You should consider Microsoft and Apple... employees there don't really care too much about these things
Microsoft and Apple employees might care. However, workplace is not an appropriate forum to fight over politics or other non-work related topics. More importantly, it is important to maintain professionalism and focus on the job you've been hired to do. You can be an activist in your spare time. You may also not like your coworkers due to their political views but we live in a diverse world. Acknowledge that and work…
Stirring up political arguments with your officemates is one thing. Objecting to your employers (and thus, potentially, you) building censorship systems for oppressive regimes is something entirely different.
No it absolutely isn't. Adding an arbitrary and incendiary meaning to what others say is a major problem. You can create as many enemies as you want that way and it just fuels more division.
So, should people who are inherently political, say gay, trans, or non-binary folk not exist in the workplace?
Again, nobody in this entire page has said anything like that. How did you come up with this statement?
And no, the vast majority of people don't consider those characteristics to be political at all and really don't care. Come in, do work, go home, and don't hurt anyone. It's not a complicated political argument.
As an old school liberal, it pains me to see these activists described as "liberal". They don't even believe in freedom of speech for pity's sake, formerly a hallmark of being far right. Call them progressives, call them identity politics advocates, but whatever they are, they are not liberals. Don't lump us in with them.
The case of Classic Liberals opposing universal freedom of speech (originally largely aimed at "papists", a/k/a the Catholic Church, ~1600 - ~1800), is not entirely novel.
It's a power relation, and one which recognises that a sufficiently empowered majority (or oppressive, empowered, minority) can itself be inimicable with, or at least effectively portrayed as same, free expression.
The story of free expression is more complex than virtually all treatments acknowledge.
You should consider Microsoft and Apple... employees there don't really care too much about these things
Microsoft and Apple employees might care. However, workplace is not an appropriate forum to fight over politics or other non-work related topics. More importantly, it is important to maintain professionalism and focus on the job you've been hired to do. You can be an activist in your spare time. You may also not like your coworkers due to their political views but we live in a diverse world. Acknowledge that and work…
Google is a major media company now in that decisions they make about content influence political and social thought. That power leads to it becoming a target of politics and political activists.
I think it's more that they actively courted assertive people with opinions and then created a culture where you can bring your whole self to work. They did this so that they could get the benefits of creativity, which inherently requires emotional engagement, which requires that you not repress your emotions. (It turns out that it's not possible to selectively repress emotions: "I've got to watch what I say about po…
You can be creative and still act like a professional in a professional environment. One example is advertising agencies, which in the last century (in spite of what you see on popular television) were very button-up places but created cultural touchstones we still know today. (Edited to clarity I'm referencing ad agencies in the 20th century, not the SV-wannabe agencies a few have evolved into today.)
I work at one of the largest, oldest agencies there is and have worked before in big tech and in startups, and to be honest people in ad agencies are pretty open about controversial opinions around politics. I'd say the workers are, in general (as in, if you pick one randomly) more to the left side of the spectrum as in any arts-related organization, but as in any company there are different people from all sides - a left, liberal, atheist director hiring a right wing, conservative, Catholic worker is just normal, people don't bother too much with this kind of personal stuff.
My take is that the difference comes from the business model - agencies (as consulting firms) are client-facing and don't scale as pure tech companies so there's always some big, influential clients to please, so people tend to stop personal opinions from getting in the way of business, while in pure tech where engineers are far from their customers, politics become something relevant in the workplace.
I turned down an offer from Google (cloud) because I didn't want to work for a company that was so focused on politics internally. This was just after they fired Damore, not that I agree or disagree with his opinion, but because Google seems promote internal fighting. That type of culture doesn't appeal to me.
Dude, it's OK to say you agree with him. He was well-intentioned, and was trying to fix an actual problem, that spaces created by men aren't necessarily as welcoming to women. That's not wrong, even if you disagree with his approach. He was crucified because he dared to suggest that differences exist between men and women in any meaningful way.
As an old school liberal, it pains me to see these activists described as "liberal". They don't even believe in freedom of speech for pity's sake, formerly a hallmark of being far right. Call them progressives, call them identity politics advocates, but whatever they are, they are not liberals. Don't lump us in with them.