May 25, 2023 - Epoch Times
11:41
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| Over this past weekend, like many of you, I wanted to just unplug from the news and take a break because it was just getting too much. | |
| And so I went and I took my family over to Coney Island, where we took a walk by one of the New York City beaches. | |
| But wouldn't you believe it? | |
| While walking down the boardwalk, I was met with a giant, loud, gay pride pro-Ukrainian parade, complete with a transgender guy chatting it up with some kids. | |
| And it was at that moment, with the sound of their chanting on the otherwise peaceful boardwalk, that I suddenly realized that it was becoming more and more impossible to escape the news, given the fact that these political actors have become so ubiquitous in almost every corner of the country. | |
| And the feeling that I had at the beach this past weekend was very likely the very same feeling that was felt by millions of Americans who happened to go into a Target store over the past week. | |
| That's because, regardless of whether they were shopping for furniture, clothing, or just looking for some little knickknacks, what millions of Americans found were gay pride and transgender clothing displays aimed at children. | |
| This was Target's 2023 Pride collection, which, among many, many, many other things, included things like onesies for infants, with different pro-gay and pro-trans slogans. | |
| It included books for children such as Bye Bye Binary and What Are Your Words which helped to instruct children on using transgender pronouns. | |
| There were chest binders being sold for girls as well as female swimsuits that had a quote-unquote tuck-friendly label meaning that the swimsuit had enough additional fabric to cover male genitals. | |
| This is worn by young boys who want to pretend that they don't have the That was just a small sampling of the types of things that people were finding in the so-called children's pride collection. | |
| And again, it's worth reiterating that this was not some small retailer in some progressive part of the nation. | |
| This was Target, the massive chain with nearly 2,000 stores across the whole country. | |
| You really don't get more mainstream than Target. | |
| And by the way, just as an aside, speaking of mainstream, if you would like to make this episode mainstream, well, consider hitting those like and subscribe buttons, and perhaps maybe even leaving a little comment below this video in order to tickle the YouTube algorithm and have this episode reach ever, ever, ever more people. | |
| Now, getting back to this pride collection issue, when you dug beneath the surface just a little bit, you found that one of the companies commissioned by Target to design their pride collection apparel was this one here, Abrelin. | |
| They're the company behind some of the Target products like this Too Queer For Here toad bag with a cool 1.5 star rating. | |
| And if you're interested in knowing a bit about this company, the company behind these products, well simply head on over to their website, and here are some of the top offerings. | |
| The heteronormativity is a plague pin, the Satan Respects Pronouns pin, the Satan Respects Pronouns shirt, among many, many, many other cool items. | |
| And just in case you're wondering why they're using Baphomet in their designs, Baphomet is, of course, that goat-headed idol, well, here's what the company shared in a recent social media post. | |
| Quote, Satan is hope, compassion, equality, and love. | |
| So naturally, Satan respects pronouns. | |
| He loves all LGBT people. | |
| I went with a variation of Baphomet for this design, a deity who themself is a mixture of genders, beings, ideas, and existences. | |
| They reject binary stereotypes and expectations. | |
| Perfect. | |
| And the founder of this particular company, Is an individual named Eric Carnal. | |
| She was born a woman, but now identifies as a man. | |
| And in regards to the deal with Target, here's what she wrote over on Facebook discussing the deal that her company had with Target. | |
| Quote, Being able to sell my stuff in Target stores is incredibly exciting. | |
| Knowing that people are seeing it without necessarily explicitly seeking LGBT-related stuff is wonderful. | |
| And I'm especially happy at the thought that young, closeted people will see it. | |
| But, like all good things in life, this deal did not last long. | |
| That's because, following the revelation of these products, Target began to face, you can say, serious criticism, as well as actual, broad calls for boycotts. | |
| And these calls for boycotts, well, they had to take them seriously, because for one, Target is a large Fortune 100 company That is very interested in maintaining the bottom line. | |
| And secondly, these boycotts have shown to be rather effective. | |
| For instance, with the case of Bud Light, their latest weekly sales figures show a 28% drop in sales volume, which, by the way, came on the heels of a 27% drop in sales just the week before. | |
| And so, suffice it to say, Target was taking these boycotts seriously. | |
| However, like most modern, giant corporations, the Target leadership found themselves between a rock and a hard place, trying to serve their actual customer base while at the same time trying to placate an extra-vocal minority group. | |
| And so, along that line, when this whole story first broke, the CEO of Target, he actually went on a podcast. | |
| It was the Fortune podcast to defend quote-unquote woke companies. | |
| Here's what he said, quote,"...I think those are just good business decisions, and it's the right thing for society, and it's a great thing for our brand." The things we've done from a DEI, which is diversity, equity, and inclusion standpoint, it's adding value. | |
| It's helping us drive sales. | |
| It's building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests. | |
| And those are just the right things for our business today. | |
| When we think about purpose at Target, it's really about helping all the families. | |
| And that all word is really important. | |
| Diversity and inclusion and equity has fueled much of our growth over the last nine years. | |
| However, you can only go so far with flowery language in the world of real business. | |
| And perhaps after seeing massive calls for boycotts, as well as a cool 11% drop in their stock price, Target corporate leadership went ahead and began removing some of these LGBTQ-themed children's items. | |
| Here was a statement that was released by the company, meaning corporate target. | |
| Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work. | |
| Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior. | |
| Now, as an aside, I will mention that while there might have indeed been some threats against Target employees, Target did not release any specific evidence showing that there was an increased risk of violence to their staff members. | |
| And it is worth mentioning that this sort of a rationale has recently become commonplace in corporate statements. | |
| If you need to make some sort of unpopular move in order to avoid hurting the bottom line, you can just say that you're doing it to protect the safety of your employees, and that should be a pretty safe bet. | |
| However, it is worth mentioning that even after this particular statement from Target was released, if you go online today, meaning if you go on the Target website today, you can still find many of the products that we mentioned earlier still right there for sale. | |
| And so what appears to be happening, according to an investigation by Fox News, is that, quote, Some Southern Target stores were forced by the corporation to move LGBTQ pride merchandise away from the front of their locations after customer outrage to avoid a Bud Light situation. | |
| A Target insider told Fox News that many locations, mostly in rural areas of the South, have relocated pride sections to avoid the kind of backlash Bud Light has received in recent weeks. | |
| Meaning that a select few locations, mostly located in the rural South, are moving the locations of the Pride collection to the back of the store. | |
| Not removing it entirely, but just moving it to the backs of the store. | |
| Furthermore, interestingly, in terms of how these directives came down to these individual stores from the corporate executives, well, here's what the report says. | |
| A target insider said there were emergency calls on Friday and that some managers and district senior directors were told to tamp down the Pride sections immediately. | |
| We were given 36 hours. | |
| Told to take all of our pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that's a third the size. | |
| From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can't have anything on mannequins and no large signage. | |
| The call was super quick. | |
| It was 15 minutes. | |
| The first 10 minutes was about how to keep your team safe and not having to advocate for Target. | |
| The last five was move this to the back, take down the mannequins, and remove the signage. | |
| But that wasn't all, because... | |
| Sorry, is it raining money? | |
| Or rather, I should say that this is fake money being printed into oblivion by those geniuses over in Washington DC. And so before they completely obliterate your life savings, what I recommend you do is to convert that fake money into real money, which is physical gold and silver. | |
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| It's 866-242-2352. | |
| That's 866- However, do notice that this was done only in some locations located in more conservative areas. | |
| Target has not issued any apologies regarding their But even with all that, Target is still being attacked by those on the left for daring to pull back, even a little bit. | |
| Here's for instance what Gavin Newsom, the current governor of California, said in a statement on the matter. | |
| Quote, This isn't just a couple stores in the South. | |
| There's a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. | |
| Wake up, America. | |
| And so what appears to be happening is that after the incident with Bud Light, these calls for boycotts are beginning to be taken seriously. | |
| And all this can really be taken as, you can say, the prelude. | |
| That's because, as it happens every single year, Exactly a week from now, the month of May will be over, and the month of June will officially begin. | |
| And June is, of course, Pride Month, with many companies across America usually changing their avatars and their corporate logos to incorporate the rainbow flag. | |
| Unless, of course, they have a Middle Eastern subsidiary, which in that case the logo remains exactly the same. | |
| Regardless, coming into June this year, with the examples of Bud Light, Miller Lite, and now Target, who knows how corporate America will treat Pride Month and how Pride Month will actually play itself out. | |
| It'll be interesting to watch, to say the least. | |
| If you'd like to go through any of the references that we went through in today's episode, I'll throw all my research notes down in the description box below. | |
| And lastly, over on Epic TV, our no-censorship video platform, I just published an awesome interview between myself and a woman named Nikki Holland. | |
| Two years ago, Nikki took the Moderna vaccine, and sadly, just three days later, she became paralyzed, debilitated, unable to breathe or eat properly, among many, many other problems that she experiences to this very day. | |
| However, like many other people in her condition, she was marginalized and censored. | |
| However, now Nikki's fighting back, and she's actually suing the federal government for censorship. | |
| If you'd like to check out that awesome interview, you can do so over on EpicTV. | |
| The link will be right there at the very, very top of the description box below. | |
| Just click on that link, you can head on over to EpicTV and watch the interview right away. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. |
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