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A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

nytimes.com

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Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#411

Post by thaumasiotes »

MonkeyClub wrote: post #211
swatcoder wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The satanic and brainwashing/deprogramming scares of the 80’s changed the way a lot of people use the word, but for the preceding several millennia cult simply suggested: A membership community with secrets and opportunities reserved for members. There are millions of these around us, and we’re all probably members of several. It seems to be pretty normal throughout history. We just don’t acknowledge it as such becau…

> A membership community with secrets and opportunities reserved for members. That can also be a guild. "Cult" is a term from the study of religion (a particular field's jargon, if you will), and usually conveys intense devotion, a ritual or sacrificial dimension that goes beyond a master craftsman's level of devotion to a craft. Also, a guild can't entertain fanciful ideas about their craft for too long, if the idea…

> "Cult" is a term from the study of religion (a particular field's jargon, if you will), and usually conveys intense devotion, a ritual or sacrificial dimension that goes beyond a master craftsman's level of devotion to a craft.

That might be the modern colloquial use, but I don't think it has much to do with the use of the word "cult" in the study of religion?

As I understand the word, you might talk about the cult associated with a particular temple (meaning just local practices, as opposed to more widespread general practices), or the cult associated with the worship of a particular god (meaning beliefs and practices pertaining to that god and his or her worship in specific, such beliefs might be very widespread or might be highly localized), or you might talk about a mystery cult, which is pretty much by definition a widespread phenomenon distinguished by the fact that it has secret teachings unknown to non-initiates.

But none of those senses convey any special devotion in comparison to ordinary worship; most of them are ordinary worship.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#412

Post by webel0 »

The New York Times article [1] largely adds support to the author’s claims.

It also provided some interesting background on how this level of nepotism might have come about:

> Ms. Jones, Mr. Lloyd’s [The author] lawyer, argued that Google’s relationship with ASG [contracting agency] allowed members of the Fellowship to join the company without being properly vetted. “This is one of the methods the Fellowship used in the Kelly case,” she said. “They can get through the door without the normal scrutiny.”

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/technology/google-fellows...

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#413

Post by [deleted] »

jancsika wrote: post #226

Just to clarify-- this article is about a modern religious cult. Modern religious cults are groups that use a whole host of well-known manipulative techniques to trap victims in insular groups which are then difficult to escape after the fact. Leaders of those groups directly abuse those victims physically and/or emotionally (and often drain their bank accounts as well). This isn't, "My parents are worried about my w…

[deleted]

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#414

Post by glenstein »

rendall wrote: post #383
glenstein wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, to your point, it's especially appropriate to raise a red flag over a possible retaliatory firing based on him raising concerns.

I wonder if his continuous reporting rose to the level of harassment, and Google needed to shed him to avoid discrimination allegations.

Possible. But when people say "what's the harm", well, it's spelled out in the linked Medium post. Meanwhile "I wonder if XYZ" has the disadvantage of not being substantiated by anything.

After reviewing the NYT article, there's much that independently vet's the claims put forward by Kevin Lloyd, the author of this Medium piece. Most notable in support of Kevin Lloyd's portrayal is the fact the director of GDS has already been successfully sued by someone else for similar treatment.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#415

Post by madrox »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #380
madrox wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point was that you can't really go after nepotistic hiring practices alone without also throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Nepotism happens all the time, and it's usually benign, like Stanford grads hiring Stanford grads. We want to work with our friends, people we've worked with before, and people with similar backgrounds as ours. This comment thread is about what policy, if any, can these people…

> I think the point was that you can't really go after nepotistic hiring practices alone without also throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The comment just said "investigate"! This is getting very strawmanny.

I tend to agree, but I think that's because people want to see these cult members fired and are working backward from there to find grounds. That's an easy lawsuit at best and illegal at worst.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#416

Post by user_7832 »

abirch wrote: post #229
indigodaddy wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is “gift” link? It still makes me sign in to try to read it..

There should be a parameter in the back of the link that lets see this article for free, e.g., unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DLDm8ciPgYCIiG_EPKarskaNw00DCWAdFMNLsoW-dyz_caOEIoRROpr52Ig9EeLi4p74KvW2d8l7T8YYcFyx64JG-oNLU4g7SloxONNDX3Wvba1yUnd1569Jc1c0Wt3SYM2vzHG-VqitZ5jfcjB5p-TWpWdzDK66ezc2h2MdWHbBjd7wkkCaoOCXyIw4nqu_9Xex5SCFnGUHp7_W44jdhfM9odN6z5RAUyLIu82f5CTzw1c_r…

If you don't mind my asking, how did you get the gift code? Can any subscriber get it, or do you need special privileges?

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#417

Post by mandevil »

dubswithus wrote: post #362
ineedasername wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At minimum Google could have investigated the odd clustering of employees that indicated some sort of nepotistic hiring practice. Of course they might be doing exactly that, but it's not the sort of thing they can really comment on. Edit: also the self-dealing on hundreds of thousands of dollars in wine.

No, at a minimum they should have fired all these people for funding a pedophile with their salaries. Absolutely disgusting. > I found support groups where ex-members talk about their time in the group, including discussions of sexual abuse and grooming. > Members have described him grooming and sexually assaulting male followers, including minors

So, does that mean that funding the Roman Catholic Church is a fire-able offense? What about the Southern Baptist Convention? Or Penn State University (at least while Jerry Sandusky was working there)? Or Michigan State (at least while Nassar was there)? Or the BBC (whilst Jimmy Savile was there)?

I'm definitely not trying to defend Fellowship of Friends here, just pointing out that a zero tolerance policy for supporting pedophiles pretty quickly falls apart because the successful abusers- those who can consistently abuse lots of people, like Burton, are almost always in a position of power in some organization or another. That's what gives them access and cover to do it to so many victims after all.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#418

Post by [deleted] »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #172

So this is a video production department, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. The aesthetic of the modern corporate/tech video is cultish in character and it would make sense that these people know how to do this. And then it’s also interesting because one could assume that these people could do so because the actual engineers in Alphabet probably aren’t all that focused or interacting with this video t…

[deleted]

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#420

Post by lnxg33k1 »

I am not sure what to take about this post other than either I’m unable to understand the culture in which the fact happened or the guy is an idiot with capitalised letters and space, but I always joked with coworkers when I joined a company when I was introduced to the team to whom you were supposed to report illegal things you saw within the company, and we would think who is so naive to report the company to the company, here we go… guys to other people who might be listening, illegal things are to be reported to police
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