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I thought “keep religion and politics out of the workplace” was advice that had been in place for a while? Not sure that staying away from sensitive political d

I thought “keep religion and politics out of the workplace” was advice that had been in place for a while? Not sure that staying away from sensitive political discussion while at work is a modern trend.

im3w1l 6y ago
It's not that long ago that a significant fraction of people worked on farms and did what they wanted. It's not that long ago that workers discussed so much politics that they got together and had shootouts with their employers.
- oblio 6y ago
  > It's not that long ago that a significant fraction of people worked on farms and did what they wanted. Up until 1860 or so, most people across the world were working on farms. And most of those people were at best sharecroppers, if not serfs or slaves. Something tells me there wasn't a lot of freedom going around :-)
throwaway_43634 6y ago
>“keep religion and politics out of the workplace” was advice that had been in place for a while Sure, but said Facebook employee has a greater chance of having action taken against him for wearing a MAGA cap than for wearing an Antifa shirt. Of course Facebook have all rights to do so since they're a private corporation but that sort of thing is what GP was talking about.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  Sure, and I'll probably get into greater trouble at the lunchroom of a conservative law firm if I read the Communist Manifesto rather than Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom, and I probably shouldn't whip out one of Dawkins books at a church gathering. What has always confused me about this discussion about say, a left leaning bent at Facebook or whatever is that this has always been the norm in virtually every conservative place, which is like 90% of provincial small towns, from which all the liberal and creative people have to run away in the first place.
  - edanm 6y ago
    An interesting point, but I don't think that's actually true. I doubt there are many places where you'd actually get in trouble for reading the Communist manifesto. (But admittedly, this is spoken as someone who mostly has exposure to more liberal workplaces - so I'd be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.)

im3w1l 6y ago

It's not that long ago that a significant fraction of people worked on farms and did what they wanted. It's not that long ago that workers discussed so much politics that they got together and had shootouts with their employers.

oblio 6y ago
> It's not that long ago that a significant fraction of people worked on farms and did what they wanted. Up until 1860 or so, most people across the world were working on farms. And most of those people were at best sharecroppers, if not serfs or slaves. Something tells me there wasn't a lot of freedom going around :-)

throwaway_43634 6y ago

>“keep religion and politics out of the workplace” was advice that had been in place for a while Sure, but said Facebook employee has a greater chance of having action taken against him for wearing a MAGA cap than for wearing an Antifa shirt. Of course Facebook have all rights to do so since they're a private corporation but that sort of thing is what GP was talking about.

Barrin92 6y ago
Sure, and I'll probably get into greater trouble at the lunchroom of a conservative law firm if I read the Communist Manifesto rather than Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom, and I probably shouldn't whip out one of Dawkins books at a church gathering. What has always confused me about this discussion about say, a left leaning bent at Facebook or whatever is that this has always been the norm in virtually every conservative place, which is like 90% of provincial small towns, from which all the liberal and creative people have to run away in the first place.
- edanm 6y ago
  An interesting point, but I don't think that's actually true. I doubt there are many places where you'd actually get in trouble for reading the Communist manifesto. (But admittedly, this is spoken as someone who mostly has exposure to more liberal workplaces - so I'd be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.)