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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

#371

Post by Person5478 »

srtjstjsj wrote: post #334
boplicity wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It blew me away when the ok symbol somehow became a white supremacist symbol.

I couldn't believe people would actually allow white supremacists to have so much power over them that they'd circumvent such a benign symbol.

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

#372

Post by srtjstjsj »

mellosouls wrote: post #315
enkid wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

I think the number of right wing political violence attacks is larger than the number of left wing political violence attacks and political cancelling a combined.

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

#373

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

srtjstjsj wrote: post #335
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.

Elsewhere in the thread it appears this author actually attempted to get this person fired. (Also, is has apparently been legal since 2019.)

It’s more complicated than this. I don’t condone any harassment but not accurately disseminating the information is the same non-nuanced mob behavior that causes the harassment in the first place.

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

#374

Post by zajio1am »

Seems to me that the core issue here is at-will employment. Currently, it is triggered by political purity spiral, but in other times there may be other impulses to cancel people.

Here in Czechia, emplyees generally cannot be fired for issues unrelated to work, and even most work excesses must be first handled by written admonishment before firing.

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

#375

Post by 1MachineElf »

cooper12 wrote: post #83
sneak wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels a bit snarky. There seems to me, looking at all of this US hyperpartisan nonsense as an outsider, to be quite a bit of difference between the frothy Gab/Parler/etc contingent and an average median republican (who I don't really imagine spends a ton of time on niche social media).

They're quick to tell on themselves. When Biden condemned white supremacy, a lot of conservative leaders were outraged at the attack against them: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/why-are-conservative... .

It's because conservatives see rhetoric about "white supremacy" as a weak man argument used against them. They don't believe themselves to be white supremacists. It's kind of like centrist Democrats being annoyed when conservatives call them socialists and communists. To see this as telling on themselves in this context is a bit like McCarthy saying only a communist would deny being a communist.

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

#376

Post by GoblinSlayer »

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?

Those quitting people themselves describe their quitting as punishment of bad people to make the world better, not to save business. Quit for business harm happens the other way around: when management fires an employee who started a controversy.

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

#377

Post by breakfastduck »

neartheplain wrote: post #128
filmgirlcw wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

You reap what you sow. Her shitty behavior prompted a shitty response.

I couldn't care less about how strict the rule is, highlighting your disagreement with it by shitting on the little guy isn't a good look.

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

#378

Post by ubermonkey »

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?

He's implying, correctly, that Newsweek is not a trustworthy or even-handed source, and that the ownership now is very likely to push stories in directions by leaving out information, or emphasizing red herrings, in order to drive an agenda.

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

#379

Post by breakfastduck »

sneak wrote: post #76
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.

This feels a bit snarky. There seems to me, looking at all of this US hyperpartisan nonsense as an outsider, to be quite a bit of difference between the frothy Gab/Parler/etc contingent and an average median republican (who I don't really imagine spends a ton of time on niche social media).

She wasn't fired for what she'd posted on those sites, though. She was fired for simply having an account.

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

#380

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

sneak wrote: post #350
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 disc…

> There's no difference asking for Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.

LinkedIn is a professional networking - and resume/CV hosting site. Facebook and Instgram are for friends, family, hobbies, and the like. They're worlds apart and it's intellectually dishonest of you to equate them.

> Would you hire a photographer without seeing their Instagram?

No, I wouldn't. Instagram isn't Flickr, deviantArt, nor their professional portfolio.

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