Live data from Hacker News

Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

economist.com

921–930 of 1001 posts

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#921
post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are extremely to the left everything else is to the right, right?

Not everyone, but if you think it's a good idea to get on stage and say that white supremacy doesn't exist as a significant part of American culture, I think I have a pretty solid idea who you voted for in 2020. Especially if you have a reputation for reposting Breitbart articles. As an outsider, what it looks like happened at Basecamp was: 1. Some people did something insensitive. Not great, but not the end of the w…

[deleted]

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#922
post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are extremely to the left everything else is to the right, right?

Not everyone, but if you think it's a good idea to get on stage and say that white supremacy doesn't exist as a significant part of American culture, I think I have a pretty solid idea who you voted for in 2020. Especially if you have a reputation for reposting Breitbart articles. As an outsider, what it looks like happened at Basecamp was: 1. Some people did something insensitive. Not great, but not the end of the w…

[deleted]

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#923
post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are extremely to the left everything else is to the right, right?

Not everyone, but if you think it's a good idea to get on stage and say that white supremacy doesn't exist as a significant part of American culture, I think I have a pretty solid idea who you voted for in 2020. Especially if you have a reputation for reposting Breitbart articles. As an outsider, what it looks like happened at Basecamp was: 1. Some people did something insensitive. Not great, but not the end of the w…

[deleted]

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#924
post #843

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, get new friends. They sound horrible. So many stories. My skip level manager had me in a 1-on-1 once and said something along the lines: “you probably got the green card because Trump likes your demographic”. (I have an EB-1 extraordinary ability green card, and I assume they were talking about me being straight and white). What the fuck am I supposed to say there? Was absolutely speechless. Moments like that a…

[flagged]

Downvote button is not just for disagreeing guys. I’m not even allowed to downvote because I don’t have enough karma but it seems like those who are deemed worthy to are abusing it.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#925
post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are extremely to the left everything else is to the right, right?

Not everyone, but if you think it's a good idea to get on stage and say that white supremacy doesn't exist as a significant part of American culture, I think I have a pretty solid idea who you voted for in 2020. Especially if you have a reputation for reposting Breitbart articles. As an outsider, what it looks like happened at Basecamp was: 1. Some people did something insensitive. Not great, but not the end of the w…

[deleted]

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#926

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think another problem is that communicating by text in twitter posts. Its very hard to tell how serious someone is being. No facial expressions, mannerisms, or hand movements to guide. Like they could be making up the most absurd reactions, typing up a storm, and people will take them seriously more often than not.

Twitter is worse than other platforms because the format is really contrived. The 280 character limit doesn't give people space to write a nuanced, fair, well thought out response to things. Also, if you contrast twitter and reddit, I would say that on reddit, everyone is kind of on the same footing more or less. Anyone can post a thread and if the content is interesting, it can rise to the top, then every response i…

You should check out r/politics. It's primarily progressive and is as if the worst Twitter opinions sprang to life, became Twitter users, and got a larger textarea. Twitter does have the concept of topics, but it's mainly a mechanism for virality, which is tags. It's well known that Twitter users will witness an event emerge online, converge on a tag, and all compete for the edgiest quotes to get into the news reactions.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#927

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe their reputations weren’t all that impressive to begin with. In any case, “allowing” is doing some heavy lifting there. No one is allowing anything. This is just how a society with mostly free expression works. Are people not supposed to express their dissatisfaction with other people? If I don’t like something, and enough other people don’t like it, such that an organization responds in a way to appease us, sh…

> If I don’t like something, and enough other people don’t like it, such that an organization responds in a way to appease us, should there be a law to prevent that? Like when certain people didn't like other people sitting at the front of buses?

Ignoring context is a thing I guess. But can you imagine if being an asshole was a protected class? The world would be a terrible place if the loudest, most obnoxious people never faced consequences.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#928
post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are extremely to the left everything else is to the right, right?

Not everyone, but if you think it's a good idea to get on stage and say that white supremacy doesn't exist as a significant part of American culture, I think I have a pretty solid idea who you voted for in 2020. Especially if you have a reputation for reposting Breitbart articles. As an outsider, what it looks like happened at Basecamp was: 1. Some people did something insensitive. Not great, but not the end of the w…

[flagged]

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#929

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That dynamic has not existed since March 2020.

I.e. since covid-19 (just in case someone finds this discussion 20 years later and wonders what was special about that March month)

I'm curious if Americans won't really understand the meaning of that in 20 years. I feel like it would be equivalent to saying "September of 2001", and surely Americans now understand what that refers to.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#930

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because "no politics at work" isn't neutral, it means supporting the status quo by way of defining what counts as "politics". Is calling someone by their preferred pronouns, or wearing a mask during the pandemic politics?

I feel like there's a vast, decent middle ground between deliberately misgendering your coworkers and the current inquisition-style shitfest.

Being deliberately misgendered at work is a real issue, the law doesn't prohibit it in many states. Look at cases like Meriwether v. Hartop, a professor was disciplined for deliberately misgendering a student repeatedly, then successfully sued the university
Post reply on HN