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submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

In an email exchange with a conservative think tank, tucked into an SEC filing, the electronics retailer offered to screen its employee groups’ donations to LGBTQ causes.

Best Buy offered to screen donations from its employee resource groups going to LGBTQ causes following pressure from a conservative think tank that holds shares in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public this week.

The SEC filing contains a monthslong email exchange between the National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, free-market conservative think tank,” and Best Buy. The dialogue, which hasn’t been previously reported, shows how the center said it would make “a splash” unless the consumer electronics giant moved in favor of its demands. 

In some of the last correspondence in the filing, Best Buy noted that it allows its employee resource groups “some discretion to directly support organizations of their choosing” but added that “any such contributions would be screened to ensure they do not advocate or support the causes or agendas you have identified as concerning.” One of the causes the NCPPR cited was transgender care for minors, which the group falsely described as an attempt to “mutilate the reproductive organs of children.”

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[-] Witchfire@lemmy.world 113 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

"non partisan" and "free market conservative" are incompatible with each other

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 45 points 8 months ago

"We believe in an unregulated free market and we are against LGBT people and equality and we're all going to vote for Trump, but we aren't Republicans!"

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

"Our side simply wants to give a voice to simple longheld real American values, your side is pushing an evil agenda!"

[-] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago

They want the free market but that's about the only freedom they care about. The freedom to allow exorbitant amounts of money to buy whatever they want. Laws and policies, people, rights to resources we all rely on to survive, the ability to bypass other freedoms...Everything on the table for a price.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 40 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

As is "free market conservative" and "think tank".

[-] Witchfire@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago

I'm starting to see a pattern here

[-] d00phy@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

As is “free market” and “conservative.”

[-] HonkTonkWoman@lemm.ee 11 points 8 months ago

“Conservative” and “Think”….

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

There's at least some tension between "free" and "markets" imo

[-] mercano@lemmy.world 83 points 8 months ago

This feels like a quick way to get branded as a workplace hostile to LGBTQ employees.

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 64 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I am upset that I can't boycott a company that I haven't done business with in well over a decade.

Edit: never mind they have a live chat where I can let them know

[-] bitchkat@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

They do have a free electronics recycling program. That came in handy when a member of my household was going through mental health issues.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 44 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Just like in the 90's with Focus on the Family and bullshit like that, the conservatives relied on whipping up the rage in a small number of their constituents. Just enough constituents to write letters to people and make them uncomfortable. Just like back then, these fucking pussies in positions of power are capitulating to small groups of people because they're scared shitless of how violent these unhinged freaks are.

They were never the Moral Majority, they were always the Loud Violent Unethical Grasping Only For Power Minority.

[-] BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 39 points 8 months ago

One of the causes the NCPPR cited was transgender care for minors, which the group falsely described as an attempt to “mutilate the reproductive organs of children.”

Why do these right wing freaks have such a fixation on children's genitals? Nobody is performing bottom surgery on kids. Plenty of trans adults don't even go for bottom surgery, and never will.

[-] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 8 months ago

Because they argue in bad faith, always. They don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves, and even then they vote against their own self interest.

Also, Dude, freaks is not the preferred nomenclature; Fascists, please. That was very un-dude-like.

[-] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 4 points 8 months ago

The answer is implied in the question.

[-] FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago

It's clear Best Buy is dying anyway. There's not many of them around and it's usually a ghost town when I go in one twice a year.

[-] CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

Best Buy is great when you need something right now. Like when a hard drive in your RAID dies and you need a hard drive right fucking now.

Buy yeah. I've only gone maybe once in the last five years.

[-] Gingernate@programming.dev 11 points 8 months ago

They never have anything in stock. I've honestly never had luck with things like that

[-] TrainsAreCool@lemmy.one 7 points 8 months ago

Lol last time I went to best buy for that they were out of stock despite their website saying otherwise.

I think the only thing I've bought from them in the last decade were some external hard drives, which I shucked and threw in my NAS

[-] Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz 7 points 8 months ago

Had the same thing happen with a keyboard. My work one stopped working, was going to buy the basic wireless one on the website. “We are out, but we do have these $200+ dollar gaming RGB keyboards”

Yeah, can’t expense that. Thanks.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

I don't know, man. I recently had a drive die on me and I was able to order it online from my local Walmart, drive over there and park my car, text them and have them bring it out to the car for me. I didn't have to deal with Best Buy or any obnoxious salespeople and I'm guessing I paid a similar premium for not shopping around online instead.

[-] bitchkat@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Fortunately we have a Microcenter to solve the "shit I can't wait for". And this is in Best Buy's back yard.

[-] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Unfortunately, Microcenter has yet to enter the Pacific Northwest, so I can't go to one. The nearest one is in southern California, fourteen hours away.

[-] ultranaut@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Are you sure? I remember reading about one near Seattle shutting down around 10 years ago.

[-] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I'm sure. I even checked their site before I posted.

[-] ultranaut@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago
[-] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

The last of those shut down about three days before I decided to give them a call and ask what their GPU inventory looked like. I was really disappointed.

[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 19 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Welp, glad my plans to shop there were for tomorrow so plenty of time not to go there at all.

[-] GeekyOnion@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago

I kinda wish I had cause to shop there so I could very vocally share how this is losing them customers, but I haven’t needed to set foot in one of their stores for years now.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

They basically exist at this point to prey on people who aren't technologically savvy enough to realize they're being screwed over.

[-] finickydesert@lemmy.ml 11 points 8 months ago

Best buy became worst buy

[-] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

Glad I wasn't going to Best Buy anymore anyways.

this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
281 points (98.0% liked)

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