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> Nobody actively courted activists. Yes, actually they did actively court them. Here's one of many examples: https://diversity.google/ https://diversity.goog
by malvosenior 7y ago
> Nobody actively courted activists.
Yes, actually they did actively court them. Here's one of many examples:
https://diversity.google/ https://diversity.google/
Younger generations are not politically homogeneous, Google picked a political position and pushed it hard.
- triceratops 7y agoWhat is the political position picked by the site you provided?
- manigandham 7y agoGoogle and most SV companies are somewhere between left to far-left.
- triceratops 7y agoThat's not what the site you provided is about though.
- manigandham 7y agoI didn't post the site, but those are the politics involved within the company and its hiring. The connection is pretty clear.
- triceratops 7y agoSorry I thought I was replying to the poster of the comment I replied to. How is the connection "pretty clear"?
- manigandham 7y ago"Diversity" based on identity politics and physical characteristics (race, gender, skin color) is a left-wing position.
- triceratops 7y agoFirst off, "identity politics" and centering ideologies around physical characteristics, religious views (almost as unchangeable), or ethnic backgrounds is practiced across the political spectrum. According to Wikipedia at least, "Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy"[1]. There's nothing specific about identity politics there. Secondly, looking at the website that's not even the whole scope of the program. For example, they have diversity initiatives for veterans, people with disabilities, and employee resource groups for older people. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics
- manigandham 7y agoSo this "diversity" is also part of right-wing politics then? And if so, why is there any political disagreement about it?
- triceratops 7y agoI don't know why you have scare-quotes around diversity, but practically every company has diversity initiatives (random examples)[1][2]. The existence of such says nothing about the company's politics, or those of its employees, one way or the other. I have no clue what you mean by "diversity" (with scare-quotes), so I can't really answer your question. A simple search for the words "diversity" or "diverse" turns up nothing on the Wikipedia page for left-wing politics.[3] 1. https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/about/company/beliefs-and-culture/diversity.html https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/about/company/beliefs-and-cu... 2. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/global-diversity-inclusion.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/global-diver... 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics
- pas 7y agoUS "left" is basically center though.
- manigandham 7y agoNot anymore. US left has stretched very far to the left in the last few years while the right has moved slightly more to the right. It's created a whole new "center". Here's Pew research, check page 12: http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/10/05162647/10-05-2017-Political-landscape-release.pdf http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/201...
- pas 7y agoThanks, the paper looks interesting! Though I wouldn't call it "very far". Solidarity peak is the same as it was around 2008 (the Great Financial Crises I guess), regulation and waste views are interestingly conflicting, the anti-corporatism shift is happening across all cohorts, so again it doesn't seem like the Dems are going that much more left. The views of immigration are very polarized. That's interesting, and probably the result of the excessive media coverage plus the very real recent underlying events. The emptying out of the center is the effect of Trump. Though it'll be interesting what will happen in the upcoming 2020 primaries. And we'll get a lot of data about what people value. (With the usual caveat about polling and statistics.)
- manigandham 7y agoHere's more from the Economist, check the chart: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/09/20/far-left-candidates-did-poorly-in-the-democratic-primaries https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/09/20/far-left-...
- sagichmal 7y agoThis is absolutely bonkers wrong. The US has shifted dramatically rightwards since 2014, and the right has shifted even more dramatically so.
- euroPoor 7y agoImagine saying this with a straight face when “Google and most SV companies” became literally the largest donors of neoliberal lobbying in the US during the last 10 years (also, Europe). Your worldview skews very right if you say that. While I respect you and your opinion, the framing of Google being ‘far-left’ is absolutely out of touch with reality. Sure, Google management tries to have a position in the US culture war but in the end they still work heavily with law enforcement and military and work strongly to suppress worker’s rights.
- manigandham 7y agoThe keyword there is "between". Google is a trillion dollar company and donates to lots of political causes all over the spectrum. We're talking about the internal politics which are clearly left-wing.
- euroPoor 7y agoSorry how is suppressing your right to organize in the workplace not internal politics?
- manigandham 7y agoWorker rights and working with the military and police are not left-vs-right politics.
- euroPoor 7y agoOk. I see our definitions diverge too much for me to work on your assumptions.
- nlfwhulsdhouv 7y ago> While I respect you and your opinion You're evidently more kind than me.
- wry_discontent 7y agoHow on Earth do you figure? They're all big corporations owned by capitalists. How could they even come close to far-left? They only seem far-left if you're a reactionary drowning in "Ben Shapiro pwns the libz with LOGIC" videos on YouTube.
- manigandham 7y agoI said "between" left and far-left, and that's the majority politics of the employees. Also capitalism has nothing to do with left-vs-right. By your definition, every corporation is right-wing by the fact that it's a corporation and all leftists want communism.
- Loughla 7y agoWhat are you honestly trying to accomplish in this thread? What is the point of all of your overgeneralizing and contradictory statements? What are you doing this for?
- manigandham 7y agoI stated that Silicon Valley company employees are majority left-leaning, sometimes to the far-left, in response to the original question about Google hiring left-wing activists. What part was unclear? What do you think is contradictory?
- tortasaur 7y agoHow is the parent comment overgeneralizing? The generalization jumping out at me is the grandparent's "all corporations are right-leaning by nature". The position of "corporations' executive decisions and internal culture can evolve separately" appears to be the nuanced one.
- nlfwhulsdhouv 7y agoThe 'left' (as opposed to Liberals) are anticapitalist. HN's brainworm infested "anytime someone calls something racist it's leftist" has very little to do with political theory or history. The left is anticapitalist _by definition_. Any movement not associated with unionization or anticapitalism is not leftist, but either right or liberal. If the majority of Google workers were leftist it would be structured like Mondragon corp, not like a normal capitalist corporation.
- CydeWeys 7y agoGoogle is currently fighting unionization efforts. That's not leftist.
- manigandham 7y agoWhat Google as a profit-seeking corporation does is not the same as the majority internal political culture amongst its employees.
- reroute1 7y agoSo Google is a ' left to far left' company except when it's being 'right to far right' sometimes?
- manigandham 7y ago1) Yes, it's a giant company that does many things. 2) The thread is about the majority political position of its employees. This is entire separate from the actions as a corporation. 3) Many of things Google does that people think are "right-wing" have nothing to do with left-vs-right at all.
- reroute1 7y ago> Google and most SV companies are somewhere between left to far-left. 1) Completely contradicts what you said earlier above 2) How? When does it stop being people and start being a corp? Aren't the decisions made by employees? 3) So? You just linked 'diversity' to left and far-left, isn't that the same thing that started this side thread? How is that site linked with activism or left politics? You mentioned a "pretty clear" connection.
- manigandham 7y agoObviously nothing is absolute, that doesn't make anything contradictory. The majority political stance is left/far-left. The company is massive and sometimes will do things people consider right-wing, but usually those things are not actually "right-wing" but just normal behavior of a giant corporation seeking to maximize profit and shareholder value. Corporations and capitalism are not antithetical to left-wing politics.
- nlfwhulsdhouv 7y agoI'm excited for your shock when you _actually_ meet a leftist in that case instead of these milquetoast liberals. Hint: Google still supports and enforces capitalism.
- coetzeesg 7y agoGoogle and the other SV companies do nothing to change the relations between it's workers and the product of their work, nor do they do that for any other companies. They are 100% pure capitalist. There is nothing Left about them.
- streb-lo 7y agoGeneric corporate commitment to 'diversity' is activism? Yeesh.
- deanCommie 7y agoThere are only two genders: Male, and Political. There are only two races: White, and Political.
- dang 7y agoPlease don't take HN threads further into flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Aunche 7y agoThis is just to protect themselves. They need to signal that they're at least trying to hire more under-represented minorities.
- Loughla 7y agoHow is an advertisement full of buzzwords about diversity at all activism? It's corporatespeak for 'look at how good of people we are'. It's a literal nothing in today's world.
- scarface74 7y agoEvery company posts the same type of platitudes. Even one of the oldest, stodgiest companies in America. https://jobs.gecareers.com/global/en/diversity-at-ge https://jobs.gecareers.com/global/en/diversity-at-ge