is to start your own church..
..remember jim baker?…
he screwed himself though because he got into the snake oil trade too…trying to copy rockefeller’s allopathic medicine (your current monopoly medical system…big pharma)…only william rockefeller and his son got away/get away with that….
organized religion tells you that you have to go through them…you can’t go direct…they make tons of money from it…
a bit like the government..the service corp…another middleman…. if you want to open a business you have to go through them for permits/licenses, if you want to make money, it has to be reported to them so they get a cut…taxes, if you want to buy property you can’t….. but you can pretend to if you go through them….fee simple title only….
Mark, as an aside, with that miracle he also gave us a lesson in economics, specifically a demonstration of scarcity.
He temporarily converted scarce resources (five loaves and two fish) into non-scarce ones, such that even at a price of zero there was plenty to satisfy the demand. Then when everybody had eaten their fill, he made them scarce again, and instructed his disciples to gather up the finite quantity of leftovers.
All goods are by definition scarce. If leftists understood scarcity and the tools our creator has given us to manage it, the world would be a much better place.
Does thinking you are the only sane person on the planet mean you are insane? How in hell can shareholders buy this suicidal “business plan”? The percentage of the market going to EVs will increase, because the overall market size will DECREASE. Meaning fewer car sales. Meaning less profits for the car makers. Meaning less profits for the shareholders. So why buy the shares, other than for short term speculation? The end result can be none other than many, or most car makers going belly up, or to be bailed out by FedGov if a US company.
I don’t think I’m from this planet, and I want to go home.
“even the few who bought them probably wouldn’t have if they weren’t being bribed”
It also looks like about 80% of those who did buy them won’t buy another.
‘it made no business sense to stop making cars hundreds of thousands want in favor of tens of thousands of electric cars that even the few who bought them probably wouldn’t have if they weren’t being bribed’ — eric
And it still doesn’t.
CEO coup d’etats at Toyota and Subaru are the last gasp of EeeVee Fever.
With auto makers all in — and 95% of buyers still resolutely out — now the rotten floorboards give way beneath their feet of clay.
Let the corporate distress begin. 🙂