Even before it embarked on its LGBTQ++ crusade, Disney always had some dirty secrets behind the magic on the screen. However, of late, Disney’s hypocrisy—the morals-free business behind the sweet preaching—had been over the top.

I must admit I have never been thrilled with the magical world of Walt Disney. Aside from a few movies like Lady and the Tramp, Old Yeller, and Darby O’Gill and the Little People, I just haven’t cottoned to the mouse. I don’t like the way Disney treats moms. I get Walt Disney might have had serious mommy issues after his mother died in the house he bought for her, but did he really have to create a tradition of dead moms and wicked step-moms? I don’t care for the way Disney takes classics like The Little Mermaid and sweetens them until they can cause tooth decay. I really hated how Adriana Caselotti, the voice of Snow White, was blacklisted in Hollywood at Walt Disney’s request because he wanted her voice to be unique to Snow White alone. There was the great lemming massacre, where Disney filmmakers threw lemmings off cliffs to fake suicide, a behavior these animals don’t actually do.

 Image: Walt Disney Studios Alameda Entrance by Coolcaesar. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Disney filmed the life version of Mulan in China, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a place notorious for detention camps where Uighur Muslims are held. There have been accusations of torture, as well as forced sterilizations and forced abortions, but Disney was so unfazed by such human rights abuses that it gave a credit to the “publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomy Region Committee” for helping make the movie.

Disney presents itself to the world as a place of wonder while, just barely behind the scenes, a total lack of compassion reigns supreme. The latest outrage from the company is the decision to stop broadcasting in Russia.  

Of course, Disney is free to conduct its business in any way it chooses, but as far as I can tell, it hasn’t tried to help Ukrainian victims. When I googled “has Disney donated any money to Ukraine,” I came up with a list of companies giving millions to help war victims. Disney’s place on the list showed nothing more than a statement that it was pausing business in Russia.

Disney’s only real concern over the war seems to be its profits. Yet the mouse is up on its high horse over a humanitarian crisis, wanting to have its cheese and eat it too. Now that’s chutzpah.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.