well as a normal rule people tend to believe things that confirm their preconceptions so if they say that it doesn't exist I would think that seems reasonable,

well as a normal rule people tend to believe things that confirm their preconceptions so if they say that it doesn't exist I would think that seems reasonable, however I have noticed its use in comedies, generally things don't randomly come up in comedies - they are just exaggerations of some trend. So after considering this and other things I would think huh, maybe some people snapped but not in the whole mesmerized puppets snapping along group-think that the anecdote seemed to paint it as. Like if there are 10 people and 4 people snap for a couple seconds and maybe someone says Amen a nervous person might just remember it as some big humiliating they all snapped against me! thing. This would allow other people who have knowledge of the thing or the culture of the company to say "come on, that never happened" But as far as the rest of the combat you are having with the rest of the people in this thread who say it didn't happen - hey, you all seem to be more worked up about this thing than I am, I just thought that sounds too crazy, it sounds like something from "Curb your Enthusiasm" not real life. But yeah if a group all snapped together because my favorite sandwich choice was too culturally insensitive or supportive of an authoritarian agenda I would probably start talking some shit and get fired, even though I don't agree with that corporation's viewpoints on things. on edit: added some context. on further edit: you could also argue that the article doesn't say it was some groupthink thing, I guess that is a matter of interpreting the style of the article. I'm pretty sensitive to implications of literary style and so forth, in my opinion at least, and I think the implication was "oooh everybody ganged up on me" not just "some people snapped and others were like let's get through this dumb corporate orientation so we can go to lunch!" which is what I would have found totally believable.