Business executive Jennifer Sey spent more than 30 years as a “left of left of center Democrat,” but dropped that label as she said the party’s positions grew increasingly radical.

“So many people feel alienated by the aggressively left-wing stances that businesses are taking,” Sey said. “They’re disrespectful, some of these brands that are touting aggressively ‘progressive’ positions.”

Sey put air quotes around “progressive,” because she doesn’t believe it’s progressive for the International Olympic Committee to let a boxer with XY chromosomes “beat a woman up on the world stage,” to name just one recent example.

That attitude spurred the former Levi’s marketing chief — who says she was forced out after her outspoken stance against school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic — to launch the pro-female apparel company XX-XY Athletics this year.

EXPERTS BREAK DOWN WHY AMERICANS ARE GETTING TIRED OF ‘WOKE’ CAPITALISM

It’s one of the latest additions to a growing “parallel economy” catering to conservatives and other customers turned off by hyper-politicization among mainstream brands.

Amid conflicting research on the popularity of polarized shopping — some surveys show an increase in desire for values-driven brands, while others suggest Americans are burned out on companies taking controversial stands — consumers have more options than ever, with anti-woke coffee, clothing, cell phone service providers and social media platforms popping up left and right.

“Marketers aren’t stupid. When they see an opportunity, they seize it,” longtime brand consultant Will Burns told Fox News Digital.

How the economy turned ‘away from meritocracy’ and toward polarization

The advertising world has long skewed liberal, according to Burns, who has been in the industry for more than 30 years. He described an echo chamber in which everyone convinces themselves that “the world believes what they believe.”

“But it’s never been with the vitriol that we see today,” he said.

The CEO of online marketplace PublicSquare described a two-decade turn “away from meritocracy and excellence.”

“[Companies] started focusing on things like the climate or certain social initiatives,” Michael Seifert said. “The economy took a turn away from meritocracy and excellence and innovation toward these sort of socially-engineered, politicized initiatives out of corporate boardrooms.”

Burns noticed the shift more recently. After the 2016 presidential election, he penned an op-ed in Forbes wondering whether liberal ad agencies could effectively sell to Trump supporters.

EX-LIBERAL ACTIVIST WHO WENT VIRAL FOR PRO-TRUMP POST SAYS ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT SOLIDIFIED SUPPORT

The political polarization started innocuously, he said, but grew. Airbnb committed to treating people fairly, regardless of race, gender or religion in a 2017 Super Bowl ad aired shortly after then-President Trump’s temporary travel ban. Starbucks vowed to hire 10,000 refugees, potentially alienating swaths of unemployed American citizens, he said.

Target allowed transgender customers and employees to use the bathroom of their choice. Nike made Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers the face of its “Just Do It” campaign after he made waves kneeling during the national anthem. 

Brands that have used polarizing political messages have paid a price, especially within the last few years.

Anheuser-Busch shed about $5 billion in value in the weeks after Bud Light partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. Target’s market cap fell billions amid a backlash to its Pride displays featuring “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits.

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Burns didn’t predict that a swell of conservative or anti-woke alternatives would eventually enter the marketplace, but it didn’t surprise him either.

Instead of Tinder or Bumble, there’s The Right Stuff for conservatives looking for love. If Nike just doesn’t do it for you anymore, there’s a new sneaker brand from NBA star Jonathan Isaac, who made headlines in 2020 for standing during the national anthem while teammates knelt.

“Whenever there’s alienation, there’s market opportunity because these people are now feeling negative towards a category or a brand,” Burns said. “Their bet is that more people don’t think that way than do, and think they can build a business on that.”

It’s hard to say whether that bet will pay off.

America is ‘ready for a new economic system,’ but is it fair to call it ‘parallel’?

While Seifert points to initiatives like ESG investing and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as early signs of the turn toward “stakeholder capitalism” over catering to customers, the coronavirus pandemic — and the outsized impact of the government’s response on small businesses — tipped him over the edge.

He launched PublicSquare in early 2021. Three years later, the online marketplace (similar to Amazon or Etsy) has more than 84,000 merchants selling everything from coffee to cleaning products, and firearms to furniture.

They may be part of the “parallel economy,” but Seifert said most of those businesses are apolitical.

“They certainly agree with our core values,” he said, referencing PublicSquare’s pro-life, pro-America, pro-Constitution and pro-small business tenets. “But they also don’t use their political views at all in their marketing of their own services … they’re looking for the quality of their product to speak to everything they want a customer to recognize in their business.”

That diversity of businesses sparked a surprising diversity in their customer base. While a slight majority of PublicSquare shoppers polled over the last six months were registered Republicans, 26% were registered Democrats, Seifert said. A further 22% were independent or not affiliated with a party.

“It’s easy to try to tout us as simply a conservative marketplace,” he said. “The data paints a very different story, which is that America broadly is ready for a new economic system.”

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Sey and Burns aren’t keen on the term “parallel economy,” feeling it unfairly dismisses legitimate businesses.

“Calling it parallel … means it’s not our reality, it’s some other reality that isn’t important,” Burns said. But “these are real market opportunities that are happening right now with real people who are really looking for alternatives to what they see as a real problem in society today.”

Sey, whose company enlists brand ambassadors like former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, “won’t accept being put in that corner.”

“We are part of the regular economy. We are going to be a regular brand that competes with the big boys,” she said. “I do think there is a trend of pushing back on the excesses of woke capitalism, and I would embrace that.”

Seifert does like the term, but believes it will eventually become “outdated.”

“If we win,” he said, “the parallel economy will become the mainstream, default economy, which will show us that our mission was successful.”

What do shoppers actually want?

It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly consumers want — polls and surveys vary dramatically.

Harris Poll research in 2022 found a whopping 82% of shoppers want brands’ values to match their own.

The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer showed 60% of consumers globally choose or avoid brands based on their politics. That’s up slightly from 58% in June 2023.

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But Gallup polling showed a 7% drop in U.S. adults wanting businesses to take a public stance on current events from 2022 to 2023. Republicans were the least likely to support businesses taking a public position (17%) and Democrats had the highest support (62%).

Burns is firmly in the camp that thinks brands should avoid getting involved in controversial social issues.

“I don’t know why they even bother, because all it does is alienate some percentage of the marketplace,” he said. “And they’re not in business to evolve our societal thinking.”

And although he acknowledges that the proliferation of polarization on the left created a chance for conservatives to cash in, he said both sides need to be careful.

“If you target conservative markets, say goodbye to liberal ones forever,” he said. “And same thing if you’re going to be 100% woke, say goodbye to conservatives. Especially as these conservative alternatives rise up and start to gain strength.”

Seifert and Sey both said they keep their political messaging narrow.

“Do we speak out about every political issue? Absolutely not,” Seifert said. “We’ve chosen not to take a stance on certain things that don’t really relate to our five core values.”

Sey doesn’t consider XX-XY to be a conservative brand. That’s a label others have given her.

“The vast majority of Americans agree with us,” Sey said, referencing a poll showing 69% of Americans believe transgender athletes should play on sports teams that match their biological gender. “We should not be relegated to parallel economy or second-class citizens.”

Alternative brands look to the future: ‘There’s still lots of opportunity’

Some mainstream brands have dialed back their progressive marketing and initiatives, but neither Seifert nor Sey are worried their businesses will be at risk if polarization dies down.

Look, if this issue gets put to rest, I still think women athletes deserve our support,” Sey said. “There’s still lots of opportunity for a brand like mine.”

Some parallel economy brands flop because they simply aren’t making a great product, she said.

“At the end of the day, [customers] may come to us for the mission, but they stay for the product,” she said. “I want our product to compete with Nike and Lululemon, be as good as, if not better.”

Sey added, “If we don’t do that, we won’t survive.”

So far, she said she sees promising results. XX-XY’s return rates are under 5%, she said. Compare that to a Coresight Research survey estimating the average return rate of online clothing orders was 24.4% in 2023.

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And businesses continue to adapt. Seifert said the American marketplace lacked a pro-life diaper company, so he created the baby brand EveryLife.

PublicSquare knew many of their merchants had experienced “cancellation” by payment processors, so in March they purchased Credova, a buy now, pay later provider that catered to the firearms industry.

“It’s cancel-proof payment processing that provides a much-needed solution to our merchants,” Seifert said. “We actually believe that that will become the largest vertical from a revenue and sales perspective over the course of the next 12 to 18 months.”

Sey hopes one day the market will ditch the “hyper-politicized” strategy and revert to what she calls “normie capitalism.”

“Unfortunately, this is where we are right now,” she said. “And if you have a choice, why not choose a great product from a brand that aligns with your values?”

With then-Tropical Storm Debby moving off and up the west coast of Florida, I convinced my wife that it was the perfect time to see the movie “Twisters” again. I surmised that with wind gusts consistently over 40 mph and torrential rain, we would have the movie theater to ourselves.

Boy, was I wrong. A full two weeks after the movie’s release, the theater was sold out. 

What?

As we quickly grabbed two seats with more people flowing in by the second, I began to talk to the people around me as we waited for the previews. I spoke with two families and three couples. My question being: “What brings you out to this movie in this weather?”

NYT CONTRIBUTOR ARGUES ‘TWISTERS’ TORNADO MOVIE ‘FAILED US’ WITH LACK OF CLIMATE CHANGE MESSAGING

Five of the people gave me a variation of the same answer: “No politics. No lectures from the left. Just word of mouth that it is great entertainment.”

All true. Again, my wife and I first saw the film two weeks ago when it premiered. Like millions of Americans, over the last number of years I have come to dread going to the movies because many are infused with far-left taking points and lectures. Worse, many will openly insult those who don’t agree with their leftist or “woke” narratives. 

The last time I checked, lecturing and insulting potentially half of your viewing audience was not the best way to create a hit movie or make a profit for your investors. And as we have seen over the last few years, Disney and other liberal to far-left movie studios have seen film after film crash and burn at the box office as they have collectively lost billions of dollars.

COUNTRY MUSIC STARS RECORD SONGS FOR ‘TWISTERS’ SOUNDTRACK, SOME MAY ALREADY BE ON YOUR PLAYLIST

With “Twisters” being a film dealing with adverse and dangerous weather conditions, I was, at the very least, waiting for the tiresome lecture about “climate change” from those behind the film. It never came. 

The film has a racially and ethnically diverse cast. Which is wonderful. Not only did I see that as a reflection of America, but of my own greater family which is racially diverse, spiritually diverse, sexually diverse, and even home country diverse. A true and wonderful melting pot of Americans. 

But Americans who choose to go to the movies to be entertained. Americans who work hard, face constant struggles, and don’t want to pay precious money to see a movie that lectures them or tells them they are intellectually inferior to the far-left directors, actors, producers and writers behind the movie.

‘TWISTERS’ DIRECTOR REJECTS CALLS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE LECTURE IN NEW TORNADO MOVIE: WON’T ‘PREACH’ TO AUDIENCE

Lee Isaac Chung, the exceptionally talented director of the film, pushed back hard against far-left criticism that his movie didn’t pound “climate change” at every opportunity. Said Chung, in part: “I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like (it) is putting forward any message. I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented.”

Amen, brother. 

Glen Powell – the co-star of the film led by Daisy Edgar-Jones – addressed some of that counter-productive trend by some in Hollywood in an article for The Telegraph. Said Powell, in part:  

“Having grown up in and around Texas, I’m aware there are vast parts of America that have been underserved in terms of movies that they want to see. You sort of have New York and Los Angeles making the decisions about what gets made, but there’s a whole lot more audience out there you need to think about.”

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He then very politely cut to the chase with regard to some in his business lecturing or speaking down to their audience: “First and foremost, because if you’re telling people what to think, you’re not allowing them to feel. You can’t put people into that heightened state if they’re thinking, ‘Hmm, do I or do I not agree with this message?’”

From his lips to the far-left and “woke” ears of Disney CEO Bob Iger and others in Hollywood who seemingly can’t stand half the people in the United States of America. To his great credit, legendary director and producer Steven Spielberg – who is the executive producer of “Twisters” – does seem to understand Powell’s subtle warning to his industry.

And as for Powell and director Chung being on to something, I give you a packed theater showing “Twisters” as a tropical storm played havoc with the weather. A theater that was full because of the word of mouth was: “No politics. No lectures. Just great entertainment.”

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“Word of mouth.” Now there’s a concept.

We will soon see if far-left Hollywood learns that valuable – and profitable – lesson. As they process some unassailable truths, go see the movie “Twisters.” It’s made for you.

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Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler shredded Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., claim that he once carried weapons of war “in war.”

In an analysis piece of Walz’s military service record, Kessler denied the governor’s 2018 claim that he had handled weapons in a combat theater over his 24-year career in the U.S. Army National guard. The fact-checker confirmed to readers that there was no evidence he served in combat so he couldn’t have carried the weapons. 

“He did carry weapons of war — just not in war,” Kessler declared.

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The governor made the heavily scrutinized claim in question during a 2018 town hall meeting where he advocated for gun control policies.

In a clip of the meeting, which the Harris campaign shared on social media earlier this week, Walz told an audience, “I spent 25 years in the Army and I hunt… And I tell you what I have been doing. I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can do CDC research. We can make sure we don’t have reciprocal carry among states. And we can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”

Kessler’s piece, published on Friday, grilled Walz over the claim, stating, “There is no evidence that Walz served in combat — and he has not claimed he did. He did receive ribbons for proficiency in sharpshooting and hand grenades, according to military records obtained through an open records request by MPR News.”

The Washington Post fact-checker also noted that a Harris campaign spokesperson admitted that “the governor misspoke.”

I SERVED WITH TIM WALZ AS A REPUBLICAN IN THE HOUSE. HE’LL BE A GOOD VICE PRESIDENT

When reached for comment, the Walz campaign provided the following statement to Fox News Digital.

“Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country,” the statement said. “It’s the American way. In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke. He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun lobby over our children.”

Kessler rendered his final assessment of Walz’s words, saying, “Walz’s language was sloppy and false. He did carry weapons of war — just not in war.”

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Kessler was hardly the first to go after Walz on this claim. Throughout the week, the campaign’s political opponents, social media critics, and even liberal media networks called it out.

GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance led the Republican attacks on Walz’s “in war” claims. 

He asked on Wednesday, “Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this? What was this weapon that you carried into war?” He then went on to say that Walz “has not spent a day in a combat zone.”

CNN correspondent Tom Foreman fact-checked the line on Wednesday, saying there “is no evidence that at any time Governor Walz was in the position of being shot at, and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest that he was. So that is absolutely false when he said that about gun rights out there.”

Imagine finding out the cousin you’d spent some of the best moments of childhood with grew up to be a serial killer.

That’s what happened to Edna Cowell Martin, Ted Bundy’s cousin, in the 1970s, she says in her new memoir, “Dark Tide.”

Martin, 72, is the first of Bundy’s relatives to write a book about growing up with the serial killer who murdered at least 30 women and girls between 1974 and 1978. 

In her memoir, Martin recalls the moment she first knew her cousin was guilty. It was in 1975, after Bundy had been arrested for kidnapping and released on bail. Martin still wanted to believe the cousin she thought she knew was innocent.

TED BUNDY SURVIVOR REVEALS WHAT SAVED HER FROM SERIAL KILLER’S SORORITY-HOUSE RAMPAGE

Bundy was driving her to a bookstore near a university after lunch one afternoon so she could get something she needed.

“I ran in, and I got my stuff, and the cash register faced the window. So, I could see the street down below behind the store … and all these people were pointing and rushing down towards my left,” Martin recalled. “And I was wondering what was going on there. I just got a bad feeling that something wasn’t good.”

TED BUNDY 50 YEARS LATER: HOW INVESTIGATORS TOOK DOWN INFAMOUS SERIAL KILLER WHO TERRORIZED COUNTRY FOR YEARS

She exited the bookstore and saw people “milling all around someone, and then the crowd parted for a second.”

“I saw my cousin in the center of it, and he was standing there with his hands outstretched, like he was some kind of a messiah, and speaking loudly while he was slowly turning, saying, ‘I’m Ted Bundy’ over and over again,” Martin said. “That’s when it just hit me that no one would do that if they were innocent.”

“That was the chilling moment that I went from hoping beyond hope that this was all a big mistake, to realizing that this guy was a monster.”

— Edna Cowell Martin

She and Bundy had grown close in their adulthood, she said, and lived just a few blocks apart from each other. She had him over occasionally, and he would hang out with her friends and roommates. That made the news of his crimes so much harder to digest, she said.

“In January of ’74, young women right in my neighborhood started disappearing within walking distance of where I lived — within walking distance of where Ted lived,” Martin recalled. “Three of them disappeared and were later found to be murdered by him. One of them lived right across the street and around the corner from me. So, Ted would walk from his apartment, pass by the front door of my apartment building … around the corner to where she lived. And just when I found that out … it just made me so ill.”

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Martin opens the book with a jarring scene, the moment she first learned of Bundy’s first arrest for attempted kidnapping in 1975, prior to the bookstore incident.

She was in her 20s at the time, packaging king crab legs in a remote area of Alaska in 1975 — an obscure job she took on with college friends for adventure’s sake — when she heard the news that the cousin she once “adored” had been arrested.

She remembers getting the call that changed the trajectory of her family’s life “in this remote place out in the wilderness — and it was a lot less settled then than it is now … on a ship-to-shore phone where anybody could tune into that frequency” and hear her conversation. It was Martin’s brother who called to break the news that their cousin had just been arrested.

TED BUNDY’S EX-GIRLFRIEND RECALLS HORRIFYING ENCOUNTER WITH THE SERIAL KILLER: ‘HE JUST LAUGHED’

“It just completely upended my life,” Martin said. “And that’s how kind of everything just kicked off for this.”

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Martin’s book is a memoir about her life and Bundy’s strange place inside it, a piece of the puzzle that doesn’t quite fit even though it came in the same box as all the other pieces. 

Her parents were intelligent and accomplished. They served in the U.S. military during World War II. Her father was a renowned pianist and college professor who taught music.

Martin and her brother were introduced to their cousin, Ted Bundy, at a young age when his mother moved across the country from Philadelphia to Washington state to be with family who would support her as she raised a son on her own, Bundy’s father not being in the picture. Martin explains her aunt, Louise Cowell, never told her family who fathered her son.

“This is just a theory on my part that Louise, and her attempt to protect [Bundy], never told him who his biological father was, and I know that it really bothered him,” Martin said.

‘PARALLELS OF EVIL’: TED BUNDY SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT, LINKING THEIR GRUESOME ATTACKS TO BRYAN KOHBERGER’S

When she was living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1969, where her family moved in the 1960s from Washington after his father got a new job, Bundy “made a special trip” to visit them on his way to Philadelphia to “find information on his biological father,” Martin explained. 

“I think that would have answered a lot of questions for him,” Martin said. “We don’t know anything about his biological father and whether he had any kind of mental illness or anything. … It’s a big question mark.”

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Martin’s book reflects on her time with Bundy as a child compared to her time with Bundy as an adult, when she began to grow suspicious of his behavior. The book includes letters from the serial killer to his family, written during his time in prison before his 1989 execution that show his narcissistic personality.

“He even implies that I’m being over emotional about these things, and I should get to know myself better, and once I know myself, I will calm down and not be so emotional,” Martin recalled of her correspondence with Bundy after his arrest. “He just got me madder and madder, and I’d write back to him, and he’d quote scriptures. And I was so offended by that.”

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Martin also explains the impact Bundy’s crimes had on her as a young woman who once looked up to Bundy as her older cousin, and her family, which has tried to stay out of Bundy’s spotlight for decades.

“I’m hoping that it helps somebody along the way,” Martin said of her book, “because we don’t choose our families, right? They are who they are. They’re good or bad. … There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Dark Tide” was released July 23.

Breaking debuted at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday, and one B-girl has gone absolutely viral on social media for her performance — but not in the way she likely would’ve hoped for. 

Australia’s Rachel Gunn, who is competing under the name “RayGun,” became an instant “meme” on X after her head-scratching performance in the round-robin stage of the women’s breaking competition.

Gunn, 36, failed to match the skill level of her opponents and in doing so was swept in all of her battles without ever earning a single point. 

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“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best — their power moves,” Gunn said after. “What I bring is creativity.”

But it was her “creativity” that left viewers questioning how she qualified. 

“I kinda feel bad for RayGun, the Aussie [breaker] — but that routine was hilariously ridiculous,” one person wrote on X. “Something like this always happens at the Olympics.”

US OLYMPIAN WHO QUIT SIX-FIGURE MARKETING JOB TO PURSUE BREAKDANCING KNOCKED OUT IN ROUND-ROBIN; WHAT’S NEXT?

According to her Olympics bio, Gunn is a university lecturer at Macquarie University with a Ph.D. in cultural studies. “Dance” is listed as one of her research interests. 

Gunn qualified for the Paris Olympics after winning the QMS Oceania Championships in Sydney, Australia, and was named the top-ranked b-girl by the Australian Breaking Association in 2020 and 2021. 

Gunn also appeared to catch some heat online about her styling choice. 

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According to the New York Post, the International Olympic Committee allowed competitors to wear their custom uniform, which had to be submitted before competition. Gunn was the only athlete who wore a tracksuit representing her country. 

“Looking forward to the same level of scrutiny on what the boys wear tomorrow,” she fired back on her Instagram Friday. 

The men’s competition began on Saturday. 

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