> Evolution has created the rules that one doesn't mix politics with business. I don't know anything about what's happening at Google, but this either involves

> Evolution has created the rules that one doesn't mix politics with business. I don't know anything about what's happening at Google, but this either involves some talented mental gymnastics or it's obviously false. Places of business have politics. Always have, always will. Internal politics and very frequently most companies involve themselves in local/state/national/international politics. - Joining a chamber of commerce or a trade organization is participating in politics. - Having a PR campaign or a lobbyist which affects public attitudes or legislation is politics. - Sponsored an ice rink in the middle of small town Texas[1] (hint: it's a symbol that the company, even though it is based in South Korea, depends very much on the good will of jurors and judges in that smallish town). What's happening at multiple tech giants is that traditionally the sway in company-politics remains within the board and a few key org units (PR, governmental outreach, legal, etc). The differentiators now are: - high quality talent is scarce (hence all of the famous Yahoo/Google/Facebook/etc perks for engineers), - the transparency of associations[2][3], - the political climate of associations (eg. [4][5]), and - boycotts (of many forms) can hurt the bottom dollar[6]. Sometimes it has the opposite effect[7]. Let's not pretend like Google is unique nor that businesses have a strict "Chinese Wall" between politics and business. As Mitt Romney said, "Businesses are people", and politics exists because people are people. [1] https://ipcloseup.com/2015/02/25/for-samsung-charity-begins-at-home-marshall-texas/ https://ipcloseup.com/2015/02/25/for-samsung-charity-begins-... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/04/facebook-employees-reportedly-outraged-at-exec-at-kavanaugh-hearing.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/04/facebook-employees-reportedl... [3] https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/05/faq-on-ceo-resignation/ https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/05/faq-on-ceo-resignat... [4] https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/us/harvard-professor-ron-sullivan-weinstein-video/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/us/harvard-professor-ron-sull... [5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2017/08/14/charlottesville-white-nationalist-demonstrator-fired-from-libertarian-hot-dog-shop/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2017/08/14/charl... [6] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/inside-the-bill-oreilly-advertiser-boycott-127520/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/insi... [7] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/business/nike-reports-double-digit-profit-growth-after-colin-kaepernick-controversy https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/business/nike-reports-dou...