Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by rayiner » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:32 PM UTC

jariel wrote: post #182

Barrin92 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There is no chance they would have quit were there no hubub about it. Zero. They quit likely because they are in a rep-based business and their boss is stained. The 'mass outrage' is to some extent, outrage on them by virtue of trickle down or association. The public outrage adds emotional momentum to it. That the woman did something slightly questionable makes it one of the better examples of cancel culture, because…

What was the questionable decision?

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

#332

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

mssundaram wrote: post #193

sneak wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget about credentials, hiring someone is a risk and you basically go into it as an employer flying blind. I request social media links (not passwords, just profile links) from everyone I'm considering hiring, because any/all information I can use to winnow potentially problem hires out before I make an offer is extremely valuable to me. You can tell a lot about a person from their social media profiles and posts.

Do you even have social media accounts yourself? It seems very contradictory coming from someone who announced he is leaving LinkedIn and Twitter

[deleted]

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

#333

Post by boplicity » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

boplicity wrote: post #329

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…

The term "cancel culture" is extremely ironic. The implication of the term is that people should not be "cancelled" for expressing their views. And yet, backing out of a book deal, for example, is an expression of a view. In practice, the term is used to de-legitimize some opinions, while upholding others. The term "cancel culture" is cancel culture.

I don't mind down-votes, but I would prefer critical discourse.

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

#334

Post by srtjstjsj » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

boplicity wrote: post #329

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…

The term "cancel culture" is extremely ironic. The implication of the term is that people should not be "cancelled" for expressing their views. And yet, backing out of a book deal, for example, is an expression of a view. In practice, the term is used to de-legitimize some opinions, while upholding others. The term "cancel culture" is cancel culture.

This is a bad take, the wrong side of "paradox of tolerance".

Firing/boycotting someone for doing nothing wrong, not even for something "offensive", but just for appearing to have some observable qualities vaguely similar to people who do offensive things, is unjustifiable.

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

#335

Post by srtjstjsj » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

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…

Another PoC author got her book dropped and brigaded by abusive harassers on goodreads, for the crime of tweeting a gripe that a subway employee illegally ate food on a subway train.

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

#336

Post by srtjstjsj » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

filmgirlcw wrote: post #106

neartheplain wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another for your list: Jordanian-American woman gets her publishing deal canceled for tweeting about a rude DC Metro employee, because the Metro employee was black. https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/05/11/dc-...

I’m very much against people being fired for their social media posts (unless we’re crossing way over a line that delves into calls for violence or is doing something illegal), but that situation was a bit more complicated. That author, who was PR professional and verified on Twitter, was using her account and her blue-checkmark to shame a worker on a train for eating on her break. She literally tried to get that emp…

It not okay to libelously lie about people like this. Please stop.

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

#337

Post by rayiner » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

enkid wrote: post #298

cm2187 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the left-leaning orthodoxy of the moment is that you should under no circumstances read or watch any conservative media.

Do you have any evidence the "left wing" is in any more of an echo chamber than the right wing? Is this just personal observation or do you have something more to point to?

It’s not any more of an echo chamber, but in my experience it’s easier these days to hold heterodox opinions on the right. (Partly because over the last couple of decades the right has become more heterodox while the left has become more ideologically uniform.)

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

#338

Post by esja » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

LarvaFX wrote: post #287

esja wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being needlessly patronising, but I'll answer in good faith in case you are actually interested. Ceteris paribus, reducing your hiring pool is a negative. Can qualitative factors counteract that? Sure, it's possible. But there is no evidence for it here, only assertion. And the quantitative problem is very large, so those factors would need to be very powerful. Aside from that, it's naive to believe that the q…

So it is a matter of opinion then? Something that needs to be assessed? Where different assessment strategies can produce a different outcome?

No. The negative impact is a certainty. Any compensating factors are hypothetical and there’s no evidence for their existence or their impact pro or con. So in this argument, given what we know right now, they can be ignored.

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

#339

Post by opheliate » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

mellosouls wrote: post #312

cheph wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know it sounds like he’s “poisoning the well,” but this comment answered the question I had in my head. I thought the source was left-leaning but the article had a conservative voice. Comment contradicts what is in wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek#2018_investigation_an... Maybe ask for sources before using some random post making unverified claims as confirmation for your own biases.

The summary in Wikipedia may be correct but it is worth remembering that Wikipedia itself is hideously biased to the left at times in its coverage of political issues. I've generally taken that not to be down to malevolence but probably just down to the fact those drawn to editing it are most likely of a similar political hue to those from academia.

Honest question: Could you point to some examples of Wikipedia's "hideous" left-wing bias? Not trying to catch you out, I've just personally always been surprised by how neutral Wikipedia's political articles tend to be when I've read them, and I'd like to challenge my own perception here.

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

#340

Post by DaiPlusPlus » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

mellosouls wrote: post #23

cblconfederate wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but if a future employer asks to see some social credentials and they don't see any, they ll be suspicious

If a future employer expects such social "credentials" from me, I'll be suspicious and tell them where to go.

My favourite take I read about was to give them the credentials for a social-media account that is full of personal information that directly fields the "illegal interview questions"[1] (in US law, at least) - assuming one gets a rejection from the company you have grounds to sue them for discrimination because they essentially asked questions they're not allowed to.

[1] https://www.betterteam.com/illegal-interview-questions

I recall a case around 8-10 years ago when an employer or university admissions dept forcefully asked someone for their Facebook username and password - she declined but offered to login on a computer in the office for them to see - which they agreed to, and her profile had details the interviewers were not legally entitled to receive, and she sued and she won... - or something. Does anyone else remember?