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

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

#341

Post by zests » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

rjmunro wrote: post #234

D13Fd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do posts like this one count as "post what you're thinking" social media?

Yes. Good question.

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

#342

Post by DaiPlusPlus » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #77

hertzrat wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media accounts are not credentials, and that requirement is bogus for 99% of jobs unless your job is social media publicity

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.

> I request social media links (not passwords, just profile links) from everyone I'm considering hiring

I don't have a Facebook account, nor Instagram, but would my Fetlife profile be okay?

* If not, why is Fetlife exempt from your idea of what a social-network is?

* If so, what business does my employer have at all seeing my Fetlife account?

* If you decide not to hire me entirely on the basis that I have a Fetlife account then you're opening yourself up to an unlawful discrimination lawsuit.

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

#343

Post by srtjstjsj » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #331

jariel wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Joining a website where nasty people make comments.

Imagine if every redditor was fired or or had their employees quit because of the absolutely horrific things some other users post there.

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

#344

Post by jdhn » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

banana_giraffe wrote: post #21

D13Fd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I always suspected there's a little bit of survivorship bias (? not sure of the best term here) going on. If you haven't suffered the hoards, or had someone you know suffer them, you're likely to think some combination of "it only happens when it's justified" and "no one will care about little old me" I've witnessed it happen to a colleague early on in my career. He posted how trivial it was to cause an IoT device to…

If neither company exists, why not name names anyways?

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

#345

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

henrikschroder wrote: post #19

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 phenomenon is called "purity spiral", and it's absolutely maddening. Here's a good article on it: https://unherd.com/2020/01/cast-out-how-knitting-fell-into-a...

I very vividly experienced this in a communist society, and later in a religious society. It is always a safe bet to praise G-d or Dear Leader a little more than customary. No one will dare to challenge you. And after a short while this becomes a new average and a minimum requirement.

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

#346

Post by forgingahead » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

enkid wrote: post #325

mellosouls wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just read the many, many articles on cancel-culture and de-platforming that have emerged in the last few years which is all a part of the same thing and overwhelmingly a problem from the left. Presumably the right-wing are just as capable (and historically have been the aggressor often), but the left have mastered it as a form recently.

So, this is a different argument from the one you were making before. You first post is about ingestion of media. This one is about production. This is a very different claim, but still requires evidence beyond stating that there is some. Can you help me out and provide some?

I'm not sure if you're asking in good-faith, your comment history shows a history of "Sea-lioning" (a term I just learned myself today):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning

From the original web-comic: http://wondermark.com/1k62/

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

#347

Post by onion2k » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:48 PM UTC

forgingahead wrote: post #113

tptacek wrote: post #63

Just a reminder that Newsweek ceased publication back in 2013, and the rights to its brand were purchased by an odd Christian sect, somewhat along the lines of The Washington Times and the Reunification Church. The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it; a good thing to do with Newsweek pieces is to check the byline and look up what their background is.

Honest question - it's obvious how you identify politically by all your posts here, but what has your comment got to do with the story? If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

I find a warning that a single story might be false much less useful than a comment pointing out that the reputation of the source is no longer to be trusted.

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

#348

Post by etangent » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:49 PM UTC

igravious wrote: post #277

etangent wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's because victim/oppressor is a false dichotomy. the true dichotomy is friend/enemy

um, in-group/out-group ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_and_out-group

The political philosophers got there before social psychologists https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schmitt/

“the specific political distinction … is that between friend and enemy.”

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

#349

Post by srtjstjsj » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:50 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #239

nmfisher wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's a free country" doesn't really add much to the discussion. No-one is saying her employees should be legally forced to stay with the company. What is being said, however, is that we should reverse this spiralling cultural trend of thinking it's OK to rail-road/strong-arm those not on your "side". It's a base, mob instinct that has caused riots, factionalism, witch hunts and genocide all throughout human history.…

The situation has escalated because normal, rational, calm politics has completely failed to deliver. Police shoot someone dead. There should, at the very least, be a reliable public inquiry into each one of these incidents. We could treat it as an air accident or a murder inquiry, either would work; but instead, there is nothing. Over the years, the anger about being exposed to the risk of being shot dead without co…

Completely different. Calling police with a false report of an extremely violent crime is hugely different from calling police on an actually crime.

And declaring war on policing is a horrific response to the (huge) problem of under 0.1% of interactions having inexcusably terrible outcomes. Lack of policing causes far more problems than policing. And if you disagree with that, do you deserve to lose your job for your good faith belief? The anti-policing extremists hurt the people they intend to help. The vast majority of Black communities don't want to cancel the current police as a whole, they want better police.

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

#350

Post by sneak » Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:50 PM UTC

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #342

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.

> I request social media links (not passwords, just profile links) from everyone I'm considering hiring I don't have a Facebook account, nor Instagram, but would my Fetlife profile be okay? * If not, why is Fetlife exempt from your idea of what a social-network is? * If so, what business does my employer have at all seeing my Fetlife account? * If you decide not to hire me entirely on the basis that I have a Fetlife…

Not having Facebook or Instagram accounts is a positive hiring signal for me. Having a Fetlife account, regardless of content, is another positive hiring signal for me. (I tend to preferentially hire nonconformists.)

Also, the last point is incorrect: being kinky is not a protected class, and one does not even need to be kinky to be on Fetlife. Not hiring someone because they are on Fetlife isn't protected class discrimination even if their Fetlife profile happened to disclose they are in a protected class. It's a social network like any other.

Interviewing someone opens oneself up to a potential lawsuit, period. Asking for information about a candidate that has nothing to do with membership in a protected class (such as "show me your public websites", which is what such a request amounts to) is no more risk than asking in what city someone went to university (the city for which, for example, could suggest they attended an HBCU). The whole process is fraught with risk; we should not allow that to prevent us from learning a detailed picture about a candidate's lifestyle and character (assiduously avoiding specifically seeking out information associated with protected class membership).

It's already common to ask for a LinkedIn or GitHub profile for hiring certain types of roles. There's no difference asking for Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.

Would you hire a photographer without seeing their Instagram?

It's also entirely legal to discriminate against someone for the specific set of social media services they do or do not have an account on, as long as they aren't serving as a proxy for protected class discrimination (eg ChristianMingle).

All of hiring is a process of discrimination: against the less skilled, less diligent, less suited to a particular job role. More information helps in that process. One has to always be careful to avoid discriminating against protected classes, but most attributes of most people, even outside of the professional sphere, are not protected and are legal and prudent grounds for hiring discrimination.