Will the Mouse Bounce Back? Don’t Hold Your Breath

Woke Disney tries to walk it back, but the damage is done.

Life comes at you fast when you go woke. Just ask Disney. 

The company was a darling of investors through the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Disney+ streaming platform, which launched in November 2019, was seemingly tailor-made for a global lockdown and Disney’s stock price soared to all-time highs by March 2021.

But just two years later, the “magic” is gone. The Florida legislature took away Walt Disney World’s special tax district. Company financial reports became the “balance sheet from hell.” The old CEO had to come back. And after weeks of fighting rumors that Disney+ was shutting down, subscription cancellations went viral on social media after the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk told Disney to “go f— yourself.”

How did things get so… wait for it… Goofy?

CEO Bob Iger says it was because Disney forgot Business 101: Providing what its target audiences actually want. “Creators lost sight of what their No. 1 objective needed to be,” he said recently. “We have to entertain first. It’s not about messages.”

That pretty much nails it. Somewhere along the line, the company decided it was a (left-wing) advocacy organization and replaced classic storylines of Disney’s 20th century masterpieces with emphasis on far-left social and political themes. This was not by accident: One producer admitted the shift was part of a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda.”

And Disney didn’t stop at movies and shows. The mouse ears came off when the company took a public stand against a Florida law that creates age-appropriate levels for sex education topics. In a statement, Disney perpetuated the left’s false propaganda that the law banned saying “gay” – the law itself doesn’t mention the word “gay” at all. However, state lawmakers got the last laugh by passing a new law that revoked the special tax status for the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando.

And it’s not just LGBT issues on which Disney has bitten from the leftist poison apple. Jemele Hill, who compared supporting the Boston Celtics to backing Hitler, got a coveted SportsCenter anchor slot on Disney’s ESPN cable sports network despite hemorrhaging viewership. Hill was only suspended, and eventually left, once she crossed the line of calling for a boycott of Dallas Cowboys’ advertisers because owner Jerry Jones insisted his players stand for the national anthem. 

Iger’s comments above indicate he’s aware the clock might soon strike midnight for Cinderella. A recent SEC filing stated, “consumers’ perceptions of our position on matters of public interest, including our efforts to achieve certain of our environmental and social goals, often differ widely and present risks to our reputation and brands.”

But it will take a lot more than pixie dust for Iger to convince critics and Disney+ subscription cancellers that a culture shift is happening within the brand. As he’s making the rounds on the company’s image rehabilitation tour, the company caved to the manufactured deception campaign against X by left-wing hit-group Media Matters. Disney, along with several other companies pulled ad buys after Media Matters manipulated the platform’s algorithm to make them appear next to antisemitic content. In response, X CEO Elon Musk told Disney and the rest to “go f— yourself” and Musk’s followers launched a viral #CancelDisneyPlus campaign posting images of their canceled subscriptions to the streaming platform.

Iger’s public recognition of the problem came right as Musk’s vulgarities hit headlines. It’s probably a coincidence—Iger has been mouthing words of reconciliation for some time—but it’s clear that changing Disney’s woke culture will take more than rubbing a genie lamp. 

The only way companies will stop promoting a left-wing agenda is when they don’t have the money to do so anymore. It’s easy to avoid spending 5-figures on a Disney vacation, but it might be more impactful to stop paying that monthly Disney+ subscription fee.

Conservatives need to start looking at alternative options for their entertainment. And while moving to Netflix or Amazon Prime might make the point to Disney, those companies aren’t exactly conservative-friendly either. So here are a few options to consider for video streaming without the woke agenda.

Great American Pure Flix is the merger of Great American Media and Pure Flix and boasts over 1 million subscribers. It’s the streaming home for many popular franchises in conservative Christian households such as the God’s Not Dead series and Veggietales.

Up Faith and Family produces faith-based, family friendly original content and is available through most popular streaming platforms like XFINITY, Roku, and FireTV.

Crackle is a free streaming service with ads owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul. The content tends to be more mainstream (note: some from Disney), but includes an impressive archive of classic movies and television shows. 

While alternative options certainly exist, the ultimate proverbial middle finger to Disney might just be finding entertainment without a television or streaming service. Getting your kids outside, and spending quality time together while teaching your values is probably the most conservative response possible. 

Paul Revere is the pseudonym of a conservative writer