• Disney shareholders rejected anti-DEI proposal on Thursday.
  • A conservative think tank proposed that Disney stop participating in the Corporate Equality Index.
  • Shareholders for Apple and Costco previously rejected similar proposals.
  • Shou@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Nah, fuck disney. Won’t forget their “say no gay” policy. Also, a lot of their “woke” coded content is awful. It feels written by inexperienced writers. It’s not genuine and comes across as pandering.

    Like damn bro. Timon and Pumba were gay, social outcasts and raised a child together. That shit felt real. Not the stereotype gay l, but just normal… well “normal” characters.

    The new stuff doesn’t seem to have that. To the point that it feels as though they wanted their work to flop on it.

    Kinda has that vibe Sandy from Spongebob had. At first, she was just a normal whacky character. Then Nickelodeon wanted more girl representation and Sandy became pretty much flawless. She wasn’t the butt of the joke anymore, while the other characters stayed that way. It made her seem less part of the gang. Unequal to the rest. She became unfun.

    So many of the female characters seem flawless and yet unlikable. From star wars series, to the new disney movies. Where is our Katara from Avatar? Where is our Valerie from Danny Phantom? Where are the characters with character?

  • Etterra@discuss.online
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    21 hours ago

    Maybe that’s because “DEI” has become code for “anything done by minorities” and “woke” now means “minorities.” With minorites here meaning “not white heterosexual men.” Also cis but these snowflakes can’t even accept that cisgender is a technical term.

  • gamer@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Fuck this shit, now I gotta be pro Disney too? I’d gotten so used to hating them. They grew on me a little back when they stood up against DeSantis in Florida too.

    I miss the days when we could just love/hate corporations based on their business practices instead of culture war bullshit.

    • zovits@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      It’s almost like there were nuances to almost everything instead of the world being neatly divisible into good and bad.

    • Nangijala@feddit.dk
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      22 hours ago

      Their brand of diversity is some bs anyways so you don’t have to be pro Disney.

      Remember, they gladly took help from a Chinese concentration camp to make their girl boss Mulan remake.

      They also fired all their park workers during covid and gave themselves 10 million bonuses while their workers were surviving on food stamps. Some workers had even signed non compete clauses so they literally could not use their talents elsewhere to feed themselves.

      Further more, Disneys current version of DEI is divisive, soulless and insincere.

      It isn’t a black or white situation. You can hate Disney AND MAGA. To me, they are all two sides of the same rotten coin. Ruthless, selfish and greedy people who use others to get ahead and pull the ladder up after themselves.

      • Eyron@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        They also fired all their park workers during covid and gave themselves 10 million bonuses while their workers were surviving on food stamps. Some workers had even signed non compete clauses so they literally could not use their talents elsewhere to feed themselves.

        There are plenty of things to hate Disney for, especially as they approach super-monopoly status, ruin nearly every franchise they touch, and have trouble telling what’s good or not. As a company, Disney’s morals and decisions grow more concerning every month. Disney is basically a disaster in progress.

        However, this specific complaint seems bad: it’s the wrong scale. Many companies were in the wrong during COVID, but it’s hard to look at these numbers and say the layoffs here were bad decisions based on $10M in bonuses. The scales are just too different.

        Disney laid off 32,000 park workers At a measly 40 hours per week at their “minimum wage” (formerly $15/hr, now $24/hr): that’s $83.2 million PER MONTH: $998M a year. A $10M “bonus” is 1% of that, and even smaller compared to the $6.4B of park revenue they had loss.

        The former CEO “gave up” their salary ($3M) and “bonus” ($45M in 2019), had 20-30% pay cuts to the executive staff, and a few other items. The CEO did get “$10M” in stock awards, but stock awards don’t get you off food stamps. Those stocks become nothing if the company posts bad financials, which would hurt more than just the execs.

        The $1.5B dividend payout in April 2020 looks much worse. Abigail Disney ranted about it on Twitter (now X). His rant is at the appropriate scale: Disney paid out billions before they chose to save millions. The execs got quite a bit of that dividend payout. That’s the greed.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        22 hours ago

        they also began to renege on thier “Dei” i think for a show they removed the lgbtq+ person and including a " persecuted christian in the mix". additionally they started public resumed donation to desantis and GOP in florida when all the news blew over.

        • Nangijala@feddit.dk
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          14 hours ago

          Oh, they have done shit like that for years. Removing black actors from their movie posters when sending their films to places like China, removing all LGBT stuff from their oh so diverse remakes when sending them to countries that dislike gay stuff.

          They are so fake.

      • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        21 hours ago

        god, remeber when america could run its own concentration camps, instead of just subcontracting everything out? and the chinese ones are nicer than ours ever were. didn’t america used to be, like… something?

        • Nangijala@feddit.dk
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          14 hours ago

          Saying that current day Chinese concentration camps are nicer than some concentration camps America had in the past is very tone deaf.

          Besides, I hear your president is talking about sending immigrants to guantanamo so maybe you guys get to compete with the Chinese on who has the nicest concentration camps in this say and age soon enough.

          • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 hours ago

            no, no, they’re all getting sent to cheap megaprisons in venezuela. the americans can’t even run their own foreign-torture-pits anymore. I bet everything in venezuela is going to be industrialized and use prison labor, fucking death of the artisan; i guess ALL labor needs to be de-skilled and fungible now. remember when torturers were SOMEONE in society? like, fuck, remember the first couple pages of ‘discipline and punish’? an entire craft, just dead.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      21 hours ago

      you don’t have to love them, you just maybe shouldn’t put them at the top of your “FUCK YOU” list. one could argue that their treatment of copyright is a part of what got us here.

    • afronaut@slrpnk.net
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      I mean, Disney is still evil. They probably saw how much Target fucked up and don’t want to make the same mistake.

      There’s more money in appealing to everyone instead of just white evangelicals Americans.

    • agent_nycto@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s always more complicated than the binary. Disney might be getting DEI but still forces creators to censor out any LGBT references in their shows, or cancel them if they do them anyway. They still are anti union and work people to the bone.

      If you want it simple, no corporation is your friend, ever. They are there simply to take your money, without regard for scruples, and any form of morality they seem to be acting on is either because it will make them more money or it is illegal and not cost effective to break the law.

      It’s still a good sign the shareholders have some sense in this specific case, but make no mistake, Disney doesn’t care about anything other than money.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        22 hours ago

        i heard they were trying to promote christian inclusivity, by adding one of them in the shows. we know what happens when a show just caters to christians, it ruins the show.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      They have met their fundamental duty as an organization led by human beings who can and should be held to moral standards.

      I despise their behavior with copyright but here they’ve earned the right to not get the “caved to fascists” boycott

    • Stepskippin@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Nah, its just more proof that this think tank is shit at making money. Disney doesn’t have morals, but it does have a very profitable “princess” marketing strategy. This think tank didn’t really read the room very well.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Conservative think tanks don’t exist to make money or spread prosperity, they exist to find justifications to enact conservative policies

        • Stepskippin@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Well, now I wonder what benefits they could offer a for profit company. Why would anyone even meet with them?

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      This is like rooting for the villain. Ok, whatever … Disney is cool again.

    • SippyCup@feddit.nl
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      1 day ago

      I miss boycotting Disney because some prude thought she saw sex hidden in dust in the Lion King.

      The kooky, fun kind of crazy we can all share a laugh at

    • Bosht@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      They’re still a massive company that’s way bigger than it should be and could be considered a monopoly.

    • Tilgare@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s a shame that it’s only the companies with more money than God that feel comfortable standing up for their values. The Felon will attack anyone who disagrees with them, and while everyone gets mad about nobody standing up to him - that’s not exactly a zero risk scenario for most. But for these hundred billion and trillion dollar companies, they know they can defend themselves just fine.

    • ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk
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      1 day ago

      Unfortunately the Trump admin want them to behave a certain way, and anything different is seen as them being mean, apparently.

      • andallthat@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Looking forward to that “Failing Disney and nasty, perverted Mickey Mouse, going around in shorts” post on Truth Social. If there’s one corporation that might even take Donnie down it’s Disney. Kinda like Kong vs Dumbzilla

    • vga@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      How does that follow? Do you think most of the world is pro-DEI?

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        anti-DEI is pretty much code for “only white straight cisgendered males welcome”. Whatever criticisms may make sense against select DEI initiatives, the anti-DEI move by the government basically involved erasing all acknowledgement of any minority or woman ever being honored for accomplishments, no matter how obviously well earned the honor was.

        On a global perspective, the American flavor of “anti-DEI” panders to a relatively small group of folks at the expense of offending the vast majority of the world’s population.

        • vga@sopuli.xyz
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          Ok, but how does this like vibe with a country like China, which demands that Disney and other western media companies censor LGBT things all the time?

        • turnip@sh.itjust.works
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          What does DEI mean in respect to Disney, does it just mean changing existing characters to their non-white equivalent?

      • Stepskippin@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Disney princesses are DEI. Why should they distance themselves from their most recognizable/successful marketing tactics?

  • cecilkorik@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    They … rejected … anti-DEI … making them … pro-DEI … and anti-Trump? Am I getting that right? Sorry, there are just getting to be a lot of double-negatives these days it’s hard to keep track.

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Disney wants as many customers as possible and doesn’t care about temporary optics based on hard right politics. Don’t mistake them for the good guys. Megacorps that buy up everything in sight and use their ridiculous piles of money to exert influence over politics are the core of the problem.

    Guess why copyright laws in the US kept adding decades and decades to copyright protection from the death of the creator. HINT: Megacorp money controlling laws may have been involved.

    • Godort@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Like all corporations, Disney is a mercenary. Their allegiance lies with whoever puts the bigger number on their cheque.

      If MAGA is going to get in the way of Disney trying to make money, I’m more than happy to let Disney fight that battle and waste some cycles

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      While most of that is true, they actually did let the Mickey Mouse copyright expire, and Mickey as portrayed in Steamboat Willie is now public domain.

      But instead they’re using trademark. There’s a reason they’ve started using Steamboat Willie in an animated logo.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      I’ve got a love/hate thing with Disney. Like…enemy-of-my-enemy-enemy kind of thing.

      I do love when they stick it to DeSantis.

      But I still ain’t going to FL anytime soon. We did Disney in 2022 and I think that’s probably near the end of when FL was tolerable (in small doses) for sane people.

  • moody@lemmings.world
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    2 days ago

    Just 1% of shareholders voted to approve the proposal

    1% of shareholders, or the holders of 1% of shares?

          • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            Yeah, but those systems still don’t count votes by “number of shareholders” as indicated above. They’re still weighted by number of shares, just some shares have more benefits than others

            The class offered to the general public often has limited or no voting rights, while the class available to founders and executives has more voting power and often provides for majority control of the company.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Conservatives have been worshipping on the altar of Shareholder Value since the 80’s.

    Guess what? These shareholders just told us all what they value. Think Conservatives will accept it?

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      Conservative “values” are just cover stories for greed, selfishness and prejudice. They grew up with a set of prejudices and they refuse ever to reexamine them. So they adjust the “values” to suit. Conservatives are incurious, stubborn people who refuse to grow.

    • TheFogan@programming.dev
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      I mean they value money…

      and apparently they are smart enough to realize that Diversity helps with money, Which makes sense… they are a machine designed to extract money from people…

      rich white billionares do not fill up theatres or make a substantial percentage of disney+ and Hulu subscriptions… a group of people that know how to target different demographics will obviously outperform one that targets the hell out of maga fans but doesn’t know how to talk to the other 70% of the country.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        remember the actors that went all anti-lgbtq+ tried to make thier “anti-woke circle jerking movies” like gina carano,and some others.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      dint disney rollback some of DEI initiatives at least for a show, and introduced a “fully outed christian”

    • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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      worshipping on the altar of Shareholder Value since the 80’s.

      Thanks, Milton Friedman…

      🙄 🙄 🖕 🖕

  • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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    Probably because they realise that all the companies that ditched DEI have been doing significantly worse. Almost like it’s something people want.

      • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’ve been watching the stock market since the inauguration and companies like Target have been dropping significantly faster than companies like Costco that didn’t roll it back. It’s all going down, but the anti-dei ones are going faster.

        Edit: just looked and Costco is down 8% in the last 3 months while Target is down 20%.

        • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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          I just compared Costco which didn’t roll back vs Target that did. In the last 3 months Costco is down 8% and Target is down 20%

  • Sibshops@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    No suprise there. A large portion of Disney’s viewers are girls and minorities. You know, those dreaded DEI folk.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      Well yeah they learned that more than just little white girls like their movies. Look at the animated Disney/Pixar feature films, so much more than it was in the pre- renaissance era.

      Even during the Renaissance …we had Pocahontas and Mulan and Jasmine…but these people were more like phoned-in representatives of their cultures compared to now.

      Look at Encanto, or Moana/Viana. Or Coco. Or even Soul.

      Hell, Strange World features a mixed race family with a queer son and a three-legged dog.

      And the movies are better for it. They are more relatable because they aren’t all some xeroxed copy of the same plain princess with a slightly different tint. And more importantly, they are showing their young and impressionable viewers a cast that reflects reality. That not every family is a carbon-copy “traditional” family. That different cultures exist and yeah, live a bit differently than suburban white folk (who live a shockingly similar life to the Sultan of Agrabah).

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        youtube videos of disney cinema is infested with these “anti-woke comments” its really not for conservatives anyways. like how the recent snow white movie is being spammed all over youtube with anti-woke twist. they trying very hard to get people to hate disney and using the actor as thier anchor.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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      and disney also have “virtue signalling” for LGBTQ+ for a couple decades already. harder to divorce from that. ALso children is thier money maker too.

  • GreyAlien@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    This is not about “DEI” it’s about marketing and demographic, in short economic interest, personally i wouldn’t throw them flowers.

    • Zenodyne@lemmy.world
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      You are right, but also, I think it’s okay to take the small victories where they are. They shouldn’t have to be applauded for doing the bare minimum, but when this bare minimum is a big middle finger to the administration I’ll look the other way

        • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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          I agree, but in the right circumstances. Posting it here in the comment section is one thing, we’re discussing their actions. But some people (not you, necessarily) will take it a step further and go bully a company when they take a good step because the step wasn’t big/good enough. We gotta positively reinforce good behavior

          • GreyAlien@lemm.ee
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            Indeed, I’m just quite cynical when it comes to Disney due to their recent lobbying of homophobic politicians, but yeah, right now everything is better than the other options…

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        I mean they do lobby for republican lawmakers and recently donated more than $80k worth to individuals who actively supported the “Don’t Say Gay” bill…

        They made a deal with DeSantis, meaning this move would not happen without consulting him first. From my understanding, due to the backlash against American companies, especially Tesla, Disney can get in hot water financially. They export American soft power all over the world, so it is important not to tarnish their appearance especially in a context where there is trump in power, imagine if tomorrow they decided to stop DEI for good; the Disney Parks around the world and Disney World would get hit financially as well as their movie industry, thus also hitting Florida’s economy centered around fun parks and tourism. It’s some kind of abusive co-dependency.

        • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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          Imagine if tomorrow they decided to stop DEI for good

          I wonder if they could point towards their secession when handling that. Technically Disneyland and world aren’t part of America, but they’re not recognized as sovereign states by any country so they might have a hard time really putting that fight up

          • GreyAlien@lemm.ee
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            Truly interesting point, It directly made me think of an article I read some days ago about the possibility of “Freedom cities” run by corporations… It could definitely be the door they use to make this kind of future possible.

              • GreyAlien@lemm.ee
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                I just looked into this, and yeah, Disney has definitely tried to build their own cities. They had the original EPCOT concept in the 60s, interesting to think about how these experiments could probably be the influence of Thiel’s project, I’m guessing he will try to use a similar framework but this time with the administration and population full support.

            • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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              Look into “Company towns” a bit. It could be done right, but putting that into the hands of the current oligarchs would be a spell for destruction

              But I like your sentiment. I actually am planning to start a non-profit apartment complex and I’m trying to get my employer to be a primary investor. I plan on offering them a temporary exclusivity deal if they’ll let me build close enough to where we work but I’ll have to look into the laws about that. Exclusivity deals are a lil weird around housing, might not actually be able to offer that

            • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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              A few years ago, Disney seceded from the union. I’m not entirely certain what rights they actually have in their current state but technically the land under Disneyland is not part of America as far as I understand

        • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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          My friend, have you not been paying attention? Trump doesn’t give a shit about any of that. He’s burning all the bridges to “eradicate woke”.

          • GreyAlien@lemm.ee
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            Disney represents 40B$ and constitutes a big chunk of Florida economy, they cannot afford what Tesla is going through, so sure he might not personally give a fuck, but DeSantis and the other cultists sure do.

  • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
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    As someone who actually works on real stuff, it’s insane to me that for some people, they go to work and have high-level conversations revolving around things such as this.