Silicon Valley Snowflakes

 

By now you’ve heard about the memo that circulated at Google excoriating criticizing the company for its politically correct corporate culture, mindless “Diversity uber alles” policies, and intolerance for people with different opinions. To demonstrate their commitment to diversity, Google hunted down and fired him. In Silicon Valley, it would seem opinions critical of political correctness and diversity are ‘violence’ because ‘ they make people feel afraid.

How glad I am not to be a mewling snowflake. But if one of the points alleged by the memo is that some women (and weak, effeminate millennial beta males) are so emotionally fragile that they are a detriment to the workplace, doesn’t skipping work because a memo hurt their feelings kind of prove the point?

Published in Science & Technology
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  1. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    Victor Tango Kilo: Apparently, the guy who wrote it was hunted down and fired, but the shockwaves are still being felt because opinions critical of political correctness and diversity are ‘violence’ because ‘ they make people feel afraid.

    Is that true? That’s appalling.

     

    • #1
  2. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    It all started with a Department of Labor investigation.  Is Trump’s department of labor still doing these witch hunts?  Why?  How about they investigate why this person was fired.  Was it discrimination based on his political views?

    • #2
  3. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Victor Tango Kilo: Apparently, the guy who wrote it was hunted down and fired

    I almost wish I was that guy. Google violated so many state and federal laws by firing him that when the civil suits are over that guy (and his lawyers) may never have to work again. Of course, for the ex-Google employee the best revenge would be to take the settlement and plow it into a startup that replaces Google.

    Seawriter

    • #3
  4. Richard Easton Coolidge
    Richard Easton
    @RichardEaston

    I Walton (View Comment):
    It all started with a Department of Labor investigation. Is Trump’s department of labor still doing these witch hunts? Why? How about they investigate why this person was fired. Was it discrimination based on his political views?

    Come now comrades, diversity means uniformity.  That should have been obvious to everyone a long time ago.

    • #4
  5. She Member
    She
    @She

     

     

    • #5
  6. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    “He was committing violence. People felt afraid.”

    How is it that supposedly smart people can’t see how completely idiotic that is?

     

     

     

    • #6
  7. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    I read the memo. I’m think “excoriating” is too strong a word:  the memo wasn’t angry, sarcastic, hostile or (heaven knows) threatening. The author repeatedly affirmed his support for women and other underrepresented groups at Google, and suggested better ways to make the working environment more female-friendly. He might have been wrong in his assessment, in which case the obvious remedy is counter-argument,  but he wasn’t unreasonable and he certainly wasn’t hateful.

    He was fired?!?!?

    • #7
  8. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired. I did read that Google’s head of Diversity, Integrity & Governance said in part about the memo…

    ” …it’s not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages.”

    And

    “Part of building an open, inclusive environment means fostering a culture in which those with alternative views, including different political views, feel safe sharing their opinions. But that discourse needs to work alongside the principles of equal employment found in our Code of Conduct, policies, and anti-discrimination laws.”

    ie…feel free to share any views or opinions with which we agree and which we officially sanction.

    • #8
  9. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):
    I read the memo. I’m think “excoriating” is too strong a word:

    I agree and have made an edit accordingly.

     

    • #9
  10. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired.

    Yup.

    • #10
  11. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    Liberal snow flakes VS. Conservative snow flakes. Let the outrage wars begin.

    • #11
  12. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired.

    Yup.

    Free speech is dead.

    I guess I’m not surprised.    I firmly believe that in the not too distant future, holding beliefs like free speech and private property and personal responsibility will be diagnosed as mental illness.

    • #12
  13. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired.

    Yup.

    Free speech is dead.

    Depends on how you define “free” speech. Google violated federal labor law by firing him. You cannot punish employees for communicating with fellow employees about improving working conditions. That is what the memo this guy sent was about. Plus California has draconian laws about punishing employees for expressing political views.

    The employee’s speech may not be free – it may cost Google plenty.

    Seawriter

    • #13
  14. Matt Bartle Member
    Matt Bartle
    @MattBartle

    This guy’s a hero – he had to know what a storm he was about to kick up but he did it anyway. He had to have felt very strongly about this, but what he wrote was measured, with lots of data and caveats. It was in no way a screed.

    But the Left does not allow dissent from the creed, or Party Line, depending on the analogy you prefer.

     

    • #14
  15. JcTPatriot Member
    JcTPatriot
    @

    While it is nice that Google has proven what we have already known for some time, are we really that shocked?

    I would never discuss at work 90% of the things I talk freely about on Ricochet. I like my job and I like my paycheck and I don’t want to start over, so I just don’t talk about Illegals, Gay Marriage, Trump, Black Lives Matter, Guns, Democrats, etc.

    I hope the guy finds a nice job, much better than working for Evil Corp. He should have known better, and I suspect that he did.

    • #15
  16. RyanFalcone Member
    RyanFalcone
    @RyanFalcone

    I can’t wait till the “Jerry McGuire-esque” movie about this comes out. Who has the cajones to make it?

    • #16
  17. thelonious Member
    thelonious
    @thelonious

    V.P of diversity?  I assume there’s a president of diversity and a staff to go along with it.  Diversity has become an entrenched cottage industry which cannot be challenged or refuted.

    • #17
  18. thelonious Member
    thelonious
    @thelonious

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired.

    Yup.

    Love the news report on this.  Take a couple of lines out of context and make the memo writer sound like a sexist racist and then give the rest of the air time to the people who were offended by his memo.

    • #18
  19. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Seawriter (View Comment):
    Google violated federal labor law by firing him.

    Depends on how their lawyers spin this.  If he was an at-will employee, Google can simply claim that they canned him because other employees felt they could no longer work with him.  Sure he could claim he was fired for his politics, but in these sorts of cases that’s thin gruel, especially in California.

    Ultimately employers either have the right to fire people, or they don’t.

    Sure Google is abominable for doing this, but it’s also their own business.

    • #19
  20. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    Or the guy was going to get fired anyway, and knowing that sent out this memo to make his termination look political. Or maybe the guy is just a jerk, and this memo was the last straw for his coworkers.

    The point is this. Your boss doesn’t want to hear your political opinions, especially if they disagree with his own. Shut up and code.

    • #20
  21. JcTPatriot Member
    JcTPatriot
    @

    anonymous (View Comment):
    The memo, as republished by Gizmodo and linked in the original post, was not as originally written and circulated. As stated in the Gizmodo post, “Two charts and several hyperlinks are also omitted.”

    The charts and hyperlinks provide the substantiation for the self-evident facts stated in the memo, and removing them supports the assertion in the echo chamber that the arguments are based upon irrational bias.

    Here is the complete memo, including the charts and links.

    …and now the archive.is site appears to have gone down. Here is another, poorly-formatted, copy of the complete memo.

    Thank you John. The writer made the mistake of telling the absolute truth, and that cannot be allowed at Google1984.

    • #21
  22. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    I Walton (View Comment):
    It all started with a Department of Labor investigation. Is Trump’s department of labor still doing these witch hunts? Why? How about they investigate why this person was fired. Was it discrimination based on his political views?

    Conservatives are not a protected class, thank goodness.

    • #22
  23. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo: Apparently, the guy who wrote it was hunted down and fired

    I almost wish I was that guy. Google violated so many state and federal laws by firing him that when the civil suits are over that guy (and his lawyers) may never have to work again. Of course, for the ex-Google employee the best revenge would be to take the settlement and plow it into a startup that replaces Google.

    Seawriter

    Such as?

    • #23
  24. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    Valiuth (View Comment):
    Or the guy was going to get fired anyway, and knowing that sent out this memo to make his termination look political. Or maybe the guy is just a jerk, and this memo was the last straw for his coworkers.

    The point is this. Your boss doesn’t want to hear your political opinions, especially if they disagree with his own. Shut up and code.

    I’d be inclined to agree if these opinions were unsolicited.     But as Google’s Capo d’ Diversity is happy to tell us …

    “I’ve been in the industry for a long time, and I can tell you that I’ve never worked at a company that has so many platforms for employees to express themselves—TGIF, Memegen, internal G+, thousands of discussion groups. ”

    So Google invites the employees to share and creates platforms for them to do so….in fact per the Diversity enforcer… Google goes above and beyond to provide opportunities to do so.

    • #24
  25. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired.

    Yup.

    Free speech is dead.

    I guess I’m not surprised. I firmly believe that in the not too distant future, holding beliefs like free speech and private property and personal responsibility will be diagnosed as mental illness.

    He wrote a dissenting memo criticizing company policy in a deep blue area on a hot button topic and sent it to all his co-workers.  Of course he got fired.  What has that got to do with free speech?  Corporations are not required to tolerate dissenting views.

    • #25
  26. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    anonymous (View Comment):

    Valiuth (View Comment):
    The point is this. Your boss doesn’t want to hear your political opinions, especially if they disagree with his own. Shut up and code.

    This memo is not about “political opinions”. It is about the existence of a dysfunctional work culture at the company which the writer believes damages the company’s competitiveness and responsiveness to customers, and presents a set of specific suggestions as to how these problems can be remedied. A CEO who does not wish to hear such information from his employees is not acting in the best interest of the company and its shareholders.

    I tend to agree, but the appropriate action for conservatives to take is to sell.

    • #26
  27. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    Isaac Smith (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired.

    Yup.

    Free speech is dead.

    I guess I’m not surprised. I firmly believe that in the not too distant future, holding beliefs like free speech and private property and personal responsibility will be diagnosed as mental illness.

    He wrote a dissenting memo criticizing company policy in a deep blue area on a hot button topic and sent it to all his co-workers. Of course he got fired. What has that got to do with free speech? Corporations are not required to tolerate dissenting views.

    No they are not.     And I’d understand getting fired if the critique took place in public.    But it was on an In-house platform designed for employees to freely share ideas and opinions.

    • #27
  28. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    JcTPatriot (View Comment):
    I would never discuss at work 90% of the things I talk freely about on Ricochet. I like my job and I like my paycheck and I don’t want to start over, so I just don’t talk about Illegals, Gay Marriage, Trump, Black Lives Matter, Guns, Democrats, etc.

    This.  And I’m assuming your last name isn’t Patriot (though I’m willing to grant to most here that it may be their middle name), any more than mine is really Smith.  I’m too old to start over.  I assume that someone savvy enough can figure out who I am, but there’s no sense in offering it up for free.  Not in the era of Brendan Eich and James Damore.

    • #28
  29. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    Isaac Smith (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I hadn’t heard that the author had been fired.

    Yup.

    Free speech is dead.

    I guess I’m not surprised. I firmly believe that in the not too distant future, holding beliefs like free speech and private property and personal responsibility will be diagnosed as mental illness.

    He wrote a dissenting memo criticizing company policy in a deep blue area on a hot button topic and sent it to all his co-workers. Of course he got fired. What has that got to do with free speech? Corporations are not required to tolerate dissenting views.

    No they are not. And I’d understand getting fired if the critique took place in public. But it was on an In-house platform designed for employees to freely share ideas and opinions.

    And under Mao the Chinese had the wall poster period in which they said “Let 100 flowers bloom.”  Then when they didn’t like what the flowers said they rounded them up and sent them to camps.  It has been asserted that California has laws protecting people from being fired for their political viewpoint.  While I think such laws are a bad idea, if they actually exist, this guy should sue the pants off Google.  I’m already as de-Googled as I can reasonably make myself.

    • #29
  30. MLH Inactive
    MLH
    @MLH

    Isaac Smith (View Comment):
    I’m already as de-Googled as I can reasonably make myself.

    I know it’s been shared by others before but. . . how?

    • #30
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