In April 2023, an intense transphobic backlash erupted in response to Bud Light using a trans influencer in a social media campaign.

Bomb threats were called in to breweries, bars stopped selling Budweiser products, people posted videos of themselves pouring Bud Light down the drain, and Kid Rock filmed himself shooting several cases of it with a submachine gun. Against that backdrop, a company launched a Bud Light alternative called Ultra Right Beer, marketed as being “100% Woke-Free.”.

Ultra Right is one of many products in a consumer movement that’s been picking up steam in recent years: the so-called parallel economy. The parallel economy is an attempt by conservatives to create a separate economy made up of businesses and services that are less “woke” than those in the mainstream. (It’s also referred to as the “patriot economy” and the “freedom economy.”)

I photographed dozens of businesses and services that exist within the parallel economy. Things like ForTrump Cookies, an alternative to regular fortune cookies that contain messages like “CNN is fake news”; and Maga Realty, a Florida-based real estate company that offers a free AR-15 with every home purchase; and Patriot Mobile, a company that bills itself as “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider,” etc. etc. etc.