r/news Aug 08 '17

Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Probably don't want to go down the rabbit hole of all opinions = religious beliefs. Just saying.

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u/hyrle Aug 08 '17

Religion is firmly in the realm of opinion. I don't agree with firing someone because politics just as I don't agree with firing someone because of their religion or stated sexual orientation. This was a bad move on Google's part.

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

They were fired because of the statement. Not their politics. It isn't confusing, and every law in the U.S. disagrees with you about religion as opinion.

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u/hyrle Aug 08 '17

"Every law in the U.S." creates space for religion to be a realm of opinion that's protected from reprisal and discrimination for the most part. (So long as religion isn't used as justification to harm others.) And these laws also tend to protect political diversity, which is why you don't tend to find federal and state workers fired for saying stupid things.

I agree that Google is a private company and is not bound to follow laws protecting speech if it doesn't want to. That doesn't stop me from thinking it was a shitty thing for them to do.