Smoking is for boomers and hipsters. Vapes are for strippers and neck-beards. Yet there’s perhaps nothing your red-blooded, young conservative male loves more than Zyn brand nicotine pouches.
Zyn is a staple at fraternity parties and golf weekends. As the workplace feminizes, it might be the only thing keeping the productive classes, well — productive. And of course, it’s a favorite of the Daily Caller’s very own Mr. Right. But the conservative luminary formerly known as Tucker Carl-Zyn is, as always, on the cutting edge of the nicotine wars. As Zyn goes woke, Tucker is moving on — and so should you.
When I say “going woke,” boy do I mean it. Zyn parent company Phillip Morris isn’t just doing the half-hearted HR trainings we’ve all sat through in recent years. They’re going full-on balls to the wall on DEI.
Phillip Morris recently came under scrutiny from advocacy group Consumers’ Research, which issued a “Woke Alert” for the company. The tobacco giant is “fully woke, prioritizing DEI and gender ideology initiatives above all else,” reads the report, which documents a veritable buffet of lefty nonsense.
Phillip Morris’ Chief Diversity Officer Mimi Kurniawan stated that her aim was “establishing DEI at the heart of our organization.”
“We are currently in the middle of this process, rolling out initiatives to help establish DEI across our organization—rather than just in pockets—so that it can inform every aspect of our activities, from the marketplace, to the communities in which we operate, and outwards to society at large,” she continued.
They’re not shy about trotting “DEI Ambassadors” out onto social media to brag about it, either.
This means pursuing aggressive DEI targets to install women as 40% of the company’s management. The company even implemented what Consumers’ Research called a “potentially illegal” gender-based quota for senior management.
For Pride Month, Phillip Morris even partnered with the LGBT activist group Stonewall, which has advocated mainlining the Gay Agenda into primary school curriculum.
“Instead of focusing on consumers, Zyn manufacturer Philip Morris has instead betrayed its own customer base prioritizing woke politics and putting policies like DEI at the heart of the organization,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director of Will Hild told the DailyMail in October.
‘These woke policies have made brands like Zyn less focused on quality products and more on political agendas. Consumers deserve companies who are focused on serving customers and not woke politicians,” he continued.
Moves like this are enough to shake even the staunchest libertarian’s faith in the free market. Consumers spoke with their wallets after brands like Target and Bud Light foolishly ventured into the culture wars. Plus, with many major companies tightening their belts recently, DEI has found itself on the chopping block. It’s no longer good business to have a workforce preach about faddish terms like “structures of oppression” and “abolishing whiteness.” Yet Phillip Morris seems to be ignoring every rational market signal to pursue its own dastardly agenda.
Are they malevolent or just stupid?
I try to give the benefit of the doubt towards the latter. But clearly, the invisible hand is not doing what it’s supposed to here. There’s just no cynical political or financial reason for the company to lean into DEI a full four years after peak wokeness. They must really believe in it.
So if you love Vitamin N as much as I do, I’m sorry to say it’s time to move on. There are plenty of nicotine pouch brands out there; find one that doesn’t hate you.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
