If anything there's not enough employees owning the means of production, as this story shows.

This was my first thought. While most employees of Google are just normal people who just want to get their work done, there's a vocal minority to whom it's their life. And they are infantatilized by Google. They take the bus to work, get their Free Lunch, get their nap time or yoga time. And they like to cause trouble.

Most of these protests stem from a case where one employee harassed another and the company handled it. The harasser was persuaded to resign, but since there was no criminal or civil determination in a court, they didn't withhold from him promised compensation for work done, per a prior agreement. This makes business sense--the money was already allocated, and withholding it could lead to a messy distracting lawsuit. This vocal minority was angry he got money, and imagined in some way it was as if they themselves were subject to his bad behavior.

And while this case involved "sexual harassment", it in no way affected other employees. The fact that one "harasser" seemingly got away with it with a pile of money has no bearing on how other employees are treated.

Similarly Damore (while I believe his memo was idiotic) -- his speech in no way could cause harm to any employee. He was summarily fired which is an extreme action to take, considering the person who leaked an internal google message board was never punished. He's now gone. People should put a period on it and move on with their work lives, or find another job.

I guess that's possible although I have no interaction with kids in their 20s and early 30s at those companies. I can't remember any political interests when I was that age aside from the odd scattering of typical programmer libertarianism, a natural side effect of living in a bubble.

What I find amusing is all the fuss at these companies, perhaps about real problems perhaps not, while those same employees are all busily laying brickwork for a kind of permanent surveillance state. Given the leviathan they are building, you'd think they'd just bug the cafeteria and everyones cubicle in order to catch evil doers.