Did the LA Fires Kill Wokeism?
By Michael Ashley
Today I virtually presented in California about the dangers of ESG.
My coauthor W. David Prescott and I met with a Westlake business group to discuss our new book: Creative Destruction: How ESG Mandates Are Destroying Capitalism, Costing You Money, and Wrecking America.
Going in, I was worried about delivering this talk.
Though ESG should concern people on the left and right, the media has skillfully turned it into a conservative cause. But it’s not. ESG affects us all.
It’s the Western version of the Chinese social credit system—aimed at businesses. Through an insidious private/public partnership, leviathan-sized companies like BlackRock extort smaller companies to do their bidding. Or else.
Left unopposed, ESG will be used as a weapon to destroy companies, cutting off capital and stripping them of banking access. Just like the Chinese social credit score cuts its citizens out of society, destroying lives.
Unfortunately, telling business leaders this ESG message is dangerous. It can get you cancelled by the woke mob. At least that’s what I used to think.
Not after what I observed today’s meeting.
To make our talk interactive, David and I wanted listeners to experience how the G in Governance is used to control companies. Instead of judging people by the content of their character, as Martin Luther King Jr. extolled, ESG promoters force certain people into certain board positions. Not based on their talents or abilities, but due to immutable characteristics beyond their control.
To show this idea in action, we created the following breakout exercise:
Imagine you’re Pepsi’s CEO. Your ideal board contains diversity of thought and opinion: people who know about drinks and snacks, people with varying experience in finance for the Fortune 100 space. One day, your investors tell you that you need more underrepresented people on your board or your ESG score will drop, damaging the company.
These are the 4 categories requiring more representation:
· High school dropouts
· People who are anti capitalists
· Anti-junk food crusaders
· Former convicts for financial crimes
You have 4 open spots on your board. 2 must come from these categories or you will be replaced. Who do you take from these categories and why?
I worried this breakout session would spark outrage from participants, that they would turn on us for asking such a question. That didn’t happen.
Instead, a person we will call Mallory said this to the breakout group, “I am soo tired of this f—ing woke s—. LA is burning down! My house might be next. Who gives a flying f— what your pronouns are if you’re a fire fighter? I just want someone competent. Someone to do their f—ing job.”
Of course, Mallory didn’t actually answer the breakout question. She didn’t have to. Her candid response proved she understood ESG’s vapidness. The Woke mind virus that captured American schools, businesses, churches, entertainment, and more is experiencing it’s Emperor’s New Clothes moment.?
As more evidence piles up exposing LA Mayor Bass as an incompetent failure, not to mention Governor Gavin Newsom—by mainstream sources no less—it’s evident these “leaders” are naked frauds. For years, they spent their time virtue signaling Woke fads, including COVID lockdowns, all while failing to do their jobs.
Now that Los Angeles, California’s crown jewel, is going up in flames; the chickens have come to roost. It’s not just Mallory who can see through the lies.
It’s celebrities, too.
Actresses like Sarah Michelle Gellar are turning against LA officials like Mayor Bass. Here’s what actress and producer Sara Foster wrote on X: 'We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits.'[Mayor Bass, governor Newsom] RESIGN. Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.'”
For too long, the Woke mind virus ran rampant, destroying lives and careers, poisoning relationships, rotting America from the inside. It’s been used to silence critics and stifle debate.
Now, in 2025, we can see the results of such toxic virtue signaling—unfathomable destruction and horrible tragedy. The truth is inequality and injustice do exist. There are formidable challenges we must tackle. But all along, color-revolution neo-Marxists exploited humankind’s better nature to usher in their New World Order—aka The Great Reset.
They failed.
America is waking up. The world is waking up. It’s heartbreaking that it took something so ghastly, so terrible for our nation to realize the real danger.
In the meantime, my heart goes out to the people of L.A. and all their loved ones. You are in our prayers, and we must do all we can to make this right. Together. Finally.