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A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#511

Post by [deleted] »

jariel wrote: post #434
monoideism wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why use a special term? Just "racism" works very well. The idea that only certain races can "qualify" for racism is Orwellian.

The intersectional view is that 'real racism' requires a power imbalance - which is actually a fair point. It would be unfair not to recognize that some groups have considerably more power than others. That said - it's still racism one way or another, discriminatory etc. and in 2020 it's getting really hard to talk about individuals as being a function of their race. So while it's worth reminding ourselves of the int…

[deleted]

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#512

Post by CryptoPunk »

mithr wrote: post #230

The part of the original statement that seems inconsistent to me is this. Armstrong says that one of the things that helps Coinbase achieve their mission is: > Enable belonging for everyone: We work to create an environment where everyone is welcome and can do their best work, regardless of background, sexual orientation, race, gender, age, etc. Great. So Coinbase believes that critical to their mission is enabling e…

>>Ok. So to pick an obvious example, two related issues that would clearly fall into the “not directly related to the mission” bucket are gay and transgender rights. Without getting at all into the issue of where you (Dear Reader) stand in terms of these particular issues, it seems to me that by saying “we explicitly will not lobby to make sure transgender people have equal rights, because that’s outside of our mission” is at direct odds with saying “we believe a core part of our mission is making sure transgender people feel welcome and can do their best work”.

Unless some law is interfering with the ability of Coinbase to provide a welcoming workplace to employees who are gay/transgendered, gay/transgender social causes have nothing to do with Coinbase's goal of providing a welcoming workplace that maximizes its ability to advance its mission.

You can't shoehorn every 'social justice' issue into the goal of providing a welcoming workplace. The latter statement is not meant to be interpreted in such an all-encompassing way.

The kind of absolutism that premises your perspective/position would engulf everything in politics.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#513

Post by TedShiller »

wonnage wrote: post #450
TedShiller wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what liberals say. Conservatives will say the opposite. Hence you need both or neither, or someone will be unhappy.

conservatives are more interested in staying on power over actually being right about anything though, it's a fact

Why is it a fact? I'm independent, so I usually let the other two sides battle it out among themselves, while I stand by and am usually quite impressed by the sophisticated and clever arguments going both ways. I have yet to be swayed either way. Still, it's interesting!

In a way it's an optimization. My hope is that one day, when the two sides have finally come to a conclusion as to which one is right, I can join that one, and save myself a lot of trouble in the meantime ;)

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#514

Post by fblp »

We had a problem where political conversations were emerging in the office that may be inconsiderate of the views who may be listening.

I proposed a simple rule that you should seek consent from others in the room before bringing up (partisan) politics. This simple "Hey can we talk about the debate last night..." allows for people to skip out before they get dragged into something they may not be interested in.

Many people have their key social group at work, and a lot more energy is tied up in politics in the US at the moment. I think it's important that people can move this energy with their colleagues and others.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#515

Post by sergiotapia »

JPKab wrote: post #167
krzyk wrote: post #123

Is "apolitical" stance a bad thing? Isn't it the default, safe? I lived in country where you had to be "political" to be in management, it didn't end up well (East Europe, Soviet Union), I always (naively?) thought that West countries were wiser. So I prefer companies to not mess with politics.

My wife is mostly liberal from a US political perspective, but happens to be opposed to abortion. I happen to disagree in nuanced ways with her on this topic. My business. According to my coworkers, who discovered this because they saw her bumper sticker when she picked me up one day, this is because she is "ignorant and doesn't know the facts" and "if she knew the facts she wouldn't think that way" and that I "need…

It's so bonkers that your coworkers would actually bring this up to you lol what kind of lunatics do you work with?!

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#516

Post by ponker »

damnyou wrote: post #397
ponker wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are definitely people who don’t want her to exist but there are also ones like me, who get called Nazis for it, but whose perspective is largely 1) OK 2) please pay for your own costs related to your choices and 3) I’m not being an asshole to you because you’re a black trans woman, I’m being an asshole to you because I am an asshole and my white male friends say “oh Xxx is such as asshole.” So don’t tak…

In other words, given the rates of poverty among Black trans women, you don't want her to be allowed to exist. Your view is not above regular politics. It is a view that's firmly embedded within the right wing of regular politics. I personally wouldn't consider it "Nazi" but would definitely consider it deeply transphobic, and exclude you from my friend circle. If I met someone with your view at work, I would avoid a…

Yep — this is Exhibit A as to why this is something I say only anonymously. Any other forum and she’s stunning and brave.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#517

Post by exolymph »

tabbott wrote: post #79
areichert wrote: post #4

> “I’m worried that the severance package was too good” Yeah... I'm genuinely curious how many people actually quit over the "apolitical" stance, vs employees that were just unhappy with the job in general and took this convenient opportunity to leave with a pretty sweet deal.

Remember that this is a press release, not independent journalism. This press release tries hard to position it as "people left because of the severance was really good" because that narrative is in Coinbase's interest. That may be true, but it's also possible most of 60 people quit through this program because they were upset about it. In an ideal world a reporter could answer your question by talking to many of the…

Independent journalism (or really any journalism) is also narrative-optimized, it's just that the optimization incentives are different from corporate comms. In neither case — in no case — are you getting the unvarnished truth. That's simply not available, however much we'd like it to be.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#518

Post by Pfhreak »

CameronNemo wrote: post #492
creato wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An example could be climate change. If Coinbase is doing nothing to make energy more green (even if that's just writing amicus briefs or blog posts), then they are effectively saying, "The way things are is fine." You think every single company that isn't writing amicus briefs or blog posts about climate change is taking a political stance against fighting climate change?

No, but coinbase is a company that thrives on carbon intensive technology. If they are not doing what they can to shift the scales of cryptocurrency toward more sustainable proofs, while at the same time promoting cryptocurrency, they are accelerating carbon pollution.

Exactly. This is why I specifically choose climate change for coinbase.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#519

Post by adventured »

adrianN wrote: post #502
dd36 wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not down with the current iteration of the Republican Party?

Do they work for white people, or for rich people? (I don't follow US politics too closely, so this is not a rhetorical question) I feel like racism and classism is often not separated cleanly in discussions about these things, especially in the US.

The Democratic Party has a lot more wealthy people, a lot more of the 1%, and a lot more six figure earners, than the Republican Party does today. It's not remotely a close comparison.

That's why Democrats (comically) fought so hard to preserve the SALT tax break for higher income earners - so many Democrats earn six figures in locations like SF, LA and NYC. It's comical because it put the Democrats in a position of fighting for tax breaks for people earning high incomes.

The notion that the Republican Party is the party of the rich is no longer accurate. The voting foundation of the Republican Party today is the middle class that the Democrats have increasingly abandoned over the last 30 years (which is entirely what got Trump elected; white, educated women are what cinched Trump's election, and the middle class voters in critical states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin).

The Democratic Party is largely hyper bifurcated between wealthier white people and poorer miniorities, heavily coastal in location. The Republican Party largely consists of the lower middle class up to the lower upper class, and is largely centered in so called fly over or red states, non-coastal, and almost entirely white. These are generalities (ie there are exceptions), however they are broadly correct.

Democrats dominate to an extreme all the high-wealth locations in the country, including nearly every major metro (which is where most of the high wealth individuals live in the US). Those metros include: Seattle, NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Jose, Austin, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, and so on. There is only one Republican mayor among the top 10 largest US cities, with Republicans only having the mayorship of 13 of the 50 largest cities.

The richest people also tend to be Democrats: Gates, Zuckerberg, Buffett, Bezos, Bloomberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, MacKenzie Scott, Steve Ballmer, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Laurene Powell Jobs.

It doesn't get any more elite and money-representative than that list. Nine of the ten richest people in the US are Democrats. It's hilarious that the Republican Party is supposedly the party of the rich, and those people are all Democrats. I say all of this as someone that has never voted Republican in my life. I don't care for the party, however the old propaganda narrative that they represent the rich is false today.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#520

Post by staticautomatic »

throwaway581029 wrote: post #464
throwaway894345 wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My last company was trending in a similar direction. They would allow one ideological group to post completely unsubstantiated political claims, but opposing views were not allowed to be presented at all, even if they were thoroughly researched (this wasn't "official" policy, of course). Note that while I'm not a lawyer, I suspect that these permitted ideological viewpoints were sufficiently sexist and racist as to o…

Increasingly aggressive activism of this sort started ramping up at my employer a couple of years ago. Several outspoken activists started complaining and demanding all-company meetings, which were granted by HR and company leadership. In these mandatory meetings, which were attended by hundreds of employees, all sorts of contradictory accusations were lodged by the activists. For example, in the first meeting, one o…

An acquaintance of mine worked for a company that stocked tampons in the men’s restroom because someone lobbied for it despite the company having no female->male trans employees. My acquaintance, who is male->female trans, was baffled.
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