Shot in the Dark

The Anti-Barometer

Dick’s Sporting Good is sort of the Angela Merkel of big retail. They kowtow to the left, and have an unearned reputation for doing things well, but at the end of the day you can see literally every choice they ever made is wrong. They’ve tried to become a big-box REI.

They banned “modern sporting rifles” after Newtown – and again after (IIRC) Parkland (and have kept it going since then).

And, in the wake of the Dobbs decision, they signaled their progressive virtue to the world by planning to pay for employees abortions, as well as up to $4,000 in travel benefits to get to states that allow the procedure, if applicable.

Unmentioned: abortion is cheaper than childcare. Which Dick’s doesn’t help with in the least:

America First Legal (AFL) asked the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to open a civil-rights investigation into the company, alleging multiple violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on parental status…The legal group claimed that the retailer discriminated against mothers who decide not to terminate their pregnancy by not offering them an equivalent benefit. It called the project “wholly detached” from the company’s business of selling sporting goods and golf equipment, which in turn may “needlessly destroy shareholder value.”

“Subsidizing travel for an abortion, while denying an equivalent benefit to a mother welcoming a new baby, is perverse and unlawful. Using racial balancing and quotas in hiring and promotion, as the company claims that it does, has been illegal for decades. DICK’S management is an avatar for the rot and danger of corporate wokeness,” AFL Senior Counselor and Director of Oversight Reed D. Rubinstein said in a statement.

My problem: There are so many “woke” companies to boycott – but I have been avoiding all of them for other reasons for a long, long time. I wiped Dick’s off my shopping list in 2013, and it never got back.

What’s a guy to do?


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14 responses to “The Anti-Barometer”

  1. zdad Avatar
    zdad

    I’ve gotten very comfortable boycotting corporate wokeism in America. My first boycott was Levi Strauss in 1992 when they cut off boyscouts over gay issues (and added the boyscouts to my list when they through in the towel). Have studiously avoided all Strauss products ever since and shared my story many times over the years. Clothing is one of the easier products to buy from someone else. Coke, Nike, Dick’s, Gillette (over priced blades for decades, never more), Disney (poor grandkids! Deprived since their birth), had looked forward to taking grandkids to MLB games, never have and never will. Some might say I’m a miserable kind of guy but there are many alternatives to wokeist products and I’ve turned it into a kind of sport.

  2. Ultra Maga Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Ultra Maga Mammuthus Primigenesis

    The bridge between free market capitalism and radical feminism is that both see motherhood as an obstacle to women’s more important identity as units of economic production.

  3. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    A little early for Bloody Mary’s isn’t it?🍹

  4. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    ^Because it’s gin & tonic time at the fabulous lakefront estate. 🤡

  5. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    ^ Actually— that’s just the smell of white pines in my yard.

  6. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    It’s not hard to boycott Woke Corp.

    -Don’t buy name brands. Levis jeans are made of now made of 12 Oz. denim, down from 16 Oz. They are made in Asian sweatshops that do not maintain any quality standards. You pay $35 for a crappy pair of pants with a little red tag.

    -Don’t buy processed or “fast” food. It’s poison. Take a look at some beach photos from the 70’s; no fat people. Now look around you today.

    -Don’t buy cheap shit made in China. 9/10 you don’t need it and it will just end up in the trash in a few months.

    -Check out second hand stores. I’m a big fan of Goodwill. $5 jeans; $3 shirts. And sometimes, you find treasure! I once bought a full length Yves Saint Laurent wool overcoat for $25 at the Goodwill on Lake and Minnehaha (probably burnt down now).

    Get rid of shit you don’t need, and don’t replace it with more shit you don’t need. Use the money you save for ammo and real food.

  7. Ultra Maga Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Ultra Maga Mammuthus Primigenesis

    Emery on July 18, 2022 at 9:18 am said:
    A little early for Bloody Mary’s isn’t it?🍹

    Beat ya to it! Nanner-Nanner!
    http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=82845#comment-235909

  8. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    UMMP, no one beats rAT to the morning eye-opener.

  9. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    -Don’t buy name brands. Levis jeans are made of now made of 12 Oz. denim, down from 16 Oz.

    All you need to know about Levi’s “transition” from working clothes to fashion accessory is that their president keeps saying that you shouldn’t wash your jeans but once a year. When he did that, I knew everything I needed to know about Levi’s durability and work readiness.

    The Project Farm guy on youtube did a series of tests on a huge bunch of jeans from the perspective of someone who expects to actually work in jeans and the Levi’s came out near the bottom of the barrel. His vids are fun to watch, since he isn’t sponsored by anyone and he tests a lot of stuff for DIYers that Consumer Reports wouldn’t touch with a 30 meter pole.

  10. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Thinking about the matter, it strikes me that I remember a scenario where companies that promote abortion over childcare may, even without repenting of the evil of abortion, have some problems going forward.

    Ten years back, I worked for a company renowned for its (bad) treatment of its employees, and one thing I noticed was that as people left “to get a real job” (the actual phrase used), it was generally the single guys that left first, the ones who didn’t have a mortgage and family ties binding them there. The long term guys who maintained the company “tribal knowledge” were the family men.

    Now I don’t know exactly how the corporate mood is there (I do have a friend there, actually), but what I do know is that if you pay for abortions while not helping with childcare, what you’ve done is to prioritize employees who likely do NOT have familial links to the community over those who do.

    In other words, what you’re doing is giving your most “fly by night” employees a reason not to grow up while giving your most loyal employees a reason to go elsewhere. That’s not going to work out well for them.

  11. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Thanks for the link, nerd.

  12. SmithStCrx Avatar
    SmithStCrx

    I loathe this type of lawfare because I’m firmly libertarian when it comes to anything related to “Freedom of Association.”

    But…

    Since The Left is just fine using the legal system to browbeat companies into kowtowing to Woke Progressivism, I cheer on any and all turnabout. The only thing worse than stooping to their level is unilateral disarmament and annihilation.

  13. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    It’s easy to ignore Dick’s Sporting Goods when they say they don’t want your business. And when they pretend they do.
    Emery’s day drinking would give many of his comments perspective. Or an excuse.
    Love the Project Farm channel, nerdbert, and that video. So many good comparisons.

  14. Ultra Maga Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Ultra Maga Mammuthus Primigenesis

    Armored motorcycle pants & jacket are great protection. I have first hand experience of this.
    But they are also ^%#@! too hot to wear in the summer.

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