{"id":7110,"date":"2017-08-08T09:02:43","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T15:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=7110"},"modified":"2017-08-08T11:26:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T17:26:32","slug":"social-conformity-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/08\/social-conformity-google.html","title":{"rendered":"Social conformity at Google"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"from<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not living under a rock, you\u2019ve likely already read about the Google software engineer who wrote a memo<\/a> discussing the company\u2019s diversity efforts and their unintended harms, a memo which was perceived as an attack on women, which upset some female employees to such a degree that they skipped work<\/a>, which produced the statement<\/a> by Google CEO Sundar Pichai that\u00a0portions of the memo \u201cviolate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace,\u201d as well as countless demands on twitter that people with such opinions be blacklisted from ever working again, and which led, in the end, to that employee, James Damore, being fired.<\/p>\n

A National Review writer<\/a> calls this document the \u201c95 theses of diversity and inclusion,\u201d because the author was up against beliefs about diversity and gender that pretty much amount to a religion, which may not be questioned.<\/p>\n

Breitbart published an interview<\/a>\u00a0(claimed to be first in a series) with an anonymous Google employee, who describes such a cult-like devotion to diversity that<\/p>\n

The diversity gospel has been woven into nearly everything the company does, to the point where senior leaders focus on diversity first and technology second<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and where conservatives are subject to \u201cwitch hunts,\u201d being blocked from promotion or even losing jobs.<\/p>\n

And this sucks.<\/p>\n

It sucks from a Jane the Actuary perspective \u2014<\/p>\n

that is,\u00a0I blog anonymously, but do have ambitions of someday having more published writing under my actual name, which means exposing myself and putting myself at risk of someone at my firm deciding that what I\u2019ve written is \u201coffensive.\u201d \u00a0The Google line of reasoning makes this a fireable offense. \u00a0Is it probable? \u00a0No. \u00a0Do I have any idea how often this happens without the publicity of this case? \u00a0No. \u00a0But Google\u2019s action shows that it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

And it sucks as a mom of (white) boys, especially since, of the older two, one of them likes to think of himself as flauting social conventions and the other struggles to\u00a0understand them in the first place, and both of them are interested in the tech world. \u00a0Maybe they\u2019ll learn to keep their head down, and the only impact on them will be the loss of satisfaction in their job and workplace that they might otherwise have had. \u00a0But they are both, for different reasons, at risk of not playing the game correctly, and finding themselves punished for it, in exactly that field which is supposed to be a refuge for people who wouldn\u2019t otherwise fit in. \u00a0What will their place in the world be?<\/p>\n

I have the impression from reading the memo itself\u00a0that the author was writing in a context of it being standard practice to circulate this sort of memo. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t read like someone who perceived of what he was doing as controversial, rocking the boat, causing a ruckus, fighting for justice on behalf of aggrieved men. \u00a0It sounds like someone who thought he was playing by the rules, not breaking them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying that women aren\u2019t at risk of sexual harassment. \u00a0And, to my understanding, there\u2019s a lot that\u2019s wrong with tech culture in general, including massive age discrimination. \u00a0And don\u2019t get me started on their preference for H1-B visa types over Americans. \u00a0But two wrongs don\u2019t make a right, and destroying\u00a0white men who don\u2019t conform isn\u2019t the right way to build up women and minorities.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: \u00a0Now I\u2019ve looked a little more online. \u00a0Here\u2019s an account from Heavy<\/a>, which specializes in these sorts of instant profiles and dug up his CV. \u00a0Just a few years out of college, and Google is his first job. \u00a0He looks like a major dork \u2014 he plays video games and chess and has probably never had a date in his life. \u00a0But that\u2019s not a reason to laugh at him, let alone turn him into a villain, is it?<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0from https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/hacking-hacker-computer-internet-1685092\/<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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