Why Corporate America surrendered the culture war 

Like the sound of birdsong over the trenches after the machine guns have ceased roaring, the FT reports bankers are once again using the words ‘pussy’ and ‘retard’ in the course of their work with no fear of reprisal. The culture war is over. Hurrah. 

How funny though for those of us who over the last decade have observed closely as corporate CEOs throughout the West have professed to be driven by so-called ‘purpose’ – rooted always in the ideals of social justice and far exceeding the generation of mere profit – to now see these same CEOs junking said purpose without a backward glance. It’s so wonderfully shameless. 

Take Meta, for example, whose products, which include Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, are used daily by about a third of humanity and whose purpose statement is not ‘to make billions of dollars by providing excellent digital services’ but rather ‘to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together’.