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Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

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Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#161

Post by gnicholas »

_o0rc wrote: post #121
snicker7 wrote: post #73

At this point, companies might as well just have an explicit policy of not hiring anyone registered as a Republican. Party affiliation is not a protected class, after all.

As pointed out below, there are some states where politics are protected. I looked it up because I do plan to use that information in hiring decisions going forward. I wouldn't surprised if I get downvoted for this, but I intend to ask anyone I interview in the future (not currently in a role that involves hiring) if they voted for Trump in 2020. And a yes will be a disqualifying answer on the basis of poor judgement…

> It's also a question I will be asking any potential employer I interview with, going forward, for the same reason.

This would be a very strange question to be asked of an interviewer.

> Yes it means I can't hire employees in California

Per the article I linked to up-thread, it's not just CA:

California, Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, South Carolina, West Virginia, Seattle, Ann Arbor, and Madison.

Maybe you don't care about some of those locations, but CA, CO, and Seattle seem like pretty important ones in the tech world.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#162

Post by [deleted] »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #146
neartheplain wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve gone and assumed the worst. “Trying to get that employee fired?” I just don’t see it. Anyway, the Metro employees union would never go for it. The no-eating rule is a fairly big deal on Metro. A twelve-year-old girl was famously arrested for eating a single French fry [0], in a case (Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) that went all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where the arres…

I’m not defending the vitriol or racist and toxic remarks she received; I’m saying she was using her position as a blue checkmark to publicly shame someone and to try to get them fired. And as a self-described social media and communications expert, she should have known that using her position of power to shame/snitch on someone could carry consequences. She could have reported it privately, but she chose to use her…

[deleted]

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#163

Post by jobigoud »

nilkn wrote: post #131
neartheplain wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve gone and assumed the worst. “Trying to get that employee fired?” I just don’t see it. Anyway, the Metro employees union would never go for it. The no-eating rule is a fairly big deal on Metro. A twelve-year-old girl was famously arrested for eating a single French fry [0], in a case (Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) that went all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where the arres…

As someone who's never been on the DC metro, my first reaction to this story was that it's pretty unreasonable to post an employee's photo to Twitter just because they ate on the train. While we can't say for sure that they wanted to get the employee fired, their intent was clearly for them to be held accountable in some way by their employer for this infraction. That said, if it's true that metro passengers have eff…

I've seen this interesting behavior in other contexts. There is a stupid rule that nobody likes. People make an effort to follow it despite hating it. When they see someone breaking the rule they feel that it's very unfair because of the effort they are making, so they report it to make it fairer. Either everyone should follow the rule or it shouldn't exist.

But in doing so they have become what they hated. They are now actively helping maintain and rooting for the stupid rule instead of fighting against it.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#164

Post by dmix »

Proziam wrote: post #107
mhh__ wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percentage of Republicans are the stereotype Parler user? If you were a rabid QAnon nut, why should I hire you? Saying republican is this context is just driving the wedge in too far.

The better question is what percentage of Parler users fit the stereotype ? Based on what I've seen and people I know who were active on Gab and Parler I would venture to say it's not nearly as high as people think. The amount of people with truly fringe beliefs is pretty small, even when concentrated.

> The amount of people with truly fringe beliefs is pretty small, even when concentrated.

And I'd personally much rather have this small group of people outletting their anger onto the internet instead of IRL.

Pushing them further and further into a corner with ever expanding censorship and expecting them to become good tolerant citizens has always seemed like a fools game to me.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#165

Post by inglor_cz »

mhh__ wrote: post #94
snicker7 wrote: post #73

At this point, companies might as well just have an explicit policy of not hiring anyone registered as a Republican. Party affiliation is not a protected class, after all.

What percentage of Republicans are the stereotype Parler user? If you were a rabid QAnon nut, why should I hire you? Saying republican is this context is just driving the wedge in too far.

In other words, stereotypes are obviously fun if it is me, an enlightened person, doing them...

I had a Parler login since July. Mostly out of curiosity and just to read/lurk. There was a very vocal loony subset, but that is the Internet for you.

Kicking people out of work for visiting a hacking forum is about same. After all, for the general public, hacking sounds like crime and sometimes actually is. People who deliberately choose to associate themselve with hackers are not to be trusted, or?

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#166

Post by wernercd »

Barrin92 wrote: post #145
nilkn wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of reasoning breaks down whenever a population is experiencing any form of mass hysteria, and I think there's a reasonable argument that the US is very much in the midst of such a phenomenon right now. Indeed, that was the point of the example being provided by the poster you replied to: her staff quit because they acted based on a hysterical rather than rational analysis of the situation. They didn't break…

I don't really see where the mass or the hysteria is. It's an individual business parting with an employee because the views shared in public are likely going to harm the business. Happens probably every day somewhere, why has this even become noteworthy?

> where is the hysteria

The hysteria is literally facing HARM from opinions.

Why is death threats and intolerance noteworthy? Maybe because intolerance, hate, bigotry and threats of violence should always be noteworthy? especially when concerned with those who claim to be tolerant?

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#167

Post by babesh »

babesh wrote: post #120

People are walking chimps, organizing into tribes and beating the other tribe. Like, our cousins, we take visceral emotional satisfaction in demeaning the other tribe. Today’s US is just a grand example of this at Internet scale and energized by social media. Welcome to shit throwing and the tearing off of genitals. What you have now are threat displays to keep the losing tribe in its place. People identifying with t…

People seem to be doing what losers do when facing destruction: move away.

You see movement in both physical and virtual spaces. In people and in companies to different states. In people moving to different social media. People stop fighting with you, they just avoid you.

China is going to be the obvious dominant world power within Biden’s term.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#169

Post by asdfsfkwqe »

D13Fd wrote: post #15
common_crow wrote: post #10

Reminds me of Dawn Frederick, a literary agent who was "cancelled" for calling 911 on looters who rammed a van into the gas station on her apartment block: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/p... This happened during the BLM protests this summer in St. Loius. The looters she reported were blocks away from any BLM protest, and other looting bands were setting fires on nearby blocks. Frederick w…

I honestly don't know why people use "post what you're thinking" style social media at all at this point. With employers being so sensitive, how can the cost/benefit analysis ever really result in a determination that it's a good idea to be active on Twitter/Facebook (or Gab, Parler, TheDonald.win, etc.)? Maybe that's part of what makes things get so extreme on those sites. The most reasonable people know enough not…

Isn't 'Speaking Freely' a core American spirit?

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#170

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

kenneth wrote: post #153
floatingatoll wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that this statement is false — "Gab and Parler are religious social networks" — a judge would likely require a pattern of hostility to be shown, or for the firings to coincide with expression of protected religious beliefs that are not also considered hate speech. (If they're considered hate speech, they're no longer protected expression, regardless of whether they're claimed to be religion or not.)

Say you refuse to hire or fire people from a predominantly black neighborhood — not because they're black, but based on the neighborhood — it's pretty accepted these days that that's discriminatory and not allowed. But now liberals here are saying that refusing to hire or firing people from a predominantly Republican and/or Christian social network is different. It's the same. That position is hypocritical regardless…

You haven’t established that the real reason was her religion - rather than it being anything else.
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