Live data from Hacker News

At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

nytimes.com

21–30 of 67 posts

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#21

Dear Netflix: Please fire every single individual that walks out. There are thousands of individuals who have been rejected from roles at your company that would look at this situation in a rational light.

So you're calling on Netflix to "cancel" these employees because they're expressing political views you don't agree with? And the political views you're so bothered by are... employees calling on Netflix to "cancel" someone who expressed political views they don't agree with? How is this not just flagrant hypocrisy

[deleted]

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#22
post #18

Whether or not you agree with Netflix or not, they are being hypocritical and inconsistent. They went and removed a bunch of shows for having blackface last year (from what I can see, used typically or maybe always for comedy and often in a way that's making fun of racism.) [1] Yet now their CEO is defending this new show and saying, "Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse – or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy –…

Netflix is simply following public opinion. As far as I can tell, most Americans think that blackface is wrong. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/11/about-a-thi... By comparison, most Americans think that gender is determined by your sex at birth. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/08/transgender... Platforms like Netflix do have to draw a line somewhere. The question is just where the line sho…

I think you're misreading that first link. It seems that only 37% of adults think that blackface is never acceptable. That's actually less then the gender one you linked.

Plus that first link is specifically asked about use in a Halloween costume.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#23
post #18

Whether or not you agree with Netflix or not, they are being hypocritical and inconsistent. They went and removed a bunch of shows for having blackface last year (from what I can see, used typically or maybe always for comedy and often in a way that's making fun of racism.) [1] Yet now their CEO is defending this new show and saying, "Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse – or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy –…

Netflix is simply following public opinion. As far as I can tell, most Americans think that blackface is wrong. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/11/about-a-thi... By comparison, most Americans think that gender is determined by your sex at birth. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/08/transgender... Platforms like Netflix do have to draw a line somewhere. The question is just where the line sho…

I'm sure most Americans also believe that rape and murder are wrong (unless done in some far away desert by the military), yet such acts are featured prominently on Netflix.

Are we really to believe that this [1] is such a horrible act of racism that must be cens... sanitized from history forever?

[1] https://youtu.be/LKjW5s3tXlo

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#24
post #4

Politics aside: how much operational and technical risk is staff walkout for companies like Netflix? Ie if 2% of their DevOps engineers leave immediately, would it create any noticeable operational/technical effect for Netflix?

in the short term, unlikely. If they can't manage to keep their systems running for a few hours during off peak hours, then they have bigger problems.

Long term, if 3% of their SRE/SWE leave Netflix tomorrow, would it make any noticeable operational/technical difference?

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#25
post #6
post #2

Dear Netflix: please don't cave to the faux outrage machine.

What about legitimately outraged people, like the ones being discussed here?

Outrage is an emotion. By itself it does not lend credibility to your cause. There is an excess of outrage in society, thanks BigSocialMedia. Hoping for a collective calm down.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#26

Dear Netflix: Please fire every single individual that walks out. There are thousands of individuals who have been rejected from roles at your company that would look at this situation in a rational light.

So you're calling on Netflix to "cancel" these employees because they're expressing political views you don't agree with? And the political views you're so bothered by are... employees calling on Netflix to "cancel" someone who expressed political views they don't agree with? How is this not just flagrant hypocrisy

You make an implicit assumption that firing is the same as cancelling which hasn't been established.

Also, they can be legally fired for walking out of work. Not all political expression is legally protected with regards to further employment.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#27

Dear Netflix: Please fire every single individual that walks out. There are thousands of individuals who have been rejected from roles at your company that would look at this situation in a rational light.

Presumably Netflix feels that those rejected people lack the skill and expertise of the people they hired instead. Would Netflix be willing to take the downgrade to avoid having employees protest?

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will absolutely forget all about this in a few weeks.

Interesting speculation, is it based on anything at all? Louis CK was highly criticized for going back on tour by the same people that criticized him for the sexual misconduct he admitted to in 2017.

[deleted]

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#29
post #27

Dear Netflix: Please fire every single individual that walks out. There are thousands of individuals who have been rejected from roles at your company that would look at this situation in a rational light.

Presumably Netflix feels that those rejected people lack the skill and expertise of the people they hired instead. Would Netflix be willing to take the downgrade to avoid having employees protest?

This is a good point but I would say an employee at work is more useful than one who isn’t.

Furthermore, the position these employees are taking shows a serious lack of judgement that might not have been considered during their hiring.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#30
Why do companies fear loud Twitter mobs or small groups of vocal activist employees? These companies can simply ignore them or fire them if they aren’t doing their job. It is best for tech companies to be politically neutral. After all, half the country and much of the world don’t hold progressive Bay Area views. Serving and representing them is just as important and employees need to maturely deal with it or quit.
Post reply on HN