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I'm currently spearheading a survey looking at whether Silicon Valley is hostile to right-leaning folks. We've had over 350 respondents from all ideological ba
by bkohlmann 9y ago
I'm currently spearheading a survey looking at whether Silicon Valley is hostile to right-leaning folks. We've had over 350 respondents from all ideological backgrounds who work in tech in SV. Here are two of the qualitative responses we received - which in my view shows a very different side to the perspective you've expressed:
-A self-identified liberal mentioned they experienced “repeated calls, from managers and non-managers alike, for people to be fired for the political views they expressed” and “several managers admitting or encouraging the use of the company's performance review process to punish employees for their expressed views, on the pretext that exposing their coworkers to those views represented a job performance issue.”
-A young man commented, “I checked ‘conservative’ on the alignment form even though I'd have described myself as liberal five years ago. My views haven't changed. The change has come from the left, which has started what I can only describe as a reign of terror. Scientific is hate. Silence is a microaggression. Dissent is violence.”
These are anecdotes, yes, but our forthcoming quantitative data shows conservatives and religious folks are upset not because the fringe viewpoints of white nationalists are banned, but rather because they fear voicing views most of America considers within the Overton window.
- mc32 9y agoI would have to second the sentiment in those statements. I've been at a couple of big tech cos. It's clear there is a preferred political orientation. People feel free to make fun of people of a certain political leaning (not talking extremists here) but don't dare make fun of the accepted political leaning. So what you get in discourse is one-sided politics and conversation. Florida and Texas, to pick a couple of states, are to be made fun of, CA and MA are the darlings to be emulated (I like distinct things from both side of the spectrum, mind you). I've also worked at a smaller org and it's the same. From the way people express their views, you'd think conservatives have become extinct, but I suspect that they have simply camouflaged themselves to avoid being on the "wrong side" of a conversation. For example, make a lightly supported case against gun rights vs make a lightly supported case for voter ID. See which one raises eyebrows more.
- brian-armstrong 9y agoIs this an online survey? Do you have any good reason to trust your results and that this isn't just ballot stuffing? The article linked talks about Stephen Bannon being upset. If you don't consider that guy fringe, who do you? David Duke?
- bkohlmann 9y agoIt’s an online survey - much like the one First Round Capital did a few months ago. We’ve also augmented our quantitative survey with over 10 interviews with volunteers from all backgrounds and tech firms. There are similar responses. Some have even cited their companies as positive examples of allowing all viewpoints - which we fully intend to report. As for Bannon, I happen to disagree with much of his ideology, but it’s hardly “fringe” when 62 million people voted for a candidate that used his playbook. You’re free to have your own interpretation.
- brian-armstrong 9y agoI guess it depends on whether you consider stoking white nationalists as being fringe to conservatives or not
- dabbledash 9y agoI think at this point our Overton windows are just non overlapping.