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Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

elaineou.com

81–90 of 307 posts

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#81
I don't miss hearing the voices of the historically dominant. Other voices are being heard instead: the voices of those who have long been beaten down.

As someone who is loyal to the human race before my demographic, I'm thrilled.

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: How does New York compare on this spectrum? I had the impression that the political atmosphere there is very similar to California. I loved New York City when I visited, so I’m very curious to learn more about it from this perspective. If you don’t feel safe talking about it publicly, feel free to email me (you can track it down via my account). I wish I didn’t have to say that last sentence, but thi…

In NYC, coming out as a Trump supporter is a cardinal sin that will lose you friends.

Trump enjoys engaging in rape and sexual assault, being an unashamed racist, and is corrupt as hell.

No surprise that supporting all that will lose you friends.

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#84

For better or worse, popular society has become a lot better at detecting dog whistles. "Diversity of thought is more important than diversity of skin color" is one of those dog whistles. I don't find the discussion itself objectionable, but I also don't want to grant intellectual capital to anybody who is going to use a controversial topic in bad faith to control the discussion. I don't want to be used to legitimize…

it sounds like calling things 'dogwhistles' is a very convenient way for you to absolve yourself of having to think critically

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#85
I think one problem might be that people don't want to tolerate anything, any exception to a position, that while true, might perceptively undermine their narrative.

Essentially, in colloquial, they don't want to give an inch for fear they'll grant a mile.

For example. A position might be, yes, means yes, but it can also mean no, if the person saying yes, feels they were forced into yes. So unless it was a resolute yes, it means no.

Someone might want to take exception to that and say that, no, it depends on the situation and personality, etc., and that there are grey areas and there will always be and we also know people might initially think something is a good idea and retroactively take back a yes. But some people may not want to admit that people do on occasion retroactively change their minds on something.

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#86

For better or worse, popular society has become a lot better at detecting dog whistles. "Diversity of thought is more important than diversity of skin color" is one of those dog whistles. I don't find the discussion itself objectionable, but I also don't want to grant intellectual capital to anybody who is going to use a controversial topic in bad faith to control the discussion. I don't want to be used to legitimize…

In my experience, most accusations of dog whistling on the internet range from misguided to incoherent. It's worth remembering what a dog whistle is, in the first place. It's a tactic used by politicians to assure a certain set of voters that you're on their side while maintaining public deniability of unpopular beliefs. It's a way of talking to the public that guarantees that each constituency hears what they want t…

Nit-picking about the definition of words is another form of "dog whistling" that popular society has learned to detect.

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not his views, his financial support of legislative efforts to prohibit the same civil rights enjoyed by some in this country for other fellow Americans depending on their sexual preference. He lost the confidence of the internationally focused diverse organization he was charged with leading due to that financial support.

>his financial support of legislative efforts to prohibit the same civil rights enjoyed by some in this country for other fellow Americans depending on their sexual preference. ...So his political views.

Political views only matter when your company markets itself on values. Oracle and Google aren't about freedom, Mozilla is, GNU/linux is. When you want to be the rudder for a company based on values your background needs to be unassailable, in other words, boring. You can't be boring when you take an active role in a cause that is directly against your employees.

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#88
This article seems to be debating an issue that doesn’t exist. It seems to call Ferriss for not speaking his mind, but I listened to the podcast referenced and it was one short statement amongst lots of other stuff.

I would like to hear an entire podcast from Ferriss. But this author seems to criticize a Ferriss for not going into detail and that’s inappropriate. It would be valid if Ferriss left out these details in a book or in depth coverage, but he author is taking a few sentences and reading way too much into it.

What do you call it when someone uses a bigger name to try to rouse controversy in order to get clicks? It’s not yellow journalism, but there must be a term for this kind of shitposting.

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#89

For better or worse, popular society has become a lot better at detecting dog whistles. "Diversity of thought is more important than diversity of skin color" is one of those dog whistles. I don't find the discussion itself objectionable, but I also don't want to grant intellectual capital to anybody who is going to use a controversial topic in bad faith to control the discussion. I don't want to be used to legitimize…

> "Diversity of thought is more important than diversity of skin color" is one of those dog whistles. I find it highly unlikely that a black woman in charge of Inclusion and Diversity at a most socially progressive company would blow into that particular dog whistle.

The point of a dog whistle is to say something with a secondary meaning that escapes some part of the audience.

When that part of the audience starts using the dog whistle, the goal has been met: they're using it in good faith, while the original user is still signalling the secondary message.

That's why "family values" works so well as a political slogan -- nobody is against "family values" in a superficial sense, and half of the population understands that "family values" is really code for "christian values."

Re: Stuff You Can't Say in Silicon Valley

#90
I stopped reading here:

“If San Francisco residents really believed that sea levels were rising, they’d have all sold their homes by now.”

Apparently the author has never been to San Francisco or seen the sea level estimates for the next 30-70 years.

The last time I looked the northernmost and easternmost parts of SF will have some trouble, but by far the biggest areas of concern are east of 101 south of the city. And yes, if people thought ahead that far they would probably be concerned but even in the areas that are predicted to have the most impact we’re still talking 25+ years.

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