Not all of the office politics is in their favor. I think modern companies have realized that it's much easier to refocus employee's attention than to outright

Not all of the office politics is in their favor. I think modern companies have realized that it's much easier to refocus employee's attention than to outright forbid any dissent. Surveillance and contractor abuse are actual issues that materially affect people, so I suppose it's good that the employees called them out on it. Other issues that get pushed by upper managers... not so much. Also, I don't want to say that all the DEI officers and upper management are conspiring to evilness. Many of them do believe in the cause, but in the grand scheme it works out that way. Political parties certainly know how the ball rolls and abuse identity politics to the maximum extent. Private companies are then all too glad to go with that, even if the good-meaning employees don't know what they're really doing. > they aren't activists. They are just doing their job But they try to make their job some sort of activism (especially academics who should strive the most to be unbiased), which usually leads directly to discrimination in some form or the other, since that is the only thing they're allowed to do.