Today we have two stories suggesting that the vaunted and infallible free markets are getting pretty tired of propping up conspiracy-addicted Republican election hoaxers, and if it took two and a half years to get to that point—well, nobody ever pretended the free market was quick on its feet.
Our first story is an update on MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the most notorious pro-Donald Trump election conspiracy theorists in the country and a significant funder of election hoaxes for the past few years. He's going to have a lot less money for funding those efforts, because MyPillow is now shuttering factory space and auctioning off more than 850 lots of "surplus equipment" ranging from forklifts to industrial machinery.
The reason? MyPillow has been hemorrhaging major retailers, reports Minnesota's Star Tribune, with companies from Walmart to the now-bankrupt Bed, Bath & Beyond listed as companies steering clear of Lindell's increasingly unhinged claims about Trump's election loss. When you've lost a company as infamously indifferent to morality as Walmart, you've accomplished something, but that’s not even half of Lindell's troubles. He's still facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, one of the companies Lindell claims rigged the election to make Trump lose.
Dominion is going to have to speed the case along if it wants to see a dime from Lindell, though, because at this point his MyPillow brand is increasingly relegated to direct sales, competing with the overpriced gold coins and "tactical" gun attachments advertised on conservative conspiracy sites.
RELATED STORY: Mike Lindell forced to sell off MyPillow assets as his Big Lie keeps shrinking
The second story that illustrates the free market deciding that election conspiracies are no fun comes to us via The Daily Beast, which notes that the Murdoch family's Fox News appears to have cut the fascism-boosting, supposed "student" organization Turning Point USA well and truly loose. That is a big change from previous years, when Fox News hosts promoted the living daylights out of the Charlie Kirk-led conspiracy group.
Ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson will still be at Kirk's fascist shindig this weekend. (Tucker's also hosting one-on-one discussions with a half dozen not-Trump Republican presidential candidates in Iowa on Friday, which should give you some idea of his desperation when it comes to making sure he keeps his face in front of the television cameras.) Fox News itself, however, won't be there.
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The most likely explanation for Fox Corp. leaders’ decision to distance themselves from Charlie Kirk and his associates is the obvious one. Fox News has just come out of the defamation lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems filed against it, and the network was forced to settle the case by paying Dominion $787.5 million—a staggering sum that even the most dominant conservative media outlet in the country can't easily shake off. Meanwhile, Turning Point USA has been another of the heaviest promoters of pro-Trump, anti-democracy election conspiracy theories.
For Fox, that means broadcasting TPUSA events live or even boosting them to their viewers comes with the very real risk that one (or 20) of the weekend's speakers would once again boost some of the same election hoaxes that just cost Fox Corp. over three quarters of a billion dollars, which could very well lead to Dominion coming back for more damages. The Murdoch family has been indifferent to network hosts boosting white nationalist conspiracy theories, anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, pro-Russia conspiracy theories, and just about any other crank disinformation conservatives have to offer, but boosting election hoaxes stands a very good chance of costing them another few hundred million dollars.
It's not hard to see why the Murdochs would cut Kirk loose. The free market has spoken, and if you cost the free market three quarters of a billion bucks then the free market is going to come break your damn kneecaps.
You will note, dear reader, that none of this means corporate America is abandoning the elected lawmakers who have continued to promote provably false hoaxes intended to discredit our elections. Lobbyists continue to throw money at anti-democratic conspiracy theorists who are in important enough government positions to tweak laws or do a few regulatory favors.
There's nothing about this, then, that suggests anyone in corporate America is growing an actual spine when it comes to standing up for democracy, elections, or basic truth. Lindell and Kirk are only losing their corporate allies because Lindell and Kirk now pose financial risks too great for most companies to stomach.
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