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Comment by sam_lowry_ | Hacker News Reader

Last week in Europe, I was reprimanded by an US-based C-level exec for using the word "annoying" while asking a question about email filtering in a corporate Slack channel. Can't imagine being still employed if I used the word Nazi there.

People in US are broadcasting hypocrisy onto the world.

None can feel safe.

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When taking a group of hundreds of millions of people with the same trait (such as their nationality), it’s easiest to compartmentalize and expect them all to think the same and behave the same. So when inevitably individuals or subcultures in that group have differences, it’s easiest to call it hypocritical.

I’ve been a European in American companies where saying “I don’t like that VP” in public would raise serious eyebrows, and I’ve been part of other American companies where saying “the VP Product is a fucking idiot” in public would make everyone laugh. It’s not the first time I hear GitHub fancies itself to be a bit edgy in culture, and I’m personally not into it, but it doesn’t make them hypocritical because some other guy you know, and you need to put in the same bucket, is different.

> People in US are broadcasting hypocrisy onto the world.

America is large country, half a continent. The existence of people and companies with widely different standards within it should be expected. That does not make it hypocritical.

Also, you treat Nazi as slur, but it is not one. It is political group.

I’m sure words can have separate meanings from their initial one.

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