I know some people are boycotting US businesses during the current administration, but the same mindset has ripple effects here in the EU. In other words: stay vigilant!
There’s 2 things in this world that I hate. Intolerance for other people and the Danes.
Why does Thorfinn speak in broken English while Sasappis doesn’t? Neither encountered it in their lifetimes, and both have been exposed to it for hundreds of years now.
God I love Austin Powers.
Took me a minute
As a Dane who’s also a big fan of Thorfinn, I am vexed. VEXED, I tell you!
(Also, amused that the viking and the hippie are dating, given my username 😁)
Don’t talk with your mouth full!
removes potato from mouth, starts speaking the failed attempt at Danish known as Norwegian
Lol… Kamelåså
Not cool, Voyager translator script. Not cool. 🤦😄
😂
The Dutch. The Danes have enough having to speak Danish, no need to pile on them!
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Everyone needs to remember regardless where they are based out of a multinational corporation is just that multinational. So they will do what they have to do to curry favor with a powerful government for corporate kick backs.
Plus regardless of how wrong it is the the people of the United States told the world what they want when the majority elected these clowns not only by the electrical college but also the popular vote. So companies are going to respond to what they perceive is what their markets want.
I hate it as much as the next human with even a little empathy but it’s how the world works right now. Just like with countries, companies don’t have morals they have interests. So there is no good or bad companies only whats in their interest at the moment.
So there is no good or bad companies only whats in their interest at the moment.
That’s absolutely not true. Just because a company doesn’t “have morals” doesn’t mean a company isn’t immoral. No different than a psychopath not having morals, but us as society being able to judge them for that. You, as a consumer, have a choice on companies you interact with (somewhat, of course). Companies generally seek profit, so yes, capitalism is at fault it the core. But there are companies like:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LifeStraw
vs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_(drinkware_company)
Which one is more ethical?
These companies could have broken ties:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_collaboration_with_Nazi_Germany
That being said there’s currently a pretty strong rise globally in support for nationalism / fascism / racism / anti-science / religious domination of government and media / genocide. So even companies that seem more local can immediately change their culture to adopt to a shift in power, belief, etc.
Just because interests align with the wellbeing of the public doesnt make a company moral. You back a few years ago and Tesla started by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning to push Electric cars and battery tech and thus would get us off fossil fuels. We all for the most part think of that as a good thing and look at them now.
The problem is companies by design eventually get big enough that the people in them don’t truly care of the mission of the company. Most people do what they need to do to keep their job and when you have enough people doing that in the micro where they dont see it as immoral, but it adds up at the maco to some really immoral stuff.
It could be currying favor with Trump. However I also think a lot of companies were only doing this inclusion stuff in the first place behavior it was fashionable or assumed to be a good thing. With that removed, they’re just dropping the pretense.
Another company that doesn’t need to, cow-towing to the cowardly cunt in the White House. Or is it the kitsch Gold House now?
Omg 😂😂😂 ive been calling it the gold leaf house recently
Profits before ethics.
Shame, I expected better of them.
LEGO: No guns
STAR WARS: These are blasters
LEGO: OK. Give us the money.
Lego’s had guns and other weapons since waaaay before they started making Star Wars sets.
Oriental Expedition had guns. Pistols and rifles.
The Pirate theme had guns.
Exo-Force was literally riddled with guns.
Indians Jones…
The “No Guns!” rule is more like a loose suggestion.
My understanding was that it was a “no modern weapons” thing. That is, pre-1900 weapons were “acceptable”, hence why the pirates and wild west sets could have guns, but the police sets do not. To my (absolutely non-expert) knowledge, Indiana Jones sets only had revolvers, a pre-1900 technology. As I recall, there was a bit of controversy when they released the Sopwith Camel (a WWI-era fighter plane, i.e. post-1900) set with machine guns on it.
The Star Wars sets have fantasy weapons, not real modern weapons. Why that or a revolver should be seen as meaningfully different from a modern gun is, evidently, left as an exercise for the consumer. In any case, clearly the stricture has been relaxed over the years.
They also release DC and Marvel sets with guns. Sure, the super villains have fantasy weapons, but the goons have pistols and uzis.
It’s a weird and arbitrary line to draw anyways, if they really do at the 1900s. Bullet go swoosh and person dead. Doesn’t matter if it’s a cowboy rifle.
It’s also weird they’re fine with swords, maces, warhammers, spears, crossbows, and pole-arms since they’re literal weapons made for murder, dismemberment, gutting, and otherwise turning a human into human’t.
It’s funny with Bionicle back in 2001 because you have this warrior of fire with a flaming sword that is described as being able to lay waste and cause devastation at an impressive scale, but nope. Oh no. That’s not a weapon, that’s a “Toa tool”.
Then 2006 came along and even Bionicles were given straight up guns.
I think they’ve reached the point of being a huge corporation where they no longer have any morals beyond whatever makes them money. They sell pride sets when acceptance is profitable, and now they’re cool with giving JK Rowling money to hurt trans people if it means they’ll see a few bucks from it.
Imo the title falsely implies that Lego not being a US company means they are completely independent and unaffected by US actions.
Lego presumably does substantial business in the US and thus is beholden to US jurisdiction and the whims of Trump to some degree. Them dropping diversity and inclusion from their reports just shows their priorities. However on that note Lego still being family owned lets us pin this decision more squarely on some particular individuals, rather than the usual vague mass of shareholders.
Damn. You’re right. I actually thought my title implied that connection, but I can see how it works the opposite way too. I’m not sure how to phrase it without editorialising too much / posting opinion as fact. I’m open to suggestions.
Most companies with specific dei reporting in my country started because of political pressure via us investors to begin with.
HR is a scam - if you’ve an issue go to your union rep instead, that’s why we have them. If you live in a country w/o them, get some.
The oligarchy transcends borders
That’s what they are doing. I am amazed that no one from outside has yet pointed finger and warned about Heritage Foundation’s attempt to influence Europe. They want to see the world burn, literally.
Heritage Foundation is a terrorist organisation and should be treated as such.
money is fungible
Not buying from companies that bow to MAGA racism.
Also, I’m still waiting for bricks made from recycled plastic rather than new oil.
I am not trying to invalidate your comment, but saying that is like trying to boycott goods and services from China.
I haven’t heard of China having DEI programs, so I doubt MAGA racism is part of US-China trade talks.
Really Denmark?
Well, their products were overpriced anyways, also still selling wizard legos…
The wizard lego is very disappointing, and goes completely against their other inclusive language. As for pricing, I’m not sure since quality is top tier. But I suppose the profits will tell us just how much room they have to lower their prices.
The wizard lego is very disappointing, and goes completely against their other inclusive language.
To be fair, they started making those sets long before anyone knew the author was a TERF.
I didn’t know that. However, they have known for quite some time now.
well their patent dropped so you can buy “lego” pieces from china. If you are not a rich collector just go and buy 10k pieces from china for 20 bucks. Your kids won’t mind.
Or 3d print them, it works too but it’s more expensive
Their patents dropped ages ago, I got fake lego 100% compatible with the real one in the nineties, since my parents were poor.
Welp, fuck Lego too I guess. I hope at least some of their fans vote with their wallet and choose new hobbies a little less supportive of fascism.
As if I could afford any to begin with.
That would be assuming most corporations care about idealogies.
LEGO would sell their toys in Nazi countries simply to make money. Like any other corp, that’s the one and only thing that matters.
Anyway, knock-off LEGO has become just as good as the real thing these days, but significantly cheaper to buy. Perhaps better, since knock-offs often have colours LEGO doesn’t.
Yes, I’m sure the Chinese companies that create those are much better when it comes to human rights and diversity.
I didn’t say that. When did I say that? XD
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Accenture is an Irish consultancy firm that did the same.
Is it actually an Irish company, or just one of those Irish companies in the same way Apple is an Irish company?
It’s a global conglomerate
You’re right: https://diversity.com/post/accenture-dei-rollback-2025
It’s a similar timeline too (~2025). I honestly think it’s very pathetic of them to stoop so low for the “Yankee dollar” (or any other trade relationship).
Fucking cowards.
lego is a really shitty company even if it weren’t for this. support different brands that are even way better and way cheaper
I’m actually pretty clueless about them, which is why this article surprised me so much. It sounds like they at least say the right things about diversity and fairness, but I have no idea what to think https://omnitalk.blog/2025/04/18/lego-quietly-scales-back-dei-language-in-latest-report-while-maintaining-gender-metrics/
I do want to learn though. Being an ethical consumer is one of the few things we can really do to contribute to society.
Even though I have reservations about US-style DEI initiatives (I’d much prefer France’s way of not recording ethnicity, race, religion etc), I do find Trump admin’s policies to be beyond absurd and stupid of just nuking everything.
The good news though is that fascists typically shoot themselves on the foot and end up destroying themselves because their decisions are based on emotions. There is quite literally neither rhyme nor reason. If one reads into Nazi and fascist policies and institutions, they don’t make any sense whatsoever. Nazi Germany was actually on the brink of self-made bankruptcy by excessive overspending, until Hitler declared war to delay the inevitable by plundering the resources of Europe. Eventually, American fascism will just end up eating itself.
The problem with France s approach (as I understand it) is that by not recording ethnicity data, employers have free rein to discriminate if the persons background becomes known to them during the hiring process. Discrimination is rife because of this and they lack sufficient data and regulations to tackle it.
Studies have been carried out which send crafted resumes of different ethnicities to employers to assess callback rates. https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/discrimination-hiring-and-anonymous-cvs-france-cv-anonymes
I hope you’re right about US fascism. But while the U.S. President is an impulsive man child, his puppeteers are a lot smarter and more committed. We also have greater wealth inequality compared to WWII giving these guys a bigger advantage this time.
It might be more difficult to dismantle US fascism because it is oligarchic technofascism, than old school fascism. However, if there is one thing that is proven, is that eventually people rise up. Time and time again, those who come to power become too corrupt to be palatable. This has been observed since Plato’s time.
I’m not certain having data on people’s ethnicity is helping at all with discrimination on hiring.
There is very strict laws in France against discrimination as well. The problem isn’t that there isn’t ethnic data, the problem is that it’s really hard to prove that a candidate was rejected because of their ethnicity.
I’d be happy to be proven wrong though.
it’s really hard to prove that a candidate was rejected because of their ethnicity
Same in Finland at least to some extent. Statistics and published tests show that you’re less likely to get even an interview if you have a foregin sounding name but of course the official reason is always something ‘acceptable’. And when hiring people the reason can be whatever, “not good fit for our team”, “other applicants had better suited skill set”, “not enough experience in X” and so on. All perfectly good reasons to pick someone else in theory and in practise it’s impossible to prove any racism on selection.
Obviously not everyone does this and any of those can be a real reason to pick someone else even without any racism (intended or not), but it’s still common enough to be statistically meaningful.
Exactly. All that the stats do in this case is show what everyone knows: There is a racism problem in hiring.
It doesn’t help prove anything in a court of law, and the multitude of otherwise valid excuses to hide racism make it almost impossible to prove that the true reason is racism.
One issue is, while there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, many won’t be able to reach it.
Other is that DEI also includes education material for HR, and in my country (Hungary), where it’s frowned upon by the state, often ableist and racist pieces of shits manage to get there. Someone acts a bit like an autistic person? They probably only got there where they are thanks to their mom sleeping with teachers and such, otherwise they likely have some severe intellectual disability and cant even count to ten. Someone has a darker skin? First they’re dumb, second they steal. And any counter to it is bad, because it’s a human right to have an opinion on something, even if it’s wrong, and even if said people act out on that wrong opinion. If they’re cishet white christian men with an able body that’s all. Everyone else have to follow those opinions, even if they’re wrong, because those men built “western civilization”.
They didn’t change. They just don’t pretend any more.
