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Comment by Thorentis | Hacker News Reader

> If you want to post #BLM great. If you don't that's fine too.

Anecdata: in a company all-hands 2 weeks ago, an employee asked the CEO why the company hadn't yet made a public statement about BLM. The CEO looked visibly agitated, almost fearful, and stumbled through some response that equated to "will we do that by the end of the week".

Whether or not the pressure actually exists, people are scared of what will happen if they don't conform. People have been fired over tweets, roasted in the media over not speaking out "when they should", and for things they said 10 years ago. Nobody wants to be on the front page of buzzfeed for being outed "as a racist". There is a collective societal fear that is driving us faster and faster off the PC cliff.

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This.

I sometimes worry about anything I may have said years ago or anything I say now that could be construed as offensive by ... almost anyone at this point.

Early on (day after the riots started) I posted an article about a POC business owner’s business being destroyed due to protests (rioting) - I had someone call me gross and “where was your outrage when a Black man was killed by a cop? I didn’t see you post anything then”

After that I started having to make a risk analysis before doing anything.

At this point you HAVE to say something about everything and cover your bases, or you’re complicit; oddly enough you can say something AGAINST the movement, be called out, and apologize, and that’s acceptable. But trying to stay out of the shitstorm? No, you’re complicit. Say something positive, or say something negative and then retract it. But say something...

You always had to do risk analysis when you made any statement in a group of people. Any group of people.

You're just realising that, though a much more extreme case than usual.

I’ve always known it, especially since I ran a “kind of popular” chat forum for a while, and trying to please everyone with moderation, etc... as well as having to realize I have to maintain a level of “maturity” in a way...

But things have reached epic levels of mob mentality. I could post something about someone raping someone else, completely bogus, and it would spread like wildfire, with people making memes of it who have zero knowledge or context.

> I sometimes worry about anything I may have said years ago or anything I say now that could be construed as offensive by ... almost anyone at this point.

I hear this complaint a lot and don't quite understand it. I don't think the goal in life is to not offend anyone. Just live your life as best you can and if others get offended that's OK. Learn from it if you want to, if it's nonsense ignore it. If someone injures you, sue them. If someone threatens you call the police. If someone stops being your friend get new friends. People are free to get as offended as they want and you're free to not let it bother you.

When there are laws passed that create penalties for offending someone then we have a problem. Until then the outrage about the outrage is just like the outrage itself.

The problem is that these rules worked in prior times, but social media has given the offended the power to group up with 10000 other people who would be similarly offended. And once they are all offended, they adopt a mob mentality and ruin the lives of people. There's no examination of evidence, no due process, and no deviation from the mob's mentality.

It's the exact opposite of the norms that the United States had been built on for it's history. And there's little to no legal recourse for victims of the mob who have been fired from their jobs and labeled as a racist online.

History has plenty of examples of mobs ruining people's lives without due process. I'm not disagreeing that it's bad just that I don't think it's a new phenomenon or even worse than it used to be. The mobs used to kill you not just harass you.

Unfortunately, something within us seems to want to blame, shame, control and punish other people.

> I had someone call me gross and “where was your outrage when a Black man was killed by a cop? I didn’t see you post anything then”

Sounds rude. Does not sound like a huge tragedy? You wanted to post some random news article and get some +1s, and then somebody had to ruin your day? Now you "have to make a risk analysis"? Is that a complicated way of saying you have to think before you post?

Just in case you're of the opinion that the PC left is all-powerful, maybe check out how people were treated who dared to say that the untouchable Kobe Bryant should just maybe be remembered for some really nasty sexual assault -- they got pilloried left right and center how DARE you criticize Kobe! Or, observe how the Biden scandal has been handled. Plenty of non-PC stuff getting over, every day.

I hear you. I think it's weird that companies are being asked (or want) to take a stance on any issue outside of their core business.

If I was the CEO I'd say that I personally support and strive for equality and mutual respect. And as CEO I'm focused on changing the world though [our product].

I'm sure that wouldn't satisfy some folks but that's OK. There's only a Catch 22 if you're trying to make everyone happy. If you're OK with some folks bring upset then there shouldn't be fear in questions like the ones you mentioned.

Check out the YouTube video of RuPaul as a guest in Jimmy Fallon's talk show if you want to see an example of this brand of fear

Not sure why you aren't more critical of your CEO than the boogie man of cancel culture taking away our guns, oh sorry, what are they taking away? Our right to tweet without fear? Forgot where I saw that was an inalienable right ...

Businesses making statements about BLM is frankly the height of kneeling-Jamie-Dimon hypocrisy, if their business has no view or angle on it. Amazon immediately slapped up "Amazon believes Black Lives Matter" because ... it cost them $0.0 to do so. Even money contributions to [pick the charity you saw on TV last night] aren't much if 99.99% of your effort concerns ... your business.

Here's a tip for CEOs: it's really simple. Either you (a) take a political stand for personal/culture reasons that are very clear to you, or (b) resist the urge to say anything at all. If it makes people unhappy, then listen to their complaints and suggestions. If they make sense, act on them! Or don't. Here's what you shouldn't do: cower and worry that some employees might be upset. Hell, maybe they'll quit: people are angry as fuck. But, yeah, they probably won't, if your business isn't a total shitshow otherwise.

Also I have to point out: being "roasted in the media" as you say implies that people are paying attention. Most startups are simply not newsworthy.

I mean WTF am I missing here? Do people really think Twitter is a nice place to be? Did people forget GamerGate? Somehow we survived that.

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