It looks like they’re trying to bring the pastors to the kids instead
It looks like they’re trying to bring the pastors to the kids instead
Article for anyone not wanting give in to corporate data collection:
Tractor Supply said it would make changes to its diversity and climate programs after fielding criticism from customers.
One of the country’s largest farm-supply retailers announced Thursday that it would cut diversity-focused positions and withdraw its carbon-emissions goals in a response to right-wing pressure that sparked an uproar from other customers and advocacy groups.
Tractor Supply Company made the changes after fielding criticism from customers about some of its programs, the Tennessee-based business said in a statement. It also vowed to stop submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, and to no longer sponsor Pride festivals and voting initiatives.
“We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them,” the company said. “We have taken this feedback to heart.”
The move was met with celebration from conservative activists — and consternation from others, including a New York animal sanctuary, LGBTQ+ organizations and an association that aims to support Black farmers.
Tractor Supply did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Saturday.
The company is the latest to find itself at a crossroads between customers with different political beliefs. Last year, Bud Light’s sales dropped after it ran an advertisement featuring a transgender social media influencer, and Target lost business after revealing a Pride Month collection. And while a conservative legal campaign dismantles corporate and government diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, some companies are privately rebranding their DEI policies.
Tractor Supply, which sells animal feed, tractor parts and power tools at more than 2,230 stores nationwide, was recognized for its inclusiveness last year. Bloomberg praised it for promoting gender equality, while Newsweek called it one of the best U.S. companies for diversity.
“Our deeply rooted Mission and Values are the foundation of who we are as an organization,” Melissa Kersey, Tractor Supply’s executive vice president, said in a statement in February 2023. “They dictate that Tractor Supply prioritize a safe, respectful and inclusive work environment that values diversity of thought and perspective.”
But the company came under scrutiny this month when conservative podcast host Robby Starbuck denounced Tractor Supply’s diversity and climate policies. An employee recently had messaged him to complain that the company was supporting LGBTQ+ groups, Starbuck told The Washington Post.
Starbuck visited Tractor Supply weekly to buy provisions for his farm in Franklin, Tenn., he said, but wasn’t comfortable with the company putting money toward inclusion programs.
“Start buying what you can from other places until Tractor Supply makes REAL changes,” he wrote on X on June 6.
Other customers responded to say they would join the boycott, and the company’s share price fell by 5 percent in the past month, according to the Financial Times.
Starbuck and other conservative X users, including Libs of TikTok, publicly celebrated after Tractor Supply said it would roll back several of its policies.
“This is about getting back to an environment where businesses are just businesses again, and they’re not proxies for social values or political values,” Starbuck told The Post.
Others weren’t so happy.
John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association, an advocacy group for African American farmers, told The Post that Tractor Supply is “sending the wrong message to America.” In four decades as a farmer, Boyd said, he has seen White farmers — who made up about 95 percent of farmers in 2017 — spit in Black farmers’ faces and call them the n-word.
“We’re just going backwards,” Boyd said of Tractor Supply’s decision.
SquirrelWood Equine Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary in Montgomery, N.Y., said Tractor Supply would no longer receive the more than $65,000 it usually spends there each year.
“You have lost our business and every shred of respect we might have had,” the sanctuary wrote on X.
Eric Bloem, vice president of programs and corporate advocacy for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement to The Post that Tractor Supply “is turning its back on their own neighbors.” Tennessee state Sen. Charlane Oliver (D) wrote on X that the company was “choosing hate and bigotry.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Tractor Supply has brought “harm to their LGBTQ customers and employees.”
“Tractor Supply’s embarrassing capitulation to the petty whims of anti-LGBTQ extremists puts the company out of touch with the vast majority of Americans who support their LGBTQ friends, family, and neighbors,” Ellis said in a statement to The Post.
DEI programs became popular in many organizations during the racial-justice movement sparked by George Floyd’s murder in 2020. But backlash soon followed from critics who claimed the policies created new inequalities.
Frank Dobbin, a sociology professor at Harvard University who researches corporate diversity programs, said it’s rare for companies to publicly announce their reversal of diversity programs. Depending on how the move impacts Tractor Supply’s business, Dobbin said the company could be a “test case” that informs whether other organizations announce similar cuts.
“Is this going to cascade down to lots of other companies?” Dobbin asked. “Or is this going to be the lesson that other companies take, that you don’t want to reverse course on trying to promote equality?”
Fun fact: The firmament is also what flat Earthers call the dome-like wall that encapsulates the flat Earth disc to prevent people from leaving.
A vote not for Biden is a vote for Trump and the death of thousands of Americans AND Palestinians AND Ukrainians. No matter what option we choose, Palestinians will die. One option just has significantly less death than the other.
Don’t the case
Another 5 years and then he can run for president
Video link for anyone interested.
Better video with almost no editing
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-21/leeches-jumping-video/104007924
Actual paper and video source citation (locked behind many paywalls)
A jumping terrestrial leech from Madagascar
Mai Fahmy, Michael Tessler Biotropica,
DOI: 10.1111/btp.13340
That’d be great if there actually were functional public transportation or any alternative transportation in most of California and 99.9999% of America.
Bird also could’ve been sedated while being transported
It was. There’s a partially working Linux build available and it looks like they’re trying to port to windows too
The infamous Twitch streamer camera setup
Jackfruit! These taste pretty good when ripe but can get a little bit messy to clean up. It’s really sticky when fresh and soap does not clean it off. You have to scrub your hands and the machete with vegetable oil to dissolve the sticky goop and then wash them off with soap.
Found the TempleOS user
One of my local gas stations had that to where it was so loud you can hear them in the car. A few weeks after they installed them, someone came by with a hand drill and drilled out all of the speakers. Not sure what happened to that hero but we need more people like them.
I hope if/when they nerf it, they just increase the cool down time or even just add some kind of limited ammo like heatsinks or something and keep all other stats the same. I highly doubt they’re gonna leave it alone since it’s now become “meta” to a lot of players and it outshines many other anti armor options against bugs except maybe EATs
I’ve never had that happen in my 100+ dives between both bug and bot fronts with randoms every time. In fact, pretty much everyone else had their voice set to random and just focuses on completing the objective and spreading democracy
I remember a documentary touching on that subject but I think it was moreso related to the amount of sugar and processing the cocoa goes through before being sold on the market
Into the afterlife