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Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

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Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#81
post #11

I think it's somewhat important to understand meta and its products are _not_ tech products. Outside of React and llama and the like, Meta is not building for or speaking to the tech community. If what they do or say sounds like populism, it's because it is. It can be ham fisted, because the majority of people are only barely paying attention, and the majority of people is who facebook wants to please. Like politics,…

Thank you for putting this so eloquently, especially “the majority of people are only barely paying attention”. It’s not necessarily bad, as you said, just the reality.

We may wish that reality were different or so, but we shouldn’t resent this fact.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#82
post #11

I think it's somewhat important to understand meta and its products are _not_ tech products. Outside of React and llama and the like, Meta is not building for or speaking to the tech community. If what they do or say sounds like populism, it's because it is. It can be ham fisted, because the majority of people are only barely paying attention, and the majority of people is who facebook wants to please. Like politics,…

Yeah, I don't think the billions you are talking about care about Meta's hiring policies. I don't even think billions of people accurately understand what it means to work at "Meta" vs. Facebook, Instagram, or Whatsapp (and even then, I doubt majority know that Meta owns all three surfaces).

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#83
post #28
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only seems bizarre if you didn't consider DEI programs to be largely symbolic corporate puffery in the first place. For all of the hate they received from some political spheres they were largely just PR initiatives right from the start, especially in larger companies.

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Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#84

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>Optimising for the majority over the minority is always good.

That's the literal opposite of capitalism.

Capitalism is optimizing for the minority (rich investors -- the "capital holders") over the majority (workers who have significantly less capital).

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've already run the experiment on what an unmoderated discussion forum looks like once it grows beyond a trivial number of users. It's called 4chan, specifically /b/. Twitter/X is just reinforcing the previous findings as it rapidly shifts into being another version of /b/. The shameless and the trolls push out the sensible people. It quickly devolves into conspiracy theories, grifts, porn, and propaganda.

4chan is moderated.

For some of the channels yes, but /b/ mostly stops at "delete the obvious child porn". Even the more moderated channels take a fairly light touch, only mostly removing off topic threads in addition to the blatantly illegal stuff.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#88
DEI was a song and dance that companies put on for the media, politicians, investors, employees, and the public at large.

Now anti-DEI is a song and dance for the exact same reason.

If you have been in the business long enough, you will know that the company has NO ONE's interests at heart. Never had and never will. They will discriminate against any race they have to, whether majority or minority, if it leads to an extra dollar on their balance sheet.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may have been a dog and pony show but were definitely real and forced executives to change how they hire and promote in illegal, discriminatory ways.

Perhaps in your experience, I would be for them if they "forced executives to change how they hire". From my perspective, that has not happened. My problem is their lack of teeth to do what they say they do.

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