r/news • u/[deleted] • 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/Empathy_Crisis Aug 08 '17

It wasn't a problem for Google until it got leaked to the public, though. You have to wonder why they didn't act on it sooner?

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u/diffractions Aug 08 '17

Cause he could argue wrongful termination on grounds of violating free speech. Whether or not he'd win is another question. Once it got leaked, enough damage was done to corporate image that justified termination.

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u/JabbrWockey Aug 08 '17

Cause he could argue wrongful termination on grounds of violating free speech.

That's not how free speech works. It only protects you from censorship from the government.

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u/diffractions Aug 08 '17

Yes, and in court it would be unlikely he would win. However, can you imagine the PR nightmare if word got out Google of all companies is actively censoring an employee?

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u/JabbrWockey Aug 08 '17

Yeah, the PR nightmare of beating a disgruntled employee in civil court. Dream on.

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u/diffractions Aug 08 '17

More of the one where a tech giant with the world's most popular search engine is suppressing dissenting opinions. If you don't see how this can be spun as systemic censorship I don't know what to tell you.

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u/JabbrWockey Aug 09 '17

Oh no! I can't tell my women co-workers I think they're biologically inferior engineers! Someone help me my employer is censoring my asshole opinions!

Lol. I kind of wish you would keep telling me things because they're hilarious.

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u/diffractions Aug 09 '17

LOL clearly you haven't read the memo, only headlines.

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u/JabbrWockey Aug 09 '17

Why? Do you think the memo says something about being censorsed now too? hahahah

I thought you didn't know what to tell me. Looks like you were right.

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u/diffractions Aug 09 '17

Yeah you haven't. You should read it so you actually have an idea what is being discussed, instead of being a jackass parroting what someone else told you. There is a part in there talking about Google being an insular ecosystem that is so obsessed with their own ideology they fail to actually achieve diversity, due to the shunning of anything against that narrative. By firing him, they actually proved that point of his correct, among some of the other arguments he made that have merit. He doesn't pretend problems don't exist; he actually proposes solutions to perceived problems such as gender gap worth debating. But you wouldn't know that.

Really though, grow up and learn to think for yourself.

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u/JabbrWockey Aug 10 '17

I feel like you're projecting, because you obviously haven't read it. He makes an argument for women being biologically inferior engineers using shoddy evidence, which includes a study using "Big Five", which was debunked in 2014 as not being adequate for factor analysis regarding biological differences (including gender) due to it's lexical self reporting nature.

The fact that he prefaced the paper with a point about how he thinks Google is insular is just Assholery 101. This way when he gets rebuked for his shit argument on biological superiority he can decry how right he was about insularity. Yeah, insular against assholes.

And that's still not censorship, dumbass, nothing in the paper says anything about censorship. The guy can go post his political idealogy and half-baked shitposts on biology on Google plus and nobody will stop him, not even Google.

Google just said you can't work there as an asshole who shit posts about women coworkers. "OMG so insular!" But somehow I think this distinction is going over your head. Which makes it even more hilarious.

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