Time after time social justice warriors will attack a company about some complete non-existent controversy, and time and again these companies placate to them, apologize to them, and try to make amends.
Yet, all of that is in vain, and completely useless. In fact, it's detrimental.
There are some things that companies should learn about social justice warriors, and the sooner they learn, the better.
First, and by far most importantly: Social justice warriors are not your customers!
I can't stress that enough, since it seems to be a lesson that so many companies still don't understand.
When some social justice warrior notices something that she can use to virtue-signal and feign offense, she will make a social media post, and if it gets noticed, it will spread through social media to a large amount of other eternally-offended social justice warriors who will join the outrage mob. Most probably almost none of them had ever even heard of that company, or whatever product the "controversy" is about, before that. In most cases they are not the typical target audience for that thing, nor are they customers, and they were never even intending to become customers, because they had never even heard of it before, nor usually have any interest in it. (This is most often the case with video games, but is often also true with many other industries and products.)
When they talk about "boycotting" the product or the company, those are completely empty words. They weren't your customers in the first place. Them "boycotting" you makes absolutely no difference.
Secondly: Apologizing does not help. It only makes things worse!
This is another lesson that companies need to learn, yet they seem completely incapable of.
The proper response to a fake outrage mob is to ignore them completely. They will make some noise for a couple of days, and then they will get bored and move to something else.
(This has actually been seen many times. For example, id Software completely ignored the attacks they got for adding satire of political correctness into their next installment of Doom. The attacks quieted down in less than a week, when the mob didn't get any reaction from the company. Nobody is talking about it anymore. That's exactly how it should be done! Just ignore the perpetually offended, and they will just get bored and move to something else to get offended by.)
Apologizing, however, is the worst mistake that a company can make. That's like throwing blood into shark-infested waters. It doesn't appease the fake outrage mob, it only encourages them! They take it as a sign of weakness, and the attacks will just continue. They never, ever, ever accept such apologies, and will on the contrary only double down on the attacks and keep at it. They want a reaction. They want to humiliate companies and people, and when they see weakness, they keep pounding on it.
There's also another negative side-effect of apologizing: You will be angering a good portion of your actual customers. Those who actually purchase your products. The more the company apologizes, and especially the more they make changes to placate the social justice mob, the more it will anger the actual customers. In the worst cases apologizing might in fact, and ironically, cause diminished sales.
Thirdly: Identity politics does not sell!
I don't understand why so many companies are trying to become political activists, even at the cost of their own income.
Once again the proper and most beneficial (for everybody) course of action against social pressure to become "more inclusive" and all those other buzzwords, is to simply ignore all that completely. Improve your products, develop new products, employ the most skilled and qualified people, become the most efficient and successful market leader, create the best possible products for your customers. Ignore politics. Just stay out of it. Be silent about it, and simply keep doing what's best for your company.
If you become political, your company will suffer from it. You have absolutely nothing to gain from it, you have only things to lose. Virtue-signaling is not worth it. It gives you a warm feeling for a while, but that's it. It costs money in the end.
Yet, all of that is in vain, and completely useless. In fact, it's detrimental.
There are some things that companies should learn about social justice warriors, and the sooner they learn, the better.
First, and by far most importantly: Social justice warriors are not your customers!
I can't stress that enough, since it seems to be a lesson that so many companies still don't understand.
When some social justice warrior notices something that she can use to virtue-signal and feign offense, she will make a social media post, and if it gets noticed, it will spread through social media to a large amount of other eternally-offended social justice warriors who will join the outrage mob. Most probably almost none of them had ever even heard of that company, or whatever product the "controversy" is about, before that. In most cases they are not the typical target audience for that thing, nor are they customers, and they were never even intending to become customers, because they had never even heard of it before, nor usually have any interest in it. (This is most often the case with video games, but is often also true with many other industries and products.)
When they talk about "boycotting" the product or the company, those are completely empty words. They weren't your customers in the first place. Them "boycotting" you makes absolutely no difference.
Secondly: Apologizing does not help. It only makes things worse!
This is another lesson that companies need to learn, yet they seem completely incapable of.
The proper response to a fake outrage mob is to ignore them completely. They will make some noise for a couple of days, and then they will get bored and move to something else.
(This has actually been seen many times. For example, id Software completely ignored the attacks they got for adding satire of political correctness into their next installment of Doom. The attacks quieted down in less than a week, when the mob didn't get any reaction from the company. Nobody is talking about it anymore. That's exactly how it should be done! Just ignore the perpetually offended, and they will just get bored and move to something else to get offended by.)
Apologizing, however, is the worst mistake that a company can make. That's like throwing blood into shark-infested waters. It doesn't appease the fake outrage mob, it only encourages them! They take it as a sign of weakness, and the attacks will just continue. They never, ever, ever accept such apologies, and will on the contrary only double down on the attacks and keep at it. They want a reaction. They want to humiliate companies and people, and when they see weakness, they keep pounding on it.
There's also another negative side-effect of apologizing: You will be angering a good portion of your actual customers. Those who actually purchase your products. The more the company apologizes, and especially the more they make changes to placate the social justice mob, the more it will anger the actual customers. In the worst cases apologizing might in fact, and ironically, cause diminished sales.
Thirdly: Identity politics does not sell!
I don't understand why so many companies are trying to become political activists, even at the cost of their own income.
Once again the proper and most beneficial (for everybody) course of action against social pressure to become "more inclusive" and all those other buzzwords, is to simply ignore all that completely. Improve your products, develop new products, employ the most skilled and qualified people, become the most efficient and successful market leader, create the best possible products for your customers. Ignore politics. Just stay out of it. Be silent about it, and simply keep doing what's best for your company.
If you become political, your company will suffer from it. You have absolutely nothing to gain from it, you have only things to lose. Virtue-signaling is not worth it. It gives you a warm feeling for a while, but that's it. It costs money in the end.
Well said.
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