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Sounds just as dumb as when Hacker News banned "politics" for a period, and people were discouraged from posting EFF blog posts and the like, because "politics"

Sounds just as dumb as when Hacker News banned "politics" for a period, and people were discouraged from posting EFF blog posts and the like, because "politics" is an impressively vague word. Politics is life, it doesn't have to be toxic.

yosito 6y ago
Starting a comment with "sounds dumb" isn't a great way to make your case that "it doesn't have to be toxic".
tmp538394722 6y ago
Eh, feels pretty different. HN’s ban was intentionally a short term reboot/cooldown, during a particularly hot time - not a broad and indefinite ban. Society is hard. I think it’s good to experiment, and when you’re explicit about a timeline, it seems like the stakes are reasonable.
SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
In my experience, when people say "I don't want politics at work", what they mean is they don't want what you'd call toxic politics. For example, I consider my workplace generally apolitical despite our large and active DEI committees, because they consistently frame their work in positive terms: lots of "here's how we can make people happier and more successful!", occasional "suchandsuch was a tragedy and we hope to work towards a better future", nothing in the vein of "X group is bad" or "Y politician must be defeated".
- chii 6y ago
  There's political activism that's related to your employment/career, and then there's political activism unrelated to your employment/career. Discussing career related political activism at work - such as unionization, or fair pay, because it actively affects you in the workplace - is fine to me. However, woke politics, like gender equality, abortion, or some other trending topic that is unrelated to your workplace, should be discouraged. Things like that are more akin to religion - it's private, and should be kept off the workplace. Do it in your own private time, with people who also want to do it in their private time.
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    Gender equality is the law of the land, it's not (or at least shouldn't be) a "woke" topic.
- seppin 6y ago
  They could also want to live undisturbed in their bubble, unchallenged as to the power and privilege they exercise daily. Could be both.

yosito 6y ago

Starting a comment with "sounds dumb" isn't a great way to make your case that "it doesn't have to be toxic".

tmp538394722 6y ago

Eh, feels pretty different. HN’s ban was intentionally a short term reboot/cooldown, during a particularly hot time - not a broad and indefinite ban. Society is hard. I think it’s good to experiment, and when you’re explicit about a timeline, it seems like the stakes are reasonable.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago

In my experience, when people say "I don't want politics at work", what they mean is they don't want what you'd call toxic politics. For example, I consider my workplace generally apolitical despite our large and active DEI committees, because they consistently frame their work in positive terms: lots of "here's how we can make people happier and more successful!", occasional "suchandsuch was a tragedy and we hope to work towards a better future", nothing in the vein of "X group is bad" or "Y politician must be defeated".

chii 6y ago
There's political activism that's related to your employment/career, and then there's political activism unrelated to your employment/career. Discussing career related political activism at work - such as unionization, or fair pay, because it actively affects you in the workplace - is fine to me. However, woke politics, like gender equality, abortion, or some other trending topic that is unrelated to your workplace, should be discouraged. Things like that are more akin to religion - it's private, and should be kept off the workplace. Do it in your own private time, with people who also want to do it in their private time.
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  Gender equality is the law of the land, it's not (or at least shouldn't be) a "woke" topic.
seppin 6y ago
They could also want to live undisturbed in their bubble, unchallenged as to the power and privilege they exercise daily. Could be both.