In recent months, major companies have publicly announced that they are abandoning their diversity efforts. In at least two cases, companies were pressured into taking action by right-wing extremist and conspiracy theorist Robby Starbuck. He has succeeded in influencing corporate behavior through his social media account despite embracing racist conspiracy theories, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, and other fringe views. Following his recent successes, Starbuck has promised that he is just getting started.

Starbuck, a filmmaker who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2022, initially targeted Tractor Supply, a publicly traded agricultural supply company. At the beginning of June, he announced to his 520,000 followers on X that “[i]t’s time to expose Tractor Supply.” Starbuck’s post, with a video accompanying it, alleged that the company provides “LGBTQIA+ training for employees” and funds “pride/drag events.” Starbuck also attacked the company for displaying “Pride month decorations in the office,” creating a “DEI [diversity, equality, and inclusion] Council,” and engaging in “DEI hiring practices.” 

Starbuck spoke at length about Tractor Supply’s involvement in Pride events. He argued that “[t]he kind of sex you like is not an appropriate topic for work” and that “[e]vents built around the kind of sex people like to have should not have kids at them and should not be funded with the money we spend at Tractor Supply.” Starbuck encouraged his followers to boycott Tractor Supply and to contact the company to complain. In the following weeks, Starbuck posted dozens of times about Tractor Supply. 

In late June, Tractor Supply announced that all roles pertaining to DEI would be eliminated, that all corporate DEI goals would be retired, and that it would no longer sponsor any “nonbusiness activities” such as pride events. The company also stated that it would no longer be submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the most prominent LGBTQ rights organization in the United States, for its Corporate Equality Index. 

The idea that, in 2024, a pride parade is a subversive event that requires discussing the “kind of sex you like” at work is a fringe belief. But Starbuck has a history of embracing fringe conspiracy theories.

On July 10, Starbuck promoted the racist great replacement theory on X. “There’s no sugarcoating it,” Starbuck wrote. “Democrats want illegal immigrants to vote. It’s why they let them in.” The great replacement theory is the claim that Democrats are trying to “replace” white Americans with immigrants. The theory is baseless, but has proved popular among white supremacists, and has motivated multiple mass shootings. Starbuck acknowledges that he is promoting the great replacement theory, but argues that it is not actually racist. “You can’t call replacement theory racist when it’s literally out in the open now. I’m Latino and I’m telling you that the left in the west is trying to replace existing citizens (mostly white) with migrants from 3rd world countries,” Starbuck posted on X in February.

Starbuck also promoted wild claims about the purported dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine. In October 2023, following the death of actor Matthew Perry after years of struggling with drug addiction, Starbuck suggested Perry's death was actually caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. Perry was, according to Starbuck, “a big supporter of the COVID vaccines.” Starbuck called for an investigation of the COVID-19 vaccine “as a potential cause of any cardiac issues.” Starbuck has also shown support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine non-profit, Children’s Health Defense, calling it “fantastic” and saying it does “great work.”

Starbuck has also promoted "chemtrails," a conspiracy theory that "governments or other parties are engaged in a secret program to add toxic chemicals to the atmosphere," which he claims are part of a government effort to control the weather. In April, Starbuck wrote that major flooding in Dubai was not caused by “climate change” but was instead caused by “the use of weather modification” and “[c]loud seeding where chemicals are sprayed in clouds to create rain.” In response to the post, an X user commented, “Colloquially known as ‘chemtrails,’’’ to which Starbuck responded, “Correct.” According to scientists, “there is no evidence for the existence of chemtrails.” (While the UAE has attempted to use geoengineering to increase rainfall, it was not a contributing factor to the floods, according to experts.)

Starbuck also pushed the false claim that there is cannibalism occurring in Haiti, stating that “the country is now effectively run by a warlord named Barbecue who has a ‘cannibal gang.’” This claim, based on a viral social media post, is false, according to Politifact. The State Department said “it has received no credible reports about cannibalism in Haiti.”

Starbuck was able to successfully pressure Tractor Supply without prompting any real scrutiny about his own extremist beliefs. Starbuck then repeated the process with farm equipment company Deere & Co., posting dozens of times about the company's diversity policies. On July 9, Starbuck criticized the company’s “LGBTQ & race based identity groups,” “total commitment to DEI policies,” and policy asking employees to list their “preferred pronouns.” Shortly after Starbuck began posting, the company announced it would be eliminating some of its diversity initiatives. Starbuck celebrated the partial win, but argued that the company should go further and eliminate all corporate diversity efforts. 

Starbuck is now going after his next target. On July 23, Starbuck called for a boycott of Harley-Davidson on X, citing the company's hosting "LGBTQ+ events at the corporate office" and facilitating "LGBTQ+ & race based" affinity groups. Starbuck appears to be demanding that corporations not engage in any acknowledgment of LGBTQ employees or customers. 

In an interview, Starbuck said “he and his researchers have identified 20 companies that could be ripe for a similar boycott.” Starbuck said that he “definitely proved a model” that involves targeting companies that appeal to a conservative clientele. In a post on X, Starbuck wrote, “DEI is poison and we won’t rest until the public knows how companies have strayed from American values.” 

Starbuck’s anti-LGBTQ extremism

Earlier this year, Starbuck released a documentary called The War on Children. The documentary, which he created with his wife Landon Starbuck, centers around the idea that the LGBTQ movement is a sophisticated effort by the government, social media companies, and the medical community to corrupt and sexualize children. While promoting a trailer for the documentary, Starbuck said that the “war on children” is being waged by left-wing activists that “will stop at nothing to indoctrinate them, sexualize them, guilt them and punish them until they submit to their woke religion.”

In the documentary, which has 2 million views on X, Starbuck suggests that toxic chemicals are causing children to identify as LGBTQ. Starbuck claimed a study found that exposure to the pesticide atrazine in frogs purportedly turned them "gay” and caused them to mate with other male frogs. (An EPA review of the scientific literature found that this claim about the impact of atrazine on amphibians was false.) Starbuck says that no one wants to investigate the impact of atrazine and other chemicals on children. The theory was popularized by the notorious right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claimed tap water was a "gay bomb." Jones asserted that the federal government was engaged in a "chemical warfare operation" designed to increase the LGBTQ population and lower birth rates. The idea that chemicals are impacting the sexuality of children, according to experts, is completely baseless.

The film includes interviews with conservative activist Riley Gaines, right-wing extremist Chaya Raichik (who runs the X account @LibsofTikTok), and a representative from The Heritage Foundation. The documentary also includes gotcha-style interviews with a drag queen and others. Rolling Stone reported that the Starbucks used “deceptive tactics” and “careful omissions” like “provid[ing] working titles for the film such as Identity Rising and It Takes a Village” to convince his targets to take part in interviews.   

Starbuck frequently promotes anti-LGTBQ views to his social media followers. On X, Starbuck has said that “[p]ride events should be age restricted and only indoors.” Starbuck has also suggested that trans people want to assault women in public bathrooms and that displaying pride flags around children is “grooming and indoctrination.” In June 2023, Starbuck complained about book publisher McGraw Hill celebrating pride, calling the company “woke” and insinuating that those who support LGBTQ rights support pedophilia. “They say no matter how you identify, you should be accepted. That means a man can identify as a child,” Starbuck wrote. 

Media ignores Starbuck’s extreme ideology

Mainstream media coverage of Starbuck’s campaigns against Tractor Supply and Deere & Co. do not mention his extreme beliefs or embrace of conspiracy theories. In an article about his boycott efforts, the Associated Press referred to Starbuck only as a “[c]onservative political commentator and filmmaker” and “a 35-year-old Cuban American.” NBC News referred to Starbuck as a “filmmaker.” The Wall Street Journal called Starbuck “a filmmaker turned conservative activist,” and Bloomberg described Starbuck as “a conservative commentator.” 

Other publications that took a similar approach include USA Today (“conservative activist”), The Hill (“conservative activist”), and Newsweek (“[c]onservative political commentator and filmmaker”).