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I think you need to keep going with that train of thought. Is it morally right that an employer can fire someone they don't like? If it doesn't violate civil ri

I think you need to keep going with that train of thought. Is it morally right that an employer can fire someone they don't like? If it doesn't violate civil rights, it's 100% fine to me. What's the alternative? Should an employer NOT be allowed to fire someone they don't like? That sounds like very bad constraints on the employer. Should there be some protection system against specific reasons for terminating employees? It's not possible from a legal perspective, because you'd have to implement a law to protect every possible reason an employer would want to fire someone, all of which would trample the rights of the employer. Any employer is as free to fire someone for hate speech as the person is for supplying hate speech. It doesn't mean that either are free of consequences. The employer controls the company. If keeping someone on board who has opposing views will lead to a worse company and more suffering, it would make moral sense to fire them.

13thLetter 11y ago
Hopefully we've moved past the strawman of trying to make such political discrimination illegal. That being said... You need to consider the long-term consequences of being comfortable with such behavior on the part of employers. If it's considered admirable to fire people with political views the employer does not approve of, as it is now, that simply makes the country's political divisions ever more extreme. If you work for Google you have to be a Democrat, if you work for McDonnell Douglas you have to be a Republican. Soon enough you won't be able to live in certain places if you have certain political opinions, because you won't be able to find anything more than menial employment. At best, we have two angry and completely distinct political sides, with absolutely no understanding of the other or willingness to compromise, staring at each other over state borders and fighting dirty for every nationwide policy. At worst... well, there's no limit to the "worst" part. Now, consider the alternative philosophy: employers explicitly do not care about their employees' behavior on their private time as long as it doesn't involve the employer. Not only do we avoid political segregation, but under this scenario, you can hold whatever opinions you want, and you can get into endless meaningless flamewars with the other side on social media without worrying about retribution. I really have trouble understanding why anyone wouldn't prefer this to constantly having to look over your shoulder, wondering what your employer might think of your opinions.

13thLetter 11y ago

Hopefully we've moved past the strawman of trying to make such political discrimination illegal. That being said... You need to consider the long-term consequences of being comfortable with such behavior on the part of employers. If it's considered admirable to fire people with political views the employer does not approve of, as it is now, that simply makes the country's political divisions ever more extreme. If you work for Google you have to be a Democrat, if you work for McDonnell Douglas you have to be a Republican. Soon enough you won't be able to live in certain places if you have certain political opinions, because you won't be able to find anything more than menial employment. At best, we have two angry and completely distinct political sides, with absolutely no understanding of the other or willingness to compromise, staring at each other over state borders and fighting dirty for every nationwide policy. At worst... well, there's no limit to the "worst" part. Now, consider the alternative philosophy: employers explicitly do not care about their employees' behavior on their private time as long as it doesn't involve the employer. Not only do we avoid political segregation, but under this scenario, you can hold whatever opinions you want, and you can get into endless meaningless flamewars with the other side on social media without worrying about retribution. I really have trouble understanding why anyone wouldn't prefer this to constantly having to look over your shoulder, wondering what your employer might think of your opinions.