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“The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable,” tweeted Elon Musk on Tuesday night after Netflix shares fell more than 20% — on Wednesday they dropped 36%. As it is becoming usual these days, Musk is right: one only needs to watch the trailer for Netflix’s He’s Expecting to confirm the Tesla founder’s assessment that watching Netflix has become an extremely cringe-worthy experience.
“When a successful ad executive who’s got it all figured out becomes pregnant, he’s forced to confront social inequities he’d never considered before.” That’s the description of the series that Netflix will premiere this Thursday. The company not only takes its woke level to the extreme but also the drama, it’s not enough for them to present the story of a pregnant Asian, they have to add that he “confronts social inequalities.”
The drop in the stock, which lost a third of its value, came after the company reported that it ended the first quarter of the year with 200,000 fewer subscribers than in the previous quarter and that it expects to lose two million subscribers in the current quarter. The loss of subscribers has several causes including the cancellation of its service in Russia and the rise of platforms offering similar services, but it is clear that mainly Netflix is failing to engage new audiences with the content it currently offers.
It is clear that the company is betting on a political and cultural agenda. In recent years, it has offered on its platform movies like Cuties, where pre-teen girls twerked and “explored” their sexuality. Most viewers simply want to sit down and watch a movie or a series quietly without politics or any agenda attached to it. Characters don’t have to be part of four minority groups and always be fighting against a supposedly oppressive system. The Netflix board should stop this already if they truly see the company as a business, but if this is a tool to promote progressivism, then let them go ahead with that junk content while watching their stock plummet.
This article originally appeared in El American’s newsletter on April 21, 2022. Subscribe for free here!
Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editor-in-chief of El American. Economist. Podcaster. Political and economic analysis of America. Colombian exile in the United States // Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editora en jefe de El American. Economista. Podcaster. Análisis político y económico de América. Colombiana exiliada en EE. UU.