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While that’s true, there’s also ambiguity and difficulty involved in deciding what is and isn’t political. (For that matter, is “is this political?” political?)

SpicyLemonZest 5y ago
Absolutely! There's no silver bullet here - to work well in a diverse group, you have to understand and accept that not everyone will be on exactly the same page. My own workplace says things I find to be too political from time to time, and I don't see that as an important problem. And I've definitely seen people who overcorrect in the other direction, turning over every rock to try and find hidden politics. What doesn't work is the original commenter's idea that > Everything is political. Even saying you don’t have a position is tacit endorsement of the status quo. Because the logical conclusion of this argument, and I strongly suspect the intended conclusion, is that you should continue all political arguments at maximum intensity until you win. If my manager comes by and asks me to get back to work, I can't do it - that would be a tacit endorsement of the status quo!
- cgrealy 5y ago
  You have a weird definition of “logical conclusion”. How about you can talk about political issues in an adult and professional manner?
  - SpicyLemonZest 5y ago
    Well, to be clear, this is a conclusion I've seen people explicitly draw - I'm not just making it up. There was a famous incident at Coinbase where a request to discuss an important political issue spiraled outwards and outwards, until a bunch of employees went on strike to demand the founder adopt their political slogan. Often you can't talk about political issues in an adult and professional manner. Many issues have to do with deeply and passionately held beliefs; you can't expect people who believe that some law is taking their rights away, or that some war is an unjust slaughter, to discuss it in the same tone they'd use to discuss a project planning issue. You can make it work for some issues in some contexts, and I know plenty of people who successfully talk politics with groups of their coworkers over lunch. But companywide discussions about hugely controversial issues are almost never going to go well.

SpicyLemonZest 5y ago

Absolutely! There's no silver bullet here - to work well in a diverse group, you have to understand and accept that not everyone will be on exactly the same page. My own workplace says things I find to be too political from time to time, and I don't see that as an important problem. And I've definitely seen people who overcorrect in the other direction, turning over every rock to try and find hidden politics. What doesn't work is the original commenter's idea that > Everything is political. Even saying you don’t have a position is tacit endorsement of the status quo. Because the logical conclusion of this argument, and I strongly suspect the intended conclusion, is that you should continue all political arguments at maximum intensity until you win. If my manager comes by and asks me to get back to work, I can't do it - that would be a tacit endorsement of the status quo!

cgrealy 5y ago
You have a weird definition of “logical conclusion”. How about you can talk about political issues in an adult and professional manner?
- SpicyLemonZest 5y ago
  Well, to be clear, this is a conclusion I've seen people explicitly draw - I'm not just making it up. There was a famous incident at Coinbase where a request to discuss an important political issue spiraled outwards and outwards, until a bunch of employees went on strike to demand the founder adopt their political slogan. Often you can't talk about political issues in an adult and professional manner. Many issues have to do with deeply and passionately held beliefs; you can't expect people who believe that some law is taking their rights away, or that some war is an unjust slaughter, to discuss it in the same tone they'd use to discuss a project planning issue. You can make it work for some issues in some contexts, and I know plenty of people who successfully talk politics with groups of their coworkers over lunch. But companywide discussions about hugely controversial issues are almost never going to go well.