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May 25, 2025 - Lionel Nation
11:34
Target’s Fall: How DEI and WOKE Backlash Crushed a Retail Giant!
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Remember the Target stores?
Remember during that George Floyd nonsense?
Remember all that woke crap?
Well, guess what?
They're going under.
You know why?
Why?
Payback's a bitch.
Reality's like that.
And if I were to tell you that I was somehow not happy about this, not that people are going to lose their job, but because there's some kind of a justice, I'd be lying.
Targets Collapse.
The title of this is How DEI Woke Branding and Corporate Bullshit I mean, this is pathetic.
I mean, think about what I'm saying.
You know, there was a time when Target was truly America's favorite middle ground store.
It was clean and affordable, reliable oasis between kind of Walmart and Nordstrom.
But in 2025...
Sales now, sales now I should say, are now, are plummeting.
Layoffs are looming.
And consumer confidence, which is what we hear a lot of times spoken of, consumer confidence is absolutely nowhere to be found.
Where do you think that's from?
Where do you think that's from and what do you think happened?
Think about it.
It's incredible.
It's gone.
In 2025.
You are seeing something that we knew kind of what happened.
When you know something's up, when sales are disastrous, layoffs looming around the horizon, and again, this sense of, I don't know, confidence, there's a bigger factor than that.
Brand loyalty, all of it is evaporating.
So what happened?
What happened?
So let's not sugarcoat this.
Target has become the latest casualty.
Just ask, you know, Bud Light.
In the corporate war of ideology, the once beloved chain is now another case study.
Another case study in how corporate America's obsession with identity politics and performative pretend, you know, wokeness and DEI nonsense box checking, how it can destroy not just shareholder value, But consumer trust and popularity.
And it should be a lesson.
This isn't about politics.
It's about priorities.
And Target got them all wrong.
You see, this is the most important thing to note.
This was a retail giant that got lost in its own narrative.
For the better part of a decade, Target positioned itself not as a store, but as a moral compass.
You know, they wanted to be known for progressiveness and diversity.
And inclusion.
And not just in hiring, but in product placement and advertising and public declarations, you know?
This meant showcasing pride-themed baby clothes.
Pride.
Turning...
and investing billions into this defunct DEI nonsense.
Now, on paper, on paper, this might...
In practice, it alienated millions of customers.
Ask Bud Light.
Ask Dylan Mulvaney.
Ask what happened.
Remember that toothy CEO who...
Millions of customers who just wanted to buy towels without getting a lecture on gender theory.
It's the most incredible thing in the world.
Now, for Target, the culture war wasn't an external threat.
It was a brand strategy.
And that's critical.
Think about this.
DEI, you're not going to be hearing too much about this, but now it went from inclusion to indoctrination.
DEI, also ESG, that's more of the corporate level.
But DEI started as a well-intentioned kind of business principle, but like many ideas, and many ideas in today's corporate world, it mutated into something far more...
Far less sustainable.
Instead of ensuring fairness in hiring and doing that which is, you know, equity, equitable would be in there, DEI became a filter through which every company decision had to pass.
And Target built an entire product line and corporate campaigns around DEI, aligning itself with causes that had nothing really to do with retail.
See, they weren't just selling soap.
They were selling a worldview, a perspective, a political ideology.
And eventually, you know, the backlash came just from right-leaning, I should say not just from right-leaning consumers, but from centrists and moderates, and people who felt increasingly uncomfortable being politicized and lectured and hectored and yelled at at checkout.
I mean, we knew this, and the woke branding trap got them.
See, what many companies didn't really and don't still understand is that customers don't want their brands to preach to them.
Papa don't preach!
I think Madge told us best, right?
They want them to function.
And the average shopper is already bombarded by political chaos and social tension and all this economic anxiety.
And the last thing they need is to be made to feel like some villain for wanting to buy a pair of socks.
It doesn't make any sense.
Target's mistake was assuming that everyone shares the values of a Twitter executive boardroom.
They confused urban social media sentiment with national consensus.
And for doing so, they painted themselves into a corner.
They turned branding into tribalism.
And they lost.
And they lost.
And you knew it was going to happen.
See, when the boycotts begin, the numbers don't lie.
The boycott started gradually.
A few YouTube videos here, a conservative podcast.
And before you know it, it snowballed.
And protests popped up at store entrances and videos of people abandoning carts went viral.
And consumers began actively choosing competitors.
Amazon and Walmart.
Local businesses.
Because they were sick and tired of the activism baked into aisle four.
It was ridiculous.
And the economic cost?
Because billions, billions in market value wiped out.
Entire store sections depopulated.
Foot traffic flatlined.
And then the layoffs came.
Not because capitalism is cruel, but because the customer is always right.
And the customer walked out.
The customer took off.
You see, the retreat came too late.
See, in early 2025, Target began reversing course.
You know, quietly removing some Controversial displays, reducing pride sections, toning down the DEI language, all on its corporate side.
But by then, the damage was already done.
The about-face just didn't win anybody back, and conservatives didn't care.
It only enraged the progressive activists, who once championed the brand.
Now, Target became, sadly, a corporate cautionary tale.
If you lean into a movement, you better stay there.
Because when you flip-flop, you lose both sides.
Be consistent.
If you're going to do something, have the guts to stay there.
Maintain it.
Performance over product.
This is how corporate virtue signaling killed trust.
Customers shop for reliability, for value, and respect.
Not lectures.
How many times did I tell you?
Not guilt.
Not symbols.
When a company positions itself and its identity.
Around ideologies rather than product quality or sales or value, it risks creating fragile loyalty.
And Target failed to recognize that many Americans across political lines resent being bombarded with moral messaging every time they run errands.
It's simple.
This isn't an argument against diversity or against inclusion.
It's an argument for focus, for remembering what business you're in, for recognizing that most Americans aren't hateful or bigoted.
They're just exhausted, and they want a break, and they want to just buy stuff.
It's that simple.
And there's a market now for sanity.
This is one thing that you have to understand.
There has been a clarity, an abundant clarity in 2025.
There is a booming market for non-political retail experiences.
Stores that stick to value, efficiency, and customer service thriving.
Look at Costco, Aldi, or even mom and pop shops.
And by the way, Costco and others may have DEI at their corporate level, but it doesn't affect you in the sporting goods section.
I don't care what they do in their boardrooms.
Don't.
If you ever go to Costco, they've got pallets full of, you know, granola bars or whatever the hell it is.
There's no message there.
It's smart.
See, they're not pushing ideologies.
They're pushing savings.
And customers are rewarding them with loyalty.
That's it.
Target had the chance to lead that movement.
Instead, they chose to be loud and proud and in your face.
And they paid the price when the volume got too high.
Now, what's happening next?
The real lesson for corporate America, let's see if they know this, Target's collapse is not a freak accident.
It's a warning.
It's a promise.
A flare in the night for every C-suite boardroom thinking about their next ESG tweet or virtue signaling campaign or whatever the hell it is.
Because brands must stop mistaking social media applause for customer approval.
They've got to stop trying to impress activists who don't even shop there.
And they've got to start listening to the people who keep them alive, the everyday average American family.
It's that simple.
Target didn't need to choose sides.
It did anyway, and now it's reaping the consequences.
That's the bottom line.
Now, do you think they're going to learn a lesson?
I don't know.
But here's a final thought.
It's called Back to the Basics or Bus, Baby.
If Target wants to survive, it has to forget about the performative alley-ship, the culture war, this nonsense, Whatever they're trying to do.
And Twitter and Xtrends, or maybe Twitter trends.
It needs to get back to basics.
Value.
Just plain old, you know, stuff that sounds corny.
Clean, storage, friendly, service.
Service!
Real inclusion.
Not the weaponized, divisive kind, but the kind that means everyone's welcome, no one gets a sermon with their shampoo or whatever the hell it is.
Just go.
Because if they don't course correct now, and it may be too late, they must understand something.
They're going to feel something even better.
They won't just lose more market value.
They'll lose the reason they existed in the first place.
To serve the customer, not lecture them.
That should be their...
Their meme.
So, let me know what you think.
Have you seen this?
Do you think this is a trend?
Does this portend or augur the future?
I sure as hell hope so.
Alright, my friends.
Do me a favor.
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And whatever you do, I beg, beseech you, importune and implore you.
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