Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 1001 posts

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

#471

Post by EpicEng »

dvtrn wrote: post #457
EpicEng wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Brings to mind the attitude of "shutup and play ball" when sports athletes try to use their platforms for some aspect of social change or another. But even then there's a difference; NFL players aren't protesting the actions of the NFL. If Google employees were using their position to push some agenda the company did not agree with and had nothing to do with then I'd agree. It's certainly within Google's rights to t…

NFL players aren't protesting the actions of the NFL. Oh yes, they absolutely are. Miami Dolphin's player Kenny Stills directly protested his team owner's involvement and affiliation with a charity donating funds to the Trump administration. This seems to have had some result: https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-j... Oakland Raider's player Antonio Brown is directly protesting recent changes to…

>Oh yes, they absolutely are

Well, yeah... of course there are instances of that. None of those are examples represent "social change". When you talk about protests in the NFL in the context of this thread, anyone who doesn't live under a rock is going to think of taking a knee during the anthem.

C'mon, helmet disputes? In what way is that relevant to your quote here?

>Brings to mind the attitude of "shutup and play ball" when sports athletes try to use their platforms for some aspect of social change or another.

Are you arguing just to argue?

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

#472

Post by weberc2 »

SkyBelow wrote: post #451
weberc2 wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Math is probably one of the if not the least political thing out there If you can concede that some things are less political than others, then how difficult is it to assume that "No political conversations" is a shorthand for "conversations about things which are not highly political"?

Quite difficult, when the example was used in response to the statement "Everything is political." I would even say the contemplation of such a concession would be evidence of the original point as it suggests that we should just accept that everything is political and thus when someone says not everything is political they mean that some things are far less political than others.

Yup, that's my point. Saying "everything is political" might be true, but it misses the point that some things are far less political than others, and almost everyone who says things like "no political conversation" probably means "no highly political conversation".

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

#473

Post by SolaceQuantum »

stupidthrottle wrote: post #460
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying anything except that what does one do when a workplace bans politics but being LGBTQ is a political act? How does one avoid politics when calling someone 'he' or 'she' (either way) is a political act?

> being LGBTQ is a political act Clearly that’s not the case, unless you make it your mission to make it so. > How does one avoid politics when calling someone 'he' or 'she' (either way) is a political act? If you allow this to be a treated as a political act which can only 1. be applied by someone who wants to exercise power over others, and 2. Can be used by former group to claim discrimination universally... > wha…

> Clearly that’s not the case, unless you make it your mission to make it so.

I don't know if it is so clear, since the poster I'm responding to is explicitly claiming that trans women are not women, they are men. As far as I understand this is something referred to as politically charged subject matter.

> Clearly politics is not banned, only certain kinds of politics is. The other kind is being enforced hard.

Can you clarify? What is the other kind?

> If you allow this to be a treated as a political act

Is referring to a trans woman as a man or as a woman inherently apolitical, as it does not reflect on one's belief on if trans people are the gender they identify as?

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

#474

Post by santo_bob »

This isn't new. In 2011, a bunch of right-wingers (people we'd recognize as fascists) got one of the smartest people in tech burned out of Google in 6 months. They did whatever they could for years to ruin his career and may still being doing it. Executives stood by and let it happen.

This is not a new tension.

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

#475

Post by fortran77 »

arrrg wrote: post #220
Kalium wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tolerance isn't considered a virtue because it's easy. Tolerance is a virtue because it's difficult . It requires us to put up with people who may adhere to worldviews we find utterly alien or hold views we find abhorrent. It's easy to come up with an example and find yourself thinking "It's unreasonable to tolerate that!". Instead, consider asking yourself why people a century ago might tolerate views you think of a…

Tolerance of someone who wants to deny your whole existence is not something anyone should ever tolerate. That‘s not a virtue, that‘s madness and potentially suicidal.

I disagree. In the interest of peace, I "tolerate" working alongside people who I know believe that, for instance, I will doomed to a fiery hell because I don't believe in their Savior. (I'm Jewish).

And you know what? I work alongside these people just fine! We talk about computer engineering at work, not religion. And everything moves along.

The problem with Google is they have a bunch of immature children who are not interested in "peace."

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

#476

Post by ericd »

TheGRS wrote: post #256
cameronbrown wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, every meaningful change in society has come to light because everyone calmed down enough.

Outrage fatigue is a thing.

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

#479

Post by malvosenior »

jgunsch wrote: post #448
oppositelock wrote: post #187

I worked at Google for quite a while, 2005-2013, and even then, the internal political discussion was pretty toxic, but a lot smaller in scope since there are far fewer people. There were definitely groups meant for discussing politics, and loudmouths like me willingly participated in those - however, it was very uncivil. There was a majority view in the company, and if anyone didn't agree with the majority view, the…

I worked there for a similar length of time, but more recent (2012 - early 2019). The internal political discourse over that time definitely mirrored the rest of the world: becoming increasingly heated and divisive during 2016 and largely escalating since. On the whole, it felt like it pushed the company in a positive direction --- internal discussions mirroring #metoo led to more visibility of sexual harassment and…

> The discourse around the James Damore memo, as divisive as it was, felt like it still led to a broader understanding of the negative perspectives women in tech had to deal with constantly.

Damore was fired for his contributions to this "conversation". Hardly just.

> particularly the ones who felt it was worth staying and using their influence internally to push Google toward creating a more just world.

How about just returning what I'm actually looking for when I search for something? Or not killing products off when they get traction? Google users don't care at all about the politics of Google employees, they just want the product to actually work which seems to be less important that ever internally at Google.

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

#480

Post by tomatotomato37 »

magashna wrote: post #202
izzydata wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just aren't trying hard enough.

Pro-skub or anti-skub? https://pbfcomics.com/comics/skub/

I find the notion that think that you think that its even morally appropriate to have a debate on skub to be absolutely reprehensible and disgusting, and I refuse to engage you further.
Post reply on HN