I'm not a Woman in Tech

So the only place you post opinions is where you're protected by anonymity? That's a rough way to live. Have you considered that if you don't feel open enough to speak your opinions in public, maybe they should be challenged?

I disagree with your position on feminism, as it is a blanket statement which you would not want applied to yourself in an opposite position.

As for the left's beliefs on illegal immigration, again, blanket statement. I'm a pretty far leftist, but I agree that unfettered immigration isn't an ideal state. Where we may diverge is asserting causation to where we are today. We spent decades looking the other way as more and more people were crossing our borders because we had an economic benefit to do so — cheap labor. There were jobs we didn't want to pay citizens to do (farming, manual labor, home labor, etc.), and there were thousands of people willing to do them under the table because it was a better offer than they got at home.

We could have curbed this issue as it happened by removing the incentive. We could have penalized homes and businesses hiring undocumented labor. We could have enforced tax codes on all of the under the table money changing hands. We allowed entire industries to become dependent on unlawful cheap taxed labor. Today, we can't stop. Georgia tried to enforce above the board labor for one season and lost a harvest (https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/05/17/the-law-of-...). Cutting undocumented labor today would have disastrous consequences to our economy.

So, after decades of benefitting our economy, keeping food, hotels, restaurants, and numerous other service industries more affordable, we decide to start deporting? Hilarious. For all the talk of the "send them back" crowd, I don't think anyone is really thinking through what it means.

So yeah, I agree, we need to control illegal immigration. We also need to be realistic on the stupid situation we've created for ourselves by wanting cheap stuff.

As a fresh US immigrant from the middle of Europe yet visually passing as an average white man, I haven't even shared the style of upbringing that people assume I did, and yet I lean closer to the opinion expressed above because I fear that a determined person with an agenda can find a way to use my story or opinions to illustrate their point and paint me and broad classes of people as problematic in the process.

I empathize with those who've also turned to self-censorship for fear of being branded as part of a the problem. I want to have the tough conversations, but not at the expense of being made a public example for holding opinions that are neither hateful nor malicious, just colored by my origins and journey through life: the exact same factors that others advocate taking into account.

The whole thing is really unfortunate: people holding moderate (and in many ways, mainstream) opinions are withdrawing from the public discourse, which I don't believe is conducive to satisfactory progress.

Except that is completely different. If you throw a protest, other people have a right to counter-protest.

The reason I ask is that it seems like you might be using a circular definition here. You say "the left likes to use labels to stop free speech", but have you just defined "the left" in your head to mean "anyone who uses labels to stop free speech"?

I do think using such vague terms in general is at best useless, but it's especially pointless when you redefine labels to fit whatever you're trying to argue against.

This whole piece strikes me as rambling and misguided.

> “Woman in tech” is just another label I don’t need

The author agrees there is a shortage of women in tech and that it is a problem, yet how can you address a problem of underrepresented groups in tech without talking about those groups and referring to them through the use of labels? Does she really think we don't need these labels?

> I don’t want your ‘exclusively for women’ support groups

Those support groups are an attempt at solving the problem. Is it possible those groups are helpful to some women, even if not for you?

> I don’t want your special award

Same as above. This is an attempt at fixing the problem. Maybe it's not effective and kind of dumb/patronizing in some cases. Is it really where you should directing your frustrations though. No, if you care about the problem you should directing your frustrations at the root causes.

> It’s hurtful when you say “we need to solve the problem of women in tech” and “Maria, you’re a woman in tech” in the same breath…

I really did not understand the author's point here. People look to women in tech as pioneers and sources of solutions for getting more women into tech. It is quite natural to bring up women currently in tech, when thinking of ways to recruit more women into tech.

I get the author's point, that a lot of this stuff doesn't apply to her. She's comfortable in her job and doesn't need support groups or awards. It almost feels like bragging on her part, in the guise of acting annoyed at all this stuff that she doesn't want/need. Good for her, but not every woman can be like her, and shooting down attempts at solutions while offering none of her own is pretty shitty imo.