A Capital Sin In The Church of the Perpetually Woke

In a sane world – which we haven’t seen in well over a decade – this letter would not even be marginally controversial: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke Speaks Out Against Woke Capitalism.

Business Insider reports that the CEO of the e-commerce platform Shopify, Tobi Lütke, recently sent a letter to the entire staff reasserting the company’s commitment to competitive enterprise and rejecting calls for it to embrace social activism. In an age when woke politics are increasingly infecting corporate America, he wanted to “remind everyone that we are a business,” and, “more importantly, a hugely ambitious one.”

“We are trying to create a world class product that gives superpowers to the merchants that we are obsessed over,” Lütke wrote. “Everything Shopify does is to accomplish this, and everyone at Shopify should be able to describe how their job, through a series of direct or indirect steps, furthers this mission.”

Unlike many of today’s CEOs, Lütke seems cognizant of the basic morality behind old-fashioned, profit-focused business – actual free-market capitalism – operating within bounds.

“Shopify, like any other for-profit capitalism company, is not a family,” he continued. “The very idea is preposterous. You are born into a family. You never choose it, and they can’t un-family you. The dangers of ‘family thinking’ are that it becomes incredibly hard to let poor performers go. Shopify is a team, not a family.”

“We cannot solve every societal problem here,” Lütke warns. “Shopify’s worldview is well documented—we believe in liberal values and equality of opportunity. Sometimes we see opportunities to help nudge these causes forward. We do this because this directly helps our business and our merchants and not because of some moralistic overreach.”

It reminds me of something our General Counsel used to say during negotiations when he sensed somebody on our team was willing to concede too much just to make an acquisition. After dutifully reminding us that we couldn’t do anything illegal or unethical he would always add “but remember, we’re a business not a church” by which he meant we didn’t operate as a charity so there’s no need to give money away.

Unfortunately when your religion is progressive liberalism, your higher power is Government and the basic tenet of your faith is wokeness, then your business is a church. Or perhaps more accurately, your church is your business. And in the Commie Church of Perpetual Wokeness capitalism is not just a sin, it’s the capital sin.