Aaron Clarey suggests brainwashed GenXers and their lack of new ideas are to blame for the seemingly inexplicable imbibing of leftism among a new generation of corporate leaders:

… the strategy here is something very simple and one politicians have been using for years – divide and conquer.  Of course corporations and their newest generation of “leaders” don’t really want to “conquer” anything.  They just want to sell their wares.  But reliably and predictably, despite all claiming to be “independent minded,” the brainwashing in school and college worked.  Today’s business leaders really do think taking political positions on race, sex, privilege, the environment, etc., is a genuine and effective business strategy.  They think bragging about how they hire “minorities” but not “the best” is a long term managerial strategy.  They think donating 5% of their pre-tax profit (because a corporate tax rate of 40% just wasn’t enough) will win people over.

Alas, this is the newest generation of business leaders.  People who use “fads,” “political correctness” and “leftism” to sell their products.  And if you thought the Baby Boomers were bad business managers, just wait for these over-educated, political-correct-crusaderist Gen X’ers to fully be at the helm.

Ed Driscoll broadens that view (without the generational dynamic) suggesting something more like a cultural feedback loop.  I’d argue it’s more an all-of-the-above phenomenon.  Corporate executives and boards who take truly inexplicable left-wing stands are like weaker predators imitating their alphas without knowing why.

The actual strategy behind it all derives from the reality that it’s a better bet to be on the side of an elite that’s inexorably building an anti-democratic machine with the purpose of bringing all of society under government and limiting the ability to change government itself than on the side of a disorganized population that’s too distracted and apathetic to put an end to the usurpation.  The progressive movement filters this central objective through the various lenses of “green” fads, identity politics, and anti-traditionalism to distract, divide, and disrupt the public, and naturally corporate types aren’t immune.

The less-savvy among them pick up the virtue signaling (that is, the practice of taking supposedly virtuous stands in order to be seen taking them) without understanding the underlying motivation.  They sense that leftism is to their benefit, but they haven’t quite figured out why, in the crass terms of cronyism.

Those who move on to bigger and better things in the corporate world will figure it out soon enough, though.  And those who don’t, or who resist it on principle, will be held back by their wasteful progressivism and unable to compete.