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>> The tracking had made the staff in those departments feel unsafe It's very strange how often this idea of 'feeling unsafe' is coming up in the media now. It

>> The tracking had made the staff in those departments feel unsafe It's very strange how often this idea of 'feeling unsafe' is coming up in the media now. It seems that either: - People have become more fragile/sensitive; or - People have become more aggressive. I think it may be both. I think corporations create extremely unnatural, oppressive and coercive environments which makes people more outwardly sensitive but inwardly more aggressive.

jacques_chester 7y ago
A third possibility is that this has always existed and you weren't aware of it before.
- dfalfndfk 7y ago
  As seen with the #MeToo movement among others -- there have been people, there are people, and there will be people whose voices are silenced. Not always explicitly.
Nasrudith 7y ago
It isn't corporate but whole societal really. Just look at the decades of "crime and punishment" DA campaigning and it certainly existed before then with literal lynch mobs and used to justify genocide. It is an emotional lever which has always been exploited essentially even if they called it something different.
nyolfen 7y ago
it's just a fashionable rhetorical lever
- cryptica 7y ago
  I guess also employees are more likely to use 'feeling unsafe' as an excuse to get more control within the company. So for example, if you want to get someone fired in order to take their position, and that person is already in a difficult position for whatever reason, you can just say "That person makes me feel unsafe" as a way to break the camel's back and finally get your promotion.
  - jacques_chester 7y ago
    Psychopathy exists and psychopaths will always exploit social norms and accommodations. That is not a sufficient reason to abandon social norms and accommodations.
repolfx 7y ago
Physical safety trumps most other things in our culture, rightly so. So political activists realised they can brainwash or pressure idiots by claiming that any opinion, person or class of people they don't like creates "lack of safety". It's a kneejerk reaction: safety first. The worst case I saw of this so far was an event organised by my workplace, for teaching programming. But straight white men were banned. If you were a white man you had to show photos from Facebook to prove you were gay. The justification for sexism and racism was stated as creating a "safe" and "collaborative" environment. Implication: straight white men are unsafe. Except when they're teaching, of course. Then they're needed, so stop being unsafe. There's nothing new about this sort of abuse. Orwell focused on the way leftists constantly manipulate language in 1984 with the idea of Newspeak. Consider the contradictory term "dictatorship of the proletariat" or how every communist country calls itself a People's Republic despite not being a republic, nor run by/for the people.
- cryptica 7y ago
  >> The worst case I saw of this so far was an event organised by my workplace, for teaching programming. But straight white men were banned. If you were a white man you had to show photos from Facebook to prove you were gay. Wow I never experienced anything like that. I do find some things in popular media offensive though nowadays. For example, I saw on Netflix there was a show called "Dear white people" and I find the title kind of racist. I'm white, I work ridiculously hard (I have no life) but at this stage in my life, I'm basically a loser (and I'm still working very hard to try to change this) so I feel hurt when other people insinuate that white people like me have it easy and don't understand real life. It's rubbing salt into the wound. I think if there was a show called "Dear black people" or "Dear working single moms", there would rightfully be a massive backlash.
- Faark 7y ago
  > So political activists realised they can brainwash or pressure idiots by claiming that any opinion, person or class of people they don't like creates "lack of safety". It's a kneejerk reaction: safety first. People didn't just suddenly start killing jews in nazi germany. It starts with a shift in sentiment and you probably want to stop that before it gains momentum. That makes me understand how e.g. the "there are good people on both sides" comment made people feel unsafe. > workplace example That seems so much like a right wing caricature of "the left" that I'd like to read a source to make sure it isn't just exactly that. Not that I'd expect this to never happen... stupid people can be found everywhere in society. A more plausible scenario leading to this might be affirmative action (something I'd expect you to vehemently disagree with anyway) having its budged cut and someone still trying to go through with it by combining multiple things into one, even if this subverts pretty much the entire purpose. I'd expect reasonable lefties to have a similar stance on gayness checks as they have for sex checks on bathrooms... people will generally do the right thing and abusers should suffer consequences.

jacques_chester 7y ago

A third possibility is that this has always existed and you weren't aware of it before.

dfalfndfk 7y ago
As seen with the #MeToo movement among others -- there have been people, there are people, and there will be people whose voices are silenced. Not always explicitly.

Nasrudith 7y ago

It isn't corporate but whole societal really. Just look at the decades of "crime and punishment" DA campaigning and it certainly existed before then with literal lynch mobs and used to justify genocide. It is an emotional lever which has always been exploited essentially even if they called it something different.

nyolfen 7y ago

it's just a fashionable rhetorical lever

cryptica 7y ago
I guess also employees are more likely to use 'feeling unsafe' as an excuse to get more control within the company. So for example, if you want to get someone fired in order to take their position, and that person is already in a difficult position for whatever reason, you can just say "That person makes me feel unsafe" as a way to break the camel's back and finally get your promotion.
- jacques_chester 7y ago
  Psychopathy exists and psychopaths will always exploit social norms and accommodations. That is not a sufficient reason to abandon social norms and accommodations.

repolfx 7y ago

Physical safety trumps most other things in our culture, rightly so. So political activists realised they can brainwash or pressure idiots by claiming that any opinion, person or class of people they don't like creates "lack of safety". It's a kneejerk reaction: safety first. The worst case I saw of this so far was an event organised by my workplace, for teaching programming. But straight white men were banned. If you were a white man you had to show photos from Facebook to prove you were gay. The justification for sexism and racism was stated as creating a "safe" and "collaborative" environment. Implication: straight white men are unsafe. Except when they're teaching, of course. Then they're needed, so stop being unsafe. There's nothing new about this sort of abuse. Orwell focused on the way leftists constantly manipulate language in 1984 with the idea of Newspeak. Consider the contradictory term "dictatorship of the proletariat" or how every communist country calls itself a People's Republic despite not being a republic, nor run by/for the people.

cryptica 7y ago
>> The worst case I saw of this so far was an event organised by my workplace, for teaching programming. But straight white men were banned. If you were a white man you had to show photos from Facebook to prove you were gay. Wow I never experienced anything like that. I do find some things in popular media offensive though nowadays. For example, I saw on Netflix there was a show called "Dear white people" and I find the title kind of racist. I'm white, I work ridiculously hard (I have no life) but at this stage in my life, I'm basically a loser (and I'm still working very hard to try to change this) so I feel hurt when other people insinuate that white people like me have it easy and don't understand real life. It's rubbing salt into the wound. I think if there was a show called "Dear black people" or "Dear working single moms", there would rightfully be a massive backlash.
Faark 7y ago
> So political activists realised they can brainwash or pressure idiots by claiming that any opinion, person or class of people they don't like creates "lack of safety". It's a kneejerk reaction: safety first. People didn't just suddenly start killing jews in nazi germany. It starts with a shift in sentiment and you probably want to stop that before it gains momentum. That makes me understand how e.g. the "there are good people on both sides" comment made people feel unsafe. > workplace example That seems so much like a right wing caricature of "the left" that I'd like to read a source to make sure it isn't just exactly that. Not that I'd expect this to never happen... stupid people can be found everywhere in society. A more plausible scenario leading to this might be affirmative action (something I'd expect you to vehemently disagree with anyway) having its budged cut and someone still trying to go through with it by combining multiple things into one, even if this subverts pretty much the entire purpose. I'd expect reasonable lefties to have a similar stance on gayness checks as they have for sex checks on bathrooms... people will generally do the right thing and abusers should suffer consequences.