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Comment by AznHisoka | Hacker News Reader

"Of course, the irony here is that if Damore wins it will be regarded as a big victory for conservatives who work in tech, even though the win would strengthen the kind of workers' rights that are traditionally the focus of the left."

This last paragraph left a bad taste. Does everything need to be about politics?

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Probably? But Damore's memo is unavoidably about politics, because he specifically complained about Google having a left-wing bias, how Google didn't value ideological diversity, and how he believes Google has a culture of shaming non-left-wing employees into silence.

It would not surprise me if Google would done something similar with a Marxist or anarchist memo, though. I find it hard to call it left wing bias with that in mind.

Fair point. But these labels are generally inaccurate.

Trump is clearly not ideological, do calling him right wing doesn't make sense either. He's not going to, out of principle, decide he doesn't have the legal ability to do something he wants.

We obviously need a different political metaphor. I don't know if are ready for one though.

The difference is you are comparing an extremely far left memo Communism/Marxism to one he wrote that is backed by science and is middle of the road common sense. You are acting like this is some extreme right wing babble when all actuality its not.

>to one he wrote that is backed by science and is middle of the road common sense

Being a Marxist/anarchist manifesto and being backed by science, economics or political philosophy aren't mutually exclusive. I don't view the memo as common sense - that's not to say it's incorrect, but I don't view it as common sense.

I'm not acting as though it's right-wing babble; my point is that I am against people saying that Google has a left-wing bias, when it's hard to imagine that positions which are core to the left wing would be accepted at Google. As such, I'm not making a comment on the content of the piece, I'm making a comment on the culture at Google which is supposedly 'left-wing biased'.

The conservative right wing, if you can call it that, are really just a bunch of girls blouses. For this simple reason. They forget their manners, then complain of censorship when someone reminds them that the should have some.

yes, people have a right to discuss politics. discussing politics is the foundation of civil society. the inability of people to do it without freaking out is why we have uncivil society.

The contradiction mostly vanishes when you take into account the fact that the left-wing has mostly abandoned social class distinctions in favor of race/gender/cultural distinctions.

A lot of the current conservatism and populism shares similar impulses with the left-wing of 100+ years ago.

I don't think conservatism or populism share much ideologically. Conservatives certainly don't share much with early 20th century communists. Or even left wing presidents.

exactly. the focus on identity as a wedge issue is a cynical diversion from focusing on wealth as a wedge issue.

Regardless of your feelings on the memo... It's ironic that a capitalist and "classic liberal" is relying on labor laws resting on a foundation hard-fought by unions and socialists. That irony is interesting enough to mention in an article.

Just like it would be interesting to point out that a virulent anti-semite hired a Jewish lawyer to defend them... which the press did quite often.

(Not comparing Damore to an anti-semite or anything, just using an example)

Why do you call Damore a capitalist?

He's quite clearly not a staunch capitalist ideologically - a staunch capitalist would simply say "Google has the right to hire whoever they want."

> Why do you call Damore a capitalist?

He described himself as a classic liberal in the memo. That ideology places significant emphasis on economic freedom. One cannot be a "classic liberal" without also being a staunch capitalist, unless you find capitalism itself too restrictive and reject the label.

Does everything need to be about politics?

This is what happens when people start throwing around the phrase "the personal is political". Social entropy in the West seems to be turning skyward asymptotically.

"the kind of workers' rights that are traditionally the focus of the left."

More than politics, it's the present tense that's bothering me. How long since the US left has focused on worker's rights?

The Socialist and Communist parties in the US appear to to me, unless you're calling the Democratic party 'left', though I usually trust people have more knowledge than to do that.

> Socialist and Communist parties

And how many votes did they get? While I agree it's a stretch to call the Democrats 'left', at least on economic issues, things like worker's rights have been neglected by the voters and the national conversation as well.

Does everything need to be about politics?

If you bring >1 people together in some way, shape, or form, you will have politics.

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