The Leftwing Mob Comes for Leftwing San Francisco CEO

Years of promoting popular leftwing causes didn't save Peter Dering from the woke mob.

As a photographer who has purchased several items from Peak Design, I find this story instructive. Leftwing activists have decided that their list of enemies includes a leftwing CEO of a photography supply company in the most leftwing city of them all, San Francisco.

• Peak Design (PD) is a San Francisco company dedicated to several flavors of leftwing "justice," including the social and climate varieties.

• The person who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was wearing a PD backpack.

• Peter Dering, the CEO of PD, noticed that fact and contacted police.

• When that interaction became generally known, leftwing activists who celebrated the shooting were "triggered" into making "many serious threats" against Dering and his employees.

The threats are happening as other leftwing activists post the names and faces of health care executives on the streets of New York. Even worse, reports the Associated Press, "Hit lists with images of bullets are circulating online with warnings that industry leaders should be afraid."

The New York Police Department said "Thompson's killing was a 'symbolic takedown' and could inspire others to act violently toward business leaders," reported CNN.

As the threats against Peak Design employees prove, everyone should now expect reprisals even if they are vocal supporters of leftwing causes.

You can defend George Floyd. You can support Black Lives, Women, and Ukraine. You can publish stories like "Fishing While Black." You can retroactively calculate and "offset" your corporate carbon footprint from the moment your company was born.

Peak Design did all of those things, and even issued a statement explaining their interaction with police. It wasn't enough because it can never be enough.

It is impossible for anyone to be a trusted ally of leftwing activists, because: a) as Chairman Mao said, "there will be reversals and even repeated reversals in this struggle. ... the revolutionary road zigzags and does not run smoothly"; and b) the revolutionary activists will immediately threaten you with bodily harm if they perceive that you have deviated in any way from their zigzag path toward "social justice."

Today, even Peak Design employees should fear for their safety because the CEO zigged when he didn't know he should have zagged.

As CNN noted, "The threats could come from anywhere and anyone." Even from your own leftwing employees who have also been threatened.

Any CEO with a lick of common sense should immediately abandon all meaningless efforts to appease the political left. Doing so may heighten the risk of violence, but the activists have already made their violent intentions clear.

The revolutionary zag of 2024 is "the only good CEO is a dead CEO."