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At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

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Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#301

Post by antisthenes »

cristoperb wrote: post #182
staticelf wrote: post #3

Honestly, I am not the least surprised. I don't know if anyone is really. Because never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions. People actively share "if you like x you can remove me as your friend" shit on facebook, companies fire people for expressing their political views and media companies "choose a side" more then ever. And don't tell me Google isn't. Just look at Youtube w…

> never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions It's been worse in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

One could say these are nothing more but echoes of Cold War.

After all, these are boomers' children.

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#302

Post by ikeyany »

koolba wrote: post #84
nxsynonym wrote: post #19

>>“Work is work, and not everything needs to be about politics,” he said. While he sees liberal colleagues who sit nearby don’t seemingly need to filter their comments, he’s decided it’s not worth engaging, adding “I don’t want to be known as that guy who wants to argue with everybody.” As someone who falls on the Liberal side of the spectrum, this bothers me more than almost anything else regarding modern day politi…

> As someone who falls on the Liberal side of the spectrum, this bothers me more than almost anything else regarding modern day politics. If you fall in line with the "right" (left) side, you are allowed to say any number of disparaging, mean, hateful, or ignorant comments without fear of consequence - as long as it's aimed at the political right-wing. If you mention you are a conservative or hold conservative views,…

> I don't recall anyone attempting to publicly shame me for not being "conservative enough".

Proof that you did not grow up in a very religious community.

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#303

Post by sctb »

astebbin wrote: post #181

Despite the many upvotes, numerous comments, and recent post time, this submission no longer appears on the front page. I don't see a "submission flagged" or "removed" indicator. Would a moderator be able to tell us what's up?

Flags affect a story's ranking before the title says [flagged]. The flamewar detector software also kicked in (which accounted for the initial dramatic drop in rank), but we turned that off, despite the actual flamewars.

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#304

Post by ikeyany »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #251

“Before it was, ‘I don’t agree with you,’ but now it has evolved into this new thing that is much more aggressive, ‘don’t even say something that is counter to what I believe,’” This sums up rather well what I believe is a new era of righteous indignation in America. This is not isolated to just America, or Americans, but it's not something we've really had to deal with before. That righteous indignation manifests it…

The phrase you're looking for is "cultural hegemony"[1]:

'The mode of being of the new intellectual can no longer consist of eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but in active participation in practical life, as constructor [and] organizer, as "permanent persuader", not just simple orator.'

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#305

Post by yahna »

nxsynonym wrote: post #19

>>“Work is work, and not everything needs to be about politics,” he said. While he sees liberal colleagues who sit nearby don’t seemingly need to filter their comments, he’s decided it’s not worth engaging, adding “I don’t want to be known as that guy who wants to argue with everybody.” As someone who falls on the Liberal side of the spectrum, this bothers me more than almost anything else regarding modern day politi…

I don't think the liberal echo chamber is anywhere near as bad.

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#306

Post by cr0sh »

austenallred wrote: post #108
chrisabrams wrote: post #2

I grew up in Texas but worked in Silicon Valley for a few years. One of the toughest adjustments was going from a small conservative town to a major liberal populace. It was astonishing the number of people who got angry _at me_ for having a different opinion then they did. At one workplace I saw two coworkers get into a fist fight because the liberal was "offended" that the conservative differed on a viewpoint. Go t…

I moved to San Francisco from a small, deeply red town. I'll just say this - I think even that small town would be more tolerant of liberals than I felt when I worked in San Francisco, and I'm not even really that conservative (just economically). The leadership at the company was very reasonable, but the politically active folks terrified me, and didn't just think that those that held conservative viewpoints were mi…

> I didn't vote for Trump, but I know many, many good people that did.

Arguably "good people" don't support nor vote for an individual who openly brags about assaulting women...

...unless you have a different definition of what is considered "good".

/much like christians claim "everything god does is good" - you know, like genocide via a flood...

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#307

Post by nxsynonym »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #198
nxsynonym wrote: post #19

>>“Work is work, and not everything needs to be about politics,” he said. While he sees liberal colleagues who sit nearby don’t seemingly need to filter their comments, he’s decided it’s not worth engaging, adding “I don’t want to be known as that guy who wants to argue with everybody.” As someone who falls on the Liberal side of the spectrum, this bothers me more than almost anything else regarding modern day politi…

Some of my saddest friends, at least when it comes to expressing themselves politically, are my liberal friends who have beliefs just a bit outside the left-norm. Things like owning firearms, or support for free speech even when it's ugly. These folks are shunned by both groups. One guy told me once he had friends of 20 years that wouldn't let him in the house when they found out he owned a gun. But the question one…

I identify with your left-of-norm liberal friends.

Most of my views sit closer to the middle than either pole - but I can't actually discuss this with any of my "liberal" friends. If I say anything that isn't a complete regurgitation of a leftist facebook meme, I'm suddenly an "alt-right sympathizer" (real quote). It's made it so that whenever politics comes up at all I just check out of the conversation. It's hard because I really do enjoy debating and talking about politics, but nobody wants to debate anymore. Everyone wants to be correct and shame the other side into changing their views.

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#308

Post by yahna »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #198
nxsynonym wrote: post #19

>>“Work is work, and not everything needs to be about politics,” he said. While he sees liberal colleagues who sit nearby don’t seemingly need to filter their comments, he’s decided it’s not worth engaging, adding “I don’t want to be known as that guy who wants to argue with everybody.” As someone who falls on the Liberal side of the spectrum, this bothers me more than almost anything else regarding modern day politi…

Some of my saddest friends, at least when it comes to expressing themselves politically, are my liberal friends who have beliefs just a bit outside the left-norm. Things like owning firearms, or support for free speech even when it's ugly. These folks are shunned by both groups. One guy told me once he had friends of 20 years that wouldn't let him in the house when they found out he owned a gun. But the question one…

Tell you what, I'll organize a group that beats the shit out of you when you express a viewpoint and we can see how you feel about it.

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#309

Post by well-framed »

RepressedEmu wrote: post #273
rayiner wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why we'd expect politics not to be highly contentious and divisive. It's life-or-death stuff. Do you force a teenager carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, or allow her doctor to kill an organism that is, at least genetically, human? Do we let unfettered immigration undermine the welfare state, or break apart families who are just trying to have a better life? What kind of legacy will we leave our childre…

I really enjoyed your framing of some common issues. Most people don't think there are actually two sides to any political argument and spend the majority of their time laughing at strawmen rather than learning about someone else's perspective. Also I think lowered emotional connection to the issues can actually be a huge benefit to understanding them rather than just "feeling" what side to pick.

I wanted to second this comment re: approval of the framing of the discussion. One of the few ways to have, IMO, meaningful discourse if to be able to understand the other side, for who they are and instead of a talking point (e.g. a strawman). I can't say that I've lived enough to be firmly on one side of the discourse or the other, but I've found that it's much easier to be "center" when the issues are framed in such a way that show both sides properly.

Re: At liberal tech companies, those who disagree on politics say they’re isolated

#310

Post by yahna »

staticelf wrote: post #3

Honestly, I am not the least surprised. I don't know if anyone is really. Because never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions. People actively share "if you like x you can remove me as your friend" shit on facebook, companies fire people for expressing their political views and media companies "choose a side" more then ever. And don't tell me Google isn't. Just look at Youtube w…

Well when one side decides trump is a good idea...
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