The ominous trend of left-wing billionaires and woke corporations telling us how to think or what to say is only intensifying. Hiring standards are shifting, free speech is eroding and meritocracy is in retreat. The billionaires and CEOs have sent a clear message—unless we wish to be cancelled, labeled extremists, banned from social media and branded as unemployable, we dare not question their prevailing wisdom on a host of issues ranging from critical race theory to transgender rights to matters of climate and energy.
CNBC reported a good example last week. Under the headline, "James Murdoch spent $100 million to help fund political causes during 2020 election cycle," it reported that according to 2019 tax returns, James, who last year was driven out of the Murdoch family business due to "disagreements over certain editorial content," and his wife Kathryn donated $100 million in Disney stock to their 501(c)(3) Quadrivium, for the purpose of funding various political and activist activities.
CNBC reported that the "$100 million donation marks the couple's largest known contribution to their foundation or any political effort." With James fully clear of his family business responsibilities, it is reasonable to conclude that they are just getting started.
This project seems to fit nicely under the couple's new woke banner. Kathryn has also joined the Aspen Institute's Orwellian-sounding "Commission on Information Disorder." Its mission? To tell us all what's wrong with how Americans get and share information.
What expertise does Kathryn bring to such a noble-sounding project? Her only experience with news or disinformation campaigns appears to be funding one. According to Capital Research Center, a think tank which tracks nonprofit spending in politics:
Kathryn Murdoch is a top donor to one of the most notorious disinformation operations in the country....
Kathryn donated half a million dollars to PACRONYM, which is part of an elaborate left-wing influence operation. PACRONYM is a political action committee, but it's closely tied to the 501(c)(4) social advocacy group ACRONYM, which in turn funds and controls Courier Newsroom, one of America's most sophisticated disinfo machines working to elect Democrats.
To be clear, a billionaire who funds liberal fake news operations is going to lead a commission that's supposed to address the problem of how information is distorted and shared. We should not be shocked when this commission, stacked with figures like Katie Couric and Prince Harry, inevitably pins the blame on conservatives and recommends that Big Tech double down on its censorship campaigns.
Make no mistake—billionaires James and Kathryn Murdoch are coming for conservatives, and they are using their liberal allies and the Aspen Institute as means to that end. As is typically the case with these powerful and connected liberals who write society's new rules, we can safely assume that they have no intention of living by them whatsoever. Sins are only sins if committed by a conservative.
For example, James and Kathryn are also prolific environmentalists. Among their many donations is an $11 million contribution going to an extreme climate change group called the Environmental Defense Fund. With concern for his carbon footprint size thus noted in his progressive credit score, James is now shielded from scrutiny over the fact that over his last 10 years at Fox, he ran up a $2.2 million tab using the corporate jet.
Hypocrisy and self-righteousness are typical traits of today's woke limousine liberal. These attributes in the young Murdochs, as reported in the CNBC story, indicate a larger point—that while the average American voter may still associate wealth and privilege with the Republican Party, these traits, in truth, are now inextricably linked with the elites who peddle cultural Marxism, at least when they donate their money or speak in the public square.
In private, however, these rich radicals continue to fly around in private jets and enjoy all the privilege that comes with the wealth that an economic system that couldn't be further from Marxism in its nature allowed them to produce.
I wonder how Kathryn's new Aspen commission will suggest that such information be shared with the public.