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Comment by dmode | Hacker News Reader

Why would a "white male conservative" sue a corporation when the conservative platform believes that in a free market corporations should be allowed to discriminate as they please ? I have heard Ron Paul (ok, a libertarian) state numerous times how he doesn't support civil rights, because the public will stop visiting those businesses who engage in discriminatory behavior. Shouldn't James Damore just let the free market take care of Google for its allegedly discriminatory position and wait till we all migrate to Duck Duck Go and iOS to teach Google a lesson ?

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One possible reason is that a person can have beliefs that don't completely align with a given platform.

Another reason could be that it is easier to obtain emotional distance on a decision when you're not personally involved. Believing that something is best as an abstract policy doesn't always make it easy to believe it is best for you.

A third possibility is that he does believe that the market should decide, but that he also believes in taking full advantage of the system as it exists today.

Because fighting fire with fire seems to be the only tactic successful in these contexts. Its about proving the hypocrisy of practicing discrimination against those you self deem (without any due process) to be discriminatory. Discrimination, like hate only begets more discrimination.

As far as the second point, the free markets no longer operate that way, marketing has emerged as a white washing effect for any ill a company can get themselves into, as long as they spend enough on marketing they can work their way out of it on top.

The problem is that you're shooting fire at Google, who isn't the one who originated the lawsuits or threats of lawsuits that lead to Google's policies. If anything they're victims of the previous lawsuits. This may achieve the desired effect of getting them to lobby to get laws changed so that these lawsuits won't be as effective, but it's a morally muddy game.

I'm a libertarian who supports Damore in sprirt, but I don't love this lawsuit for the reasons given in the grandparent post.

Google is the one shooting fire first by firing him needlessly

Damore wouldn't describe himself as conservative I think.

And even if he did describe himself as such, the idea that all 'conservatives' are free-market absolutists is strange. The sort of free-market-first small-government-at-all-costs ideology has only in the past few decades become a fixture of US right-wing movements.

Is that true ? I thought he describes himself as a conservative in the lawsuit. Anyway, my comment was a bit "tongue-in-cheek"

In the memo and court filings he is describing himself as a classical liberal. So, a conservative.

Damore’s lawsuit describes his memo as a defense of conservative ideology, so unless he was just playing Devil's Advocate with the whole thing...

He sometimes describes himself as libertarian. But he's no radical.

Imagine this going to the supreme court

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