In the competition to see who can be most hateful towards Republicans…
…without actually doing them physical harm (that’s a different competition), Google executive David Hogue is going for the gold.
I’m not going to reproduce what he wrote; it’s just too hateful. Follow the link and you’ll get the picture.
I observe, however, that it’s an odd type of virtue-signaling competition that features people trying to outdo each other in expressing the most hateful hate. And the quasi-religious imagery Hogue used would seem odd at first glance, particularly on behalf of a movement (the left) that for the most part detests religion. However, if you reflect that leftism has replaced religion for the majority of leftists, it’s not really surprising that leftism might borrow some of the most terrifying of old-fashioned (and mostly abandoned) religious imagery.
I’ll add that, had Hogue expressed the same sentiments against a group such as blacks or women, he would have been fired from Google so fast he’d just be a blur in the rear-view mirror. But Google (like Georgetown University before it) thinks statements like that have no bearing on his ability to do his job fairly and impartially:
A Google spokeswoman told Fox News: “What employees say in their personal capacity has no bearing on the way we build or operate our products.”
Remind me again: why did James Damore lose his position at Google? Compared to Hogue, what he wrote was extraordinarily mild.
Google can hire or fire whoever it wants, but there is clearly a double standard here. Google’s official problem with Damore was as follows:
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a note to Google employees…[which] read “to suggest a group of our colleagues [females] have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK” …
…an internal NLRB memo found that his firing was legal. The memo, which was only released publicly in February 2018, said that while the law shielded him from being fired solely for criticizing Google, it did not protect discriminatory statements, that his memo’s “statements regarding biological differences between the sexes were so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive as to be unprotected”, and that these “discriminatory statements”, not his criticisms of Google, were the reason for his firing.
And what had Damore written that was so very “discriminatory”? This:
Calling the culture at Google an “ideological echo chamber”, the memo says that while discrimination exists, it is extreme to ascribe all disparities to oppression, and it is authoritarian to try to correct disparities through reverse discrimination. Instead, it argues that male/female disparities can be partly explained by biological differences. Damore said that those differences include women generally having a stronger interest in people rather than things, and tending to be more social, artistic, and prone to neuroticism (a higher-order personality trait). Damore’s memorandum also suggests ways to adapt the tech workplace to those differences to increase women’s representation and comfort, without resorting to discrimination.
These are ideas that could—and should—be discussed and even debated, if people want to refute them. But apparently even the expression of such heretical (I use that word purposely, for its religious connotations) ideas are verboten.
But it’s not a problem at all for Hogue to say what he said about Republicans. Maybe Google doesn’t think there are any Republicans working at Google, and therefore his comments wouldn’t make anyone at Google feel uncomfortable. Maybe they’re even correct in the assumption that no Google employee is a Republican. One thing I strongly suspect is that, if there are any, they’re deeply undercover.
I followed your link. We have a bunch of people in responsible positions with scores of people working under them and they’re frauds out of one side of their mouth and lunatics out of the other. Why is the Google high command populated with people who fancy they have the same dog in this dispute?
I’m pretty sure what they have is a cat. A cat that identifies as a dog.
Google started out with a mission statement that included the phrase “Don’t be evil.”
No one believed it for a moment, but at least they were trying to look good. They’ve since gotten rid of that phrase. That says it all, doesn’t it?
They, like the press, are no longer pretending to be impartial in any way.
Socialism was always sold as a religion. It was a religion with no morality so everything was permitted.
http://heavenonearthdocumentary.com/resources/commentary_socialism_vs_religion_07-14-02.pdf
I guess that militantly irreligious people going to the trouble of damning others to Hell, is somewhat akin to progressive defenders of sexual diversity maligning someone as a “faggot” or “old queen”.
Funny how that works. Funny too, that those who do not believe in Hell, find themselves quite upset with being consigned there by others who don’t believe in its existence either.
I imagine remaining conservatives at Google are in deep, deep cover. I know someone working for a federal government contractor. Even though the work is generally defense-related, deep cover as to political leanings is required to survive.
Conservatives do indeed exist at Google, and they are indeed under deep cover. (I worked there for seven years, and left only recently.)
I would NOT say that the working environment at Google is toxic for conservatives; at any rate, I didn’t find it so. At times, however, it could be quite uncomfortable. In November 2016, the outpouring of sympathy – from ALL managers – over the tragic outcome of the recent election, with people standing by to lend a sympathetic ear if needed, got so nauseating that I did have to speak up. (“Why”, I remember asking, “are you assuming that all of us treat this outcome as tragic? Perhaps some of us do not.” My manager was quite nonplussed; some of my colleagues reacted with surprise: “Why, Daniel, I never would have suspected that of YOU.” Good times.)
NPR this morning had what could only be called an “expose” of the degree of hypocrisy Silicon Valley leaders show in accepting Saudi money via investment funds, with their professed abhorrence of the medieval Saudi culture. And the point was made that MOST employees were scornful of the hypocrisy of the “elder” (30-ish) leaders! I wonder how many also see their leaders’ hypocrisy toward their fellow Americans of conservative bent, who are obviously light-years more culturally advanced than the KSA, but whom they are proud to openly despise, like they dare not publicly despise the Arabs!
Sounds like big trouble is brewing in Little Smugtopia!
Trying to zoom back on what is happening – the left has never accepted the results of the election and are predicted to win the House as we all know. They have told us that want to impeach Trump and it seems likely they will have to go ahead with that. They also are demanding that Kavanaugh recuse himself in any dispute over getting a hold of, say, Trump’s tax records, if the dispute goes to the supreme court. If Kavanaugh doesn’t they will impeach him. That and impeaching Trump will prove futile if the Republican hold the Senate and I believe a 2/3 majority is needed for conviction in the Senate. While I prefer that that the Republicans hold the House, the crazy passion on the part of the left by powerful people like Hogue may need to play out in the House to decisively convince the independent voters that the Democrats don’t deserve power again. Put another way I feel it is unlikely that the left can get over its insanity without getting enough power to demonstrate it is completely unfit for office. I have already voted by absentee ballot for every Republican on the ballot. But I am prepared to see an intensification of the Democrat circus in the House over the next two years.
This is such an interesting situation. I think there is a lot going on under the surface that the ‘higher ups’ don’t see. My children and their significant others work in the tech world and they are most definitely conservative. I don’t think they are the only ones, either. Having said that, young people put a higher value on belonging to the group and not rocking the boat is the price they pay for that privilege. Also, there are many, many, young men in that world who come from very conservative Asian families – they would run down the street naked before they would challenge the party line, but they are in no way true believers.
Last week my daughter told me she had bailed out of social media for a while, saying it had all gotten to be ‘too much’. I did wonder if it was the Kavanaugh circus that brought that on.
This is how you get massive ‘overnight’ change. It reminds me of the waning days of the Soviet Union, everyone kept up the pretense but no one believed it…
you must be ignorant of democratic politics. when I say you I mean most conservatives. as sun tzu said know your enemy and yourself and you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles (elections) if you know neither you will always lose! be careful what you wish for you might get it! for years conservatives have told democrats your leaders are a bunch of establishment phony hippocrite limousine liberal corporate stooges. 2016 election and kavenaugh hearing proved to democrat base your right! clinton, fienstein, pelosi, schemer and the rest of these establishment bozo’s are now discredited with democrat party base. in a panic pelosi, clinton, eric holder and the other leaders are going full che guevera to keep from being thrown out of democrat party leadership by former docile older democratic lib/dikes women who are getting out the butcher knives. the night of the long knives has begun in democrat party!
A pretty horrifying piece about the work environment at Google…not politics-related, just work organization & work relationships:
https://threader.app/thread/1049523067506966529
“My desk was directly next to (the Senior VP’s) glass-walled office. He would walk by my desk dozens of times during the day. He could see my screen from his desk. During the 8 months I was there, culminating in me leading the redesign of his product, Vic didn’t say a word to me. No hello. No goodbye, or thanks for staying late. No handshake. No eye contact.”
Of course, we don’t know how credible the writer is or how well he’s gotten along in other places; still, I think anyone considering investing in Google or using them for critical services such as Cloud would do well to investigate just how toxic the organizational climate is in the place.
you must be ignorant
Before you call us ‘ignorant’, learn to spell “Maryknoll”
Daniel Schwartz’s description is sad in that it portrays that the exact environment of academia has been transplanted into these work places; complete with “counseling” for the fragile libs dealing with those awful conservatives
Before you call us ‘ignorant’, learn to spell “Maryknoll”
Not to mention
“nicuragua,”which Republicans and most of the world have learned to spell as “Nicaragua.” Apparently knowledge of how to correctly spell that world hasn’t yet reached wammo’s world.Difference being this guy wrote what he wrote on his private twitter feed. Damore wrote a memo and circulated it on company time. It’s not apples to apples. Yes, had the memo been circulated in a private context he probably still would have been canned, but we’ll never know.
And no, I’m not defending Google. I f*cking hate them and refuse to use them for most everything, but fair is fair.
“leftism has replaced religion”
No, it replaced Christianity (and some measure of Deism). Leftism (or Progressivism) is a religion, as others have noted.
I’m an engineer. A few years ago, I was looking to change jobs, and got in touch with a Google engineering lead at one of their data centers via a mutual friend. We swapped a few emails and then got together in person to discuss a job that was coming up at a new Google location in our area. The individual I met with thought I’d be a great fit, and took my information to enter into their hiring system as an internal referral, which he said would guarantee at least an initial telephone interview. He called me later to tell me I was in the system, and should expect a call from HR.
A week passed, then two. No calls and no contact. I sent him an email asking if I should be doing anything to help the process. No reply. I waited another week and called him. Straight to voicemail, no response. Further emails also got no response. I shrugged and went on with my life.
A few later I told this story to a headhunter who’d contacted me about a different job. “Well yeah,” he said, “They Googled you.” He went on to explain that my online footprints, going back a couple of decades, would prevent me from ever working for any major Silicon Valley company, with Google at the top of the list. “They’re never going to hire a conservative, not knowingly. You never had a chance.”
Things have worked out fine for me since, and I don’t regret missing out on that opportunity now. I wouldn’t work for any company that short-sighted and bigoted. But the time between then and now has done nothing but bolster that headhunter’s take on the whole thing.
Google is a cult controlling the information most people see. Very dangerous.
“They’re never going to hire a conservative, not knowingly. You never had a chance.”
That doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a reasonable inference that their seminal institutional culture was disordered and they haven’t yet faced competition which has broken that culture.
Damore wrote a memo and circulated it on company time.
Again, the management at Google had solicited input. When they got it from him, he was fired. They’re dishonorable scum, and should be treated badly by the larger society.
Google is a cult controlling the information most people see. Very dangerous.
Sears, Roebuck and Eastman Kodak were yuuuge in their field 35 years ago. Borders was impressive and up and coming 25 years ago. Newsweek and The Boston Globe were lucrative media properties as recently as 20 years ago. Things change. If fortune smiles on us, Google will be destroyed.
Leftists, in particular outright communists and socialists, are inherently crawling vermin. If I detect a leftist skulking inside my own company, I’ll have the little piece of bleep fired, arrested, and forcibly removed from the premises into the custody of the local police and prosecuted for trespassing, stalking, harassment, theft of services, burglary, felony fraud, and whatever else can conceivably pass muster in a criminal court.
Needless to say, I’ll also sue the bleeping bleep for every penny it possesses for the aforementioned felony fraud of having lied to gain employment in spite of extraordinarily disreputable behavior — to wit, being a leftist. The entire class of leftists puts ordinary rapists, robbers, murderers, and child molesters to shame for deeply anti-social characteristics. Leftists are evil and need to be savagely counter-persecuted in every conceivable way. Ideally, they’d all be rounded up and worked to death in gigantic labor camps with any excess proceeds over administrative costs directed to partially compensating the survivors of huge mass murders by communists and socialists.
Justice is justice.
“But it’s not a problem at all for Hogue to say what he said about Republicans. Maybe Google doesn’t think there are any Republicans working at Google, and therefore his comments wouldn’t make anyone at Google feel uncomfortable.”
I doubt they’ve even thought about it; but if they did think about it, they would decide that any discomfort felt by a Republican, Googler or not, is all to the good.
Pragmatic:
Art Deco in reply:
I am reminded of Mao’s Hundred Flowers Campaign, where the regime solicited opinions from intellectuals. The name Hundred Flowers came from a poem.
When the regime found out the opinions weren’t what the regime liked, those who had given their opinions were subjected to intense public criticism,and in some cases, sent to prison camps.
(IOW, when the regime is run by one person, criticism of the acts of that regime is interpreted as criticism of the man on top.)
The lesson is that when your employer solicits your opinion, be very careful in expressing your opinion, just as you would have been careful in Mao’s China- of the China of today.
GWB:
Leftism has replaced more religions than Christianity. For example, for a huge number of Jews it has replaced Judaism.
And no, leftism is not a religion. For its adherents it functions in many ways that resemble a religion and has many characteristics it shares with a religion. But it is not a religion. To call it one is a metaphor.
Neo
And no, leftism is not a religion. For its adherents it functions in many ways that resemble a religion and has many characteristics it shares with a religion.
I highly recommend An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America. Amazon review:
For example, Protestants of an earlier era were very concerned with belonging to the “elect:” those who were going to heaven. The agnostic or atheist descendants of those Protestant churchgoers are also very concerned with belonging to the “elect.” Here belonging to the “elect” means adhering to the ever-changing “social justice” concern of the day. For ever changing, consider the left’s current opinions on gay marriage or immigration, which are rather different from what were considered approved lefty opinions on those topics several decades ago.
For example, Protestants of an earlier era were very concerned with belonging to the “elect:” those who were going to heaven. The agnostic or atheist descendants of those Protestant churchgoers are also very concerned with belonging to the “elect.” Here belonging to the “elect” means adhering to the ever-changing “social justice” concern of the day.
I have a cousin I’m fond of who has bought into Howard Zinn whole hog. Somehow, I don’t think he’s aping his Calvinist great-great-granddaddy. I don’t think his mother (a Bible study denizen who’s been on the evangelical-pentacostal spectrum) is an inveterate subscriber to dispensational pre-millennialism or predestinarian notions. His grandparents were ordinary broad-church Episcopalians. His great-grandparents had their issues with the Calvinism they were raised with as well, though his great-grandfather may have subscribed to it in a pro-forma way.
Art Deco:
I have a cousin I’m fond of who has bought into Howard Zinn whole hog. Somehow, I don’t think he’s aping his Calvinist great-great-granddaddy.
The Christian “elect” believed that those who did not adhere to their creed were going to hell. My grandmother is an example. In my opinion, the lefty attitude towards the “deplorables” is rather similar. The “deplorables” do not adhere to the social justice narrative de jour. For that the lefties consider them beyond the pale, just as the “elect” viewed those who did not adhere to the creed of their particular church.
In a sense the Christian “elect” could have been considered more forgiving, as it was often believed that those who did not agree with their particular church creed were more mistaken than they were evil. I get the impression that lefties consider the “deplorables” to be downright evil.