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Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

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Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#421

Post by nesyt »

carapace wrote: post #352
ashwinaj wrote: post #133

Finally common sense prevails! Get to work on time, eat your free lunch, work, go home. To those of you who disagree; if you want to "make a difference" take a cue from Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther king Jr. etc. Mahama Gandhi didn't work for the East India company while simultaneously fighting for freedom. If you are serious about it put your money where your mouth is and stop being empty vessels.

> Mahama Gandhi didn't work for the East India company while simultaneously fighting for freedom. LOL! I worked at Google for about two years as a "TVC" (a programmer in a cubical, not a "real" Googler) and it was like being kidnapped by aliens, after I left that's how it felt: Like I was one of those people who had just been returned to Earth. One thing that doesn't get talked about in re: Google and values: there's…

This is true of most (perhaps all) big tech (perhaps all) companies.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#422

Post by maxaf »

madrox wrote: post #416
rollinDyno wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To these people it must. They are aware they're disrupting the workplace but they do it because they have a sense of urgency and responsibility. They are willing to break ties with their fellow coworkers because they carry a larger social mission.

That's the problem when you think you're "on a mission from God." You give yourself permission to do anything because this is sufficiently important. Maybe it is. I know know. That said, what I haven't heard is any good coming out of it.

Human history is littered with holy wars. Unfortunately we're also really good at bulldozing away the resulting wreckage, which ironically feeds back into history's tendency to repeat itself.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#423

Post by lawnchair_larry »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #363
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t care to get into it or take a position on the matter, I am just pointing out that it’s possible to have disagreements about where the boundaries are without it being the case that there is an element of hate involved. It’s possible for someone to disagree that a man is a woman without hating them for thinking they are a woman. It’s also possible for them to be sensitive about how they express that without unn…

Yes, and at certain points how you refer to a person is political because they are trans, what do you do then? What is the sensitive, non-harmful way to refer to a trans woman as a male? What is the sensitive, non-harmful way to refer to a trans woman as a woman (if you believe referring to trans women being seen as women is a hateful thing)? Similarly, what happens if you believe espousing homosexuality as normal is…

I don’t think those examples are the more difficult ones, and those aren’t the issues that the detractors have. It’s not symmetrical. Some people think that it’s rude or even hateful to intentionally call a trans woman a man, but nobody thinks it’s rude or hateful to call a trans woman a woman. Where that becomes a problem for that side is where things get complicated.

Can trans women fight biological women in MMA? Can they compete in tennis? If you think they shouldn’t, is that hate and misgendering? Who is allowed to apply for scholarships reserved for women? Do trans women get lower insurance rates? Should we even be discriminating on scholarships and insurance rates to begin with? Is it reasonable to expect someone to use other pronouns that didn’t previously exist in English simply because someone requests it? Is a man allowed in womens change rooms because he puts on high heels but otherwise has taken no steps to transition his/her/their identity, or is there some arbitrary level of transitioning that counts? Who decides that? Everybody seems to have strong opinions on a lot of these issues and nobody is going to agree anytime soon. Yes, sometimes it’s hate, but it doesn’t take an ounce of hate for two individuals to be radically opposed on how this is supposed to work.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#424

Post by nostrademons »

psychrometer wrote: post #420
nostrademons wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The action in question involved 3 mainland students and one Hong Kong student. How many people live in mainland China? 1.3B. How many people live in Hong Kong? 7.4M. How many overseas Chinese are there? 50M. How many overseas Hongkongers? About 1.5M. You can bet that if there is any one such incident happening in the globe, the press will seize on it, because it fits the current media narrative and gets clicks. By th…

It may not represent the majority of overseas Chinese or even many but it is the view I get from media.

That should tell you a lot about the media.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#426

Post by Aperocky »

freeone3000 wrote: post #411
Aperocky wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing and everything. What's more important to life than family and friends? Do you talk about them at length at work? Just because something is of monumental importance to the society/world, doesn't mean you need to talk about it all the time, especially at work.

Can you imagine how soulless work would be if you couldn't talk about your family and friends? These are the things that make us people. We can't just put them in a box at 9am and take them back out at 5.

There are small talks and talks that elicit a response. Small talks about family which mostly draws wows and wahs are totally fine, but you want work to be centered around the work itself and not get drawn into lengthy discussion about politics. At least do it during breaks.

Work is not meant as a substitution of life, it can be incredibly fulfilling but it's still work.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#427

Post by manfredo »

dragontamer wrote: post #409
manfredo wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We absolutely cannot let evil stand when we identify evil. Otherwise, it marches in and kills many. No, you let evil speech stand. And you call it out as evil, and make clear reasoned arguments why it is evil. That is the solution. Only when that evil speech turns into action does the society step in. Resorting to censorship only demonstrates weakness and an inability or unwillingness to argue against evil. This le…

> No, you let evil speech stand. And you call it out as evil, and make clear reasoned arguments why it is evil. That is the solution. That doesn't work. If you really think you can "convince" people to tolerate others, feel free to go to Stormfront and convince the white-nationalists to stop being racist. Go and try it. Its not like these hateful locations are unknown, its a free and open internet. Go an talk with th…

No, quite the opposite. Shutting it down often makes things worse. Deplatforming (both in the social sense and in the technological sense) gained traction around 2013 and 2014. Do you think that bigotry and racism as reduced since then? The daily stormer was kicked off cloudflare in 2017. Do you see a reduction in hate and bigotry?

No, if anything we have seen an increase. You can't change people's minds by ostracizing them. Shutting down speech, especially the speech you think is immoral, makes the problem worse.

And to your point, yes people have changed the minds of white nationalists by engaging with them. It's hard but it can happen. By comparison, how many white nationalists do you think had their minds changed by having their speech censored? Usually this only reinforces the belief in a {Jewish | Globalist | immigrant | etc. } conspiracy against whites. If people think big tech is run by George Soros and is censoring conservatives and is working to the detriment of whites, then getting kicked off th internet is pretty much directly reinforcing their conspiracy.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#428

Post by devy »

This article makes it seem like debating politics is a good practices in workplace. It is NOT!

Talking politics in workplace is not professional - different political opinions can wreck marriages, it can certainly wreck your job too! Just think about what if your boss is having a completely different political opinions than what you belief.

Also any major corporations leaning one side of the political party would immediately alienate the other half the political spectrum and may risk losing businesses who believe in the opposition political parties.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#429

Post by xvector »

oppositelock wrote: post #280
duxup wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Help me out here. Do you mean "internal political" as "Oh man Jimmy is in charge of gmail now!" (just a made up example of internal politics there) or "Can you belive what the POTUS did!?!?!"? If the latter, I'm a bit surprised ... I can't imagine having that kind of conversation at work. That is absolutely a NO GO zone for me at work.

Definitely the latter - people trying to convince others that their views on war, or abortion, or taxes, or political party are the correct ones. These are also people who are intelligent, educated, and quite arrogant, so the fireworks were pretty spectacular.

And this was common workplace discussion!? This seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t know why you’d want to introduce the divisiveness of politics to your workplace.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#430

Post by cbhl »

cameronbrown wrote: post #84
arcticbull wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the oppressed party in your example feels the polar opposite and don't want to hear your whining about how feminism doesn't matter in modern society because it's good enough as is. And I think that's the point :)

I assume you're being sarcastic/exaggerating, but even so. This is just a perfect example of how polarised politics is today. Society just needs to calm down and evaluate itself instead of bickering over nonsense.

I'm not sure I'd jump so quickly to dismiss the statements of either the parent or grandparent as an exaggeration.
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