Patagonia is Accelerating the End of Democracy

from the New York Times

Note: a followup to this story has been published here.

You’ve all heard it.

• Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is “giving away” his company to a pair of trusts that will direct all the company’s future profits to climate change.
• Chouinard is characterizing himself as the “reluctant billionaire” supposedly turning capitalism on its head by redefining corporate responsibility
• Patagonia has (hilariously) changed its Twitter bio to “Earth is now our only shareholder.”

As a guy more familiar than I’d like to be with the way wealthy people — especially as they approach the end of the their lives — protect their private fortunes as they prepare to transfer them to their heirs… to see this action on the part of Chouinard lauded as a game-changer by critical minds that arguably ought to know better is baffling to me.

Here’s the reality of what’s going on here:

First, there’s nothing new about what Chouinard is doing. Barre Seid did the exact same thing with Tripp Lite, wrapping it into a 501(c)(4) that helped fund the conservative takeover of the Federal Judiciary that recently removed a big chunk of women’s reproductive rights.