There are three concepts we need to put address:

One:  This is how the Encyclopedia Britannica defines Robber Baron:

Robber baron, pejorative term for one of the powerful 19th-century U.S. industrialists and financiers who made fortunes by monopolizing huge industries through the formation of trusts, engaging in unethical business practices, exploiting workers, and paying little heed to their customers or competition. Alternatively, those who credit the explosive growth of American capitalism during this period to the indefatigable pursuit of success and material wealth are likely to celebrate these entrepreneurial tycoons as “captains of industry.” Among the sectors in which they compiled their great wealth were the oil, steel, liquor, cotton, textile, and tobacco industries, railroads, and banks.

The concept of the Robber Baron in the American psyche is a man so greedy, so absolutely consumed by avarice, that he will do anything, regardless of how unethical or unscrupulous it might be, to make more money.

Two:  What we have seen in America in just the last couple of years is something referred to as Woke Capitalism.  We see this with Gillette trying to sell razors to men with a PSA about toxic masculinity.  We see this with the NFL letting players kneel during the anthem and criticize America.  We see this with the NBA pulling out of North Carolina over transgender bathroom policy.

It is the interjection of far Left-wing, social justice ideology into business.

Three: Moral licensing is a psychological phenomenon where people do something good then use that good to give themselves permission to do something bad.  It is paying indulgence to your own conscience.

It’s why a climate activist can raise awareness at a protest then spend a week on a private yacht and not feel bad about it.

Let’s add all of these together now.

What have we seen from Woke Capitalism recently but constant haranguing of Middle Americans about white privilege, toxic masculinity, how racist this country is because of Trump, and a cornucopia of other complaints straight out of Berkeley Gender Studies faculty lounge.

You cannot watch a sports game without it turning into an anti-American lecture from either the commentators or the athletes when they have a microphone jammed in their face.  Hollywood award ceremonies have been an orgy of Woke anti-Middle American sentiment for years.

CEOs, banks, and corporate America are trying to figure out how, and are being championed by the media for it, deny Americans their civil liberties at a faster and more autocratic pace than the Federal government.

Unfortunate, the axiom of “go woke, go broke” is very much alive an well.

So how is a modern-day robber baron supposed to be Woke and make unlimited shit-loads of money?

One word: China.

The ideological blind spot for the Left is the horrors of socialism.  When you mention the 100 million killed in the 20th century in the name of attempting socialist utopias, they tell you “that wasn’t real socialism.”  Or they come right out and say that some people deserved to die in pursuit of socialist equality.

China is a totalitarian socialist state.  Don’t tell me that it’s not.  Just like in the Soviet Union, there were rich people.  They are all well connected and are allowed to be rich because they tow the party line.  The average Chinese citizen outside of a handful of large urban areas mostly on the coasts live in poverty and unrelenting oppression.

The average Chinese citizen in these urban areas might have a slightly higher quality of life, but they still live under unrelenting oppression.  China’s social credit system is a dystopian nightmare that even George Orwell couldn’t imagine.

China also has the largest consumer market of any nation on earth, with over one billion potential customers.  All you have to do is suck up to the Chinese government.

This is the other half of Woke Capitalism.

If you haven’t heard about it yet, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey made a comment about supporting the Hong Kong protesters.  Unfortunately for Morey, there are more basketball fans in China than there are Americans so the NBA had to stomp on his neck and bend over backward to apologize to China and kowtow to the Chinese government.

NBA coaches and players are free to attack Trump all day long for whatever TDS grievance of the day they feel like, but they are mum on China.

They will yell “Trump is committing genocide on the border” but will kiss the ass of a government that slaughtered 45 million people within the lifetime of half the NBA owners.

This is going so far now that the NBA is throwing fans out of US games for displaying pro-Hong Kong signs.  Americans in America are being censored to protect the feelings of the Chinese government so the NBA can get revenue from China.

The NBA is not the only one.

Blizzard Entertainment, the videogame publisher, just banned a gaming champion for life and fined him his prize money for pro-Hong Kong sentiments during his award speech.  They did this because the gamer market in China is larger than the total population of the US and the Chinese government invests in video game companies.

Hollywood does this too, in spades.

It’s hard to think of a more American movie from the 80’s than Top Gun, where an American Naval Aviator gives a finger during an inverted dive to a Soviet fighter pilot.

Now, Hollywood had to censor one of the patches on Maverick’s jacket to appease the Chinese.

There’s a new Top Gun movie coming out. And Maverick is wearing the same leather jacket – only this time it’s Communist Party of China-approved, so the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches are gone (screenshot on right is from the new trailer)… pic.twitter.com/gUxFNFNUKX

— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) July 19, 2019

Why, because there are more people who will see Top Gun 2 in China than there are total Americans.

Woke capitalism is made up of ideological radical Leftists who are happy to take all the money from a communist dictatorship like China and feel good about it because they are lecturing Middle America about how evil and privileged they are.