The Vocal Minority Controls The Perception, The Silent Majority Controls The Result: Burack
In 1969, then-President Richard Nixon popularized the term "silent majority" during a television address asking for support for the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam: "And so tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support."
The "silent majority" refers to a faction of Americans large enough to elect a candidate president but still hesitant enough about expressing their opinions that they often go unnoticed. No one understood the power of the group more than Nixon. The silent majority elected him president in 1968.
The silent majority is the antonym of the "vocal minority." The minority consists of influencers, celebrities, and journalists. This group, small in number, paradoxically possesses a metaphorical megaphone large enough to deceive political, corporate, and community leaders into believing that its voice represents society at large.
But, by definition, a minority does not represent society. Thus when challenged, the minority is as vulnerable as it is vocal.
The same silent majority that elected Nixon president and Donald Trump in 2016 has lately begun to wrest control of American culture away from said minority.
In April, the curious case of Bud Light jumpstarted a movement. A female executive summoned trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a marketing campaign to honor his "365 Days of Girlhood." Alissa Heinersch explained that she aspired to update the "fratty," and without a hint of irony, "out-of-touch" branding which she thought had come to define the beer brand. Heinersch hoped to capitalize on heightened social pressure that recently compelled organizations to “honor” transgender activists for their so-called bravery.
Perhaps Bud Light did impress the 0.5 percent of U.S. adults who call themselves transgenders, as well as the bulk of social media influencers who purport to sympathize with the ever-expanding LGBTQIA+ community. Yet whatever circles the campaign did appease was vastly and swiftly outnumbered by actual beer drinkers who once purchased the Bud Light product.
Beer buyers responded to Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney by buying other brands of beer, costing the company $27 billion in market value and its standing as the top beer company in the world for the first time in 22 years.
Some four months later, the boycott against the brand continues. The sudden collapse of the once-iconic brand compelled social media users and newsrooms to coin the neologism "Bud Light-ed," describing the consequences of corporations espousing political values that run afoul of their customer base.
In June, two months after the Bud Light boycott began, shoppers Bud Light-ed Target in the middle of Pride month. The retailer targeted children with the introduction of "tuck-friendly" swimwear designed to allow little boys to pretend to be little girls by tucking in their penises. As a result, Target’s market cap tumbled by $15 billion.
The following month, Disney recorded $900 million in losses from its last eight films, several of which exposed children to same-sex kissing, non-binary persons, and gender ideology. The reputation of Disney, too, declined, down to the fifth most polarizing brand in 2023.
According to Axios, “In voicing opposition to DeSantis’ so-called 'Don’t Say Gay' bill last year, Disney gained favor with Democrats but took such a large reputation hit with Republicans that its overall reputation score was severely impacted.”
Bud Light, Disney, and Target are behemoths -- behemoths that rebellious, middle-class patrons managed to devalue quickly and perhaps permanently.
A similar phenomenon arose in the music industry after the release of Jason Aldean's track “Try That in Small Town" in May.
Outrage from social media mobs and journalists ensued. The New York Times even warned that the following lyrics called for "racist vigilantism."
“Try that in a small town/ See how far ya make it down the road/ Around here, we take care of our own," sings Aldean. “Got a gun that my granddad gave me/ They say one day they’re gonna round up/ Well that s--- might fly in the city/ Good luck.
Despite accusations about racist dog whistles, “Try That in Small Town” remains the No. 1 song on iTunes weeks later. Protestors and newsrooms filled with faux outrage proved no match for country music fans who support Aldean and his message.
And some of the same handlers who needed smelling salts after “Try That in a Small Town” turned around and dismissed the portrayal of human trafficking in the film Sound of Freedom. They called the film conspiratorial and dangerous. A headline in the Guardian even suggested the movie was extremist-promulgated propaganda: "Sound of Freedom: the QAnon-adjacent thriller seducing America."
The film has since grossed $163 million domestically, more than Transformers: Beasts, Creed III, and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Film critics and pedophiles on X trying to derail the film failed to keep pace with curious and concerned moviegoers.
The Bud Light-ed phenomena reaffirm that the common man always had -- and continues to have -- the ability to punish those who disregard them, yet until of late, had often neglected to exercise the ability.
In years past, elitist corporate executives scoffed at their consumers’ interests in favor of public relations, all the while expecting consumers to continue financing their second homes in Martha's Vineyard.
And, for the most part, their clientele did. The working class as a whole has long discounted the political and social affiliations of the corporations and celebrities they support, allowing brands to abandon the interests of customers, to act as if they do not exist.
But the case of Bud Light marked a break with the past. Perhaps it took the current fracture in American society to finally cause the uprising of the silent majority we’re seeing.
Previously, consumers ignored and even accepted various left-wing, corporate-backed political messages, such as racial equity, legalized marijuana, and same-sex “marriage.” In fact, Barbie is more popular in red states than in blue states, despite a feminist plotline that aligns more closely with the latter than the former.
However, pretending men are women, downplaying child sex trafficking, and excusing racially motivated violence is where it appears the working class draws the line, where the hand is overplayed. And where the actions of the consumer defeat the message of their brand.
No institution or individual, as powerful as they appear, can sustain success without the support of the masses. It's now the consumers demanding the brand get in line or fall behind.
And some brands already have. This year, Netflix underwent a noticeable programming shift to bandage the bleeding of its subscription base by removing programming about “men” birthing babies and “anti-racist” content in favor of controversial comedians like Dave Chappelle. As a result, the platform experienced a subscription increase of 7.6 million.
Ultimately, the silent majority might never assume control of the message. Surveys find that more Americans than not disapprove of transgenderism, yet few detractors have the courage to speak their opposition out loud.
But the majority doesn't need to control the message. It never needed to. Instead, it can disregard the message in favor of controlling the outcome.
The common man didn’t try to lecture the Bud Light boardroom about the consequential lie that is gender ideology. Rather, he just left Bud Light on the shelf and opened his wallet for one of its competitors.
Those below empower those above, not through words but through actions. Actions can be exerted silently. And even anonymously, by way of votes and transactions.
Thereby, those in the political ruling class are similarly vulnerable to being the next recipient of the Bud Light experience. Perhaps they will be. Hopefully, they are.
The silent majority has long been the greatest singular threat to the elites' uniparty ambitions.
At times over the years, you and thousands like you have felt helpless, perhaps even powerless. Corporate executives and ruling elites have done their best to make that perception your reality.
But that was never the reality. They sold you a lie. It was you who first elevated Bud Light, Disney, and Target to the mountaintop, and you who just knocked them right back off of it.
Our ruling class had hoped to forget what Richard Nixon understood: the truth is found not in the message but in the reality.
The minority controls perception. The majority controls results.