The Woke Capitalism Thread (Get Woke, Go Broke)

Probably won't go broke, but a nice win anyways.

Conservative Professor Disciplined For Criticizing DEI Gets $2.4 Million To Settle Lawsuit Against College​



‘To my colleagues at Bakersfield College and nationwide, I say: Keep the faith; we are winning the battle, one case at a time.’
A Bakersfield College professor who was investigated and disciplined after he questioned the use of grant money to fund social justice initiatives at his school has agreed to a $2.4 million settlement to resolve his lawsuit.

Matthew Garrett, formerly a tenured history professor at the California community college, will receive $2,245,480 divided into monthly payments for the next 20 years as well as an immediate one-time payment of $154,520 as “compensation for back wages and medical benefits since [his] dismissal,” according to the July 10 settlement agreement.

Also under the terms of the settlement, Garrett agreed to resign from his job with the Kern Community College District. Administrators, in turn, have withdrawn and sealed any and all accusations and reports accusing him of “unprofessional conduct.”

Bakersfield College and Kern district administrators did not immediately respond to an emailed request from The College Fix seeking comment Saturday.

Reached by The College Fix for comment via email, Garrett said he cannot discuss the settlement. However, he said he is able to speak on matters leading up to it.

“After five years of administrative misconduct, a decisive courtroom display exonerated me of all allegations and exposed that Kern Community College District engaged in flagrant retaliation for my questioning of partisan policies and wasteful expenditures,” he said via email.

“Facing an imminent ruling in my favor and the prospect of paying millions of dollars in damages, KCCD had only one viable option: settlement. I am grateful to the many who stood by my side during this difficult time and invite them to join in our triumph.”

“To my colleagues at Bakersfield College and nationwide, I say: Keep the faith; we are winning the battle, one case at a time.”



As The College Fix previously reported, part of the controversy dates back to at least 2019, when Garrett in a speech vigorously defended free speech on campus — including speech some deemed offensive and racist — as well as questioned grant funds that appeared to bankroll a social justice agenda.

Those concerns were then parleyed into accusations he accused his peers of fiscal malfeasance or misappropriation of funds, which led to an administrative determination against him.

In 2021, Garrett and his colleague Professor Erin Miller, who faced similar accusations, filed a federal lawsuit against the college district alleging their employers violated their civil and First Amendment rights and academic freedom.

Asked about the status of Miller’s claims against the district, Garrett told The Fix she is still employed as a professor at Bakersfield College but “continues to suffer retaliation by the administration,” including having several of her classes canceled.

While the two were co-plaintiffs on the same federal First Amendment lawsuit, after the district wrongfully targeted Garrett for termination, he said, that necessitated a separate state administrative court battle while their shared federal suit sat on hold.

“I am now dropping out of the shared federal lawsuit so she will continue on alone, and has ample grounds for litigation,” he told The Fix via email.

Garrett’s case has been covered extensively by higher education watchdogs, including Inside Higher Ed, which reported it in 2023 as a battle between a scholar expressing conservative views against administrators with a “long list” of allegations — claims that are now withdrawn from his record under the settlement agreement.



The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression had also come to the defense of Garrett, reporting in 2023 that he caused frustrations for DEI proponents on campus, but ones that were well within his free speech rights:

Animosity toward Garrett by some faculty and administrators increased over the past couple years as Garrett and several other faculty members associated with the Renegade Institute for Liberty — a Bakersfield College think tank Garrett founded — joined the faculty diversity committee. Other committee members say that the Renegade faculty have made it difficult for the group to get anything done by stalling campus diversity initiatives. But it was Garrett’s comments regarding a proposed racial climate task force during a diversity committee meeting last fall that led Bakersfield to recommend Garrett’s termination.

At the October 2022 meeting of the Bakersfield Equal Opportunity and Diversity Advisory Committee, Garrett criticized a proposal by professor Paula Parks to create a racial climate task force he felt might usurp the jurisdiction of the diversity committee. He also contested the student survey data cited as justification for the proposed task force and questioned the survey’s objectivity and the lack of evidence connecting the data presented and the proposed solutions. Several other faculty members in the meeting also challenged the veracity of the survey data. But ultimately, the committee voted to approve the creation of the task force.

On Nov. 15, Parks published an op-ed in Kern Sol News accusing Garrett and other Renegade Institute-affiliated faculty of a “disturbing pattern of actions” that “created negativity and division in the name of free speech.”
Fast-forward to today, and Garrett said the Renegade Institute for Liberty continues under the leadership of Bakersfield College history Professor Daymon Johnson, who also has filed a free speech lawsuit against the school. Most recently, in April, the institute hosted a webinar featuring Mark Goldblatt on the rise of subjectivity in society.

As for Garrett’s future plans, he said he is weighing his options, and will likely launch a line of social studies materials for homeschooling parents.

“My first product will be a Native American history course (which is my research and publication field) designed to fulfil California’s new high school Ethnic Studies requirement with original text, images, videos and more,” he said.

“…And of course, I intend to continue to advocate for free speech and institutional transparency at Bakersfield College and the broader academy. I will continue to speak at board meetings, campaign for candidates, and intend to write a biographical user’s manual for defeating the campus radicals, though that will take me some time to write and edit.”
 


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a quick (((google))) search reveals that the budget for acolyte was $180 million. it seems excessive for something so low effort and cheap-looking. or maybe I haven't caught up with with modern productions in a long time and that's within the expected expenditure range. maybe someone more knowledgeable and up-to-date with pop culture can tell whether this loss is of any significance
 
a quick (((google))) search reveals that the budget for acolyte was $180 million. it seems excessive for something so low effort and cheap-looking. or maybe I haven't caught up with with modern productions in a long time and that's within the expected expenditure range. maybe someone more knowledgeable and up-to-date with pop culture can tell whether this loss is of any significance
There is some speculation of money laundering behind these productions, it’ll be interesting to see if anything is revealed in the future
 
The whole DEI thing is an oversimplification. There’s elements of it that are true but it’s not a horse you want to bet on. If anyone here feels confident about it then I suggest you open a brokerage account and buy put options on all woke companies.

  • When you go to school your parents tell you to need to study hard because the labor market needs smart people.
  • When you finish school you get told that you need to impress potential employers by showcasing your determination, work ethic and intelligence.
  • When you show up for your first day you get told they run a tight ship. You need to be on time, you need to work and not socialize, and you need to prove yourself.
My fellow nice guys, their whole life, get the impression that the economy runs on merit. It’s all about the hard working entrepreneurs, it’s all about providing a product or a service people need. It’s all about the employees working hard, doing their best.

This is not true. We’re not living in 1622. You’re not in a market where you grow some carrots and sell them at market price to your fellow citizens. The world economy is a sham. It’s corrupt. It’s not fair. It’s not moral. I don’t care if it makes me sound like a communist.

There are basically two pathways to easy profit in the modern world:

  • Be a middle man. Buy for 10, sell for 20.
  • Sell convenience. You don’t want walk 2 miles? Great, you can get it from me for a premium.
Then we can get more advanced:
  • Undercut the main players by offering a low cost solution that has a high chance of being unethical.
  • Pay someone 10k to give you an unfair advantage so you can pocket 20k.
  • Help some an-hole achieve their goals while charging them for it.
  • Befriend someone so you’re part of a rich inner circle.
It just goes on an on. So when people talk about DEI they’re perpetuating this idea that the business world runs on merit. It doesn’t. It runs on greed, corruption and ruthlessness.

People need to understand that they will never beg for us to come back because it was never built on ethics in the first place. DEI isn’t a losing strategy, it’s just a take over. That’s all. They’re pushing you out and it’s not a smooth process as we can see. There will always be bodies to replace you that can achieve a mediocre output. Perhaps it’s 2 for 1 ratio as far as you’re concerned but it doesn’t matter.
 
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dei at its core is the naïve ideal that a low-iq individual is superior to a high-iq individual.

think of it as the modern equivalent of a famous aphorism:

"everyone is equal, but some people are more diverse than others"
 
Undercut the main players by offering a low cost solution that has a high chance of being unethical.
This is the MBA and venture capital model.
Befriend someone so you’re part of a rich inner circle.
Most of the world post merit America is like this, where population effects and increasing corruption/legal/regulatory frameworks continued to make "who you know" all the more important. A lot of this is because very few jobs, in reality, had to do with pure differentiation of IQ and we had tons of people, but rather had to do with training over time and specialization. Medicine is a good example because you can't help but become reasonably trained since they make it probably twice as long as it should be. Where the rubber hits the road at the end is that lower IQ, non merit types tend to not really care about doing a good job at all vs their own lifestyle; they aren't good, aware or savvy enough to combine the efficiency of doing less because they aren't all that smart to begin with.
People need to understand that they will never beg for us to come back because it was never built on ethics in the first place. DEI isn’t a losing strategy, it’s just a take over. That’s all. They’re pushing you out and it’s not a smooth process as we can see. There will always be bodies to replace you that can achieve a mediocre output. Perhaps it’s 2 for 1 ratio as far as you’re concerned but it doesn’t matter.
This is more dependent on computers or robots taking over, which is a stretch when you realize that the depopulation agenda is also throwing the DEI et al under the bus as we "move forward."

One thing that solves all of it is using the system against itself, and yes that means buying BTC as your way out. The only way they enrich themselves and do all the favors that can't last is via the abuse of the money printer. I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand. You don't even have to do the requisite homework of understanding that it is truly a disruptive, life changing technology - I have already done that work and can assure you it is. All you have to do is look at what the way forward is in which you use their debasement against them, and BTC is it. As fake goes away, real will replace it because it has to. Scarcity will replace fake abundance. Yes, commodities will do well too but they will not give you the life changing or retirement gains because they don't solve a current problem nor are they a dual technology, which confirms again what I'm saying is the key difference.
 
Winning the fight against Woke

Robby Starbuck Wins Again: Lowe's Scraps Some DEI Policies​



Anti-woke crusader Robby Starbuck is making headlines again, this time taking credit for Lowe's scaling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Starbuck, known for his relentless campaign against far-left white-collar activists infiltration of corporate America's management teams and corporate boardrooms, argues that companies like Lowe's should focus on selling products instead of being woke activists.

"Big news: I messaged @Lowes executives last week to let them know that I planned to expose their woke policies. This morning I woke up to an email where they preemptively made big changes," Starbuck revealed on X on Monday.


Starbuck listed Lowe's big changes that include winding down some DEI initiatives:

  • Ending participation in the @HRC's woke Corporate Equality Index social credit system
  • No more donations to pride events or other divisive events.
  • Ending ERG groups in favor of one large unifying ERG group for all employees, no longer designed to focus on race or sexual orientation.
He continued:

They also hint at more future changes. We're now forcing multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies without even posting just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose.

Starbuck's anti-woke crusade against corporate America has led Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and Jack Daniel to either nuke or wind down DEI activism.



He might need more doors.



"If Elon had not bought Twitter this account [Robby Starbuck] would have been banned. Thus, these companies would continue DEI since they would not have any feedback from the millions of people that don't agree. The #1 amendment is critical. We the people are sick of being censored. I bite my tongue on every FaceBook post because I will get banned," one X user wrote.


Last Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said mass censorship was one of the "principles that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump."
 
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