"not being able to escape anxiety-inducing situations"
I'm fortunate that I've worked in a rather politically balanced industry which naturally turns out to be apolitical as a consequence of mere demographics.
Yeah, 100%. Were you in California last summer? “Silence is violence” was the phrase of the day. I’ve got about a gazillion stories from living in San Francisco for three years.
Since last year, I've stopped using social media like FB. When the summer came around, my friends were posting political stuff online and noticed I wasn't interacting with it. My phone would then blow up with messages along the theme of: "are you showing your real self by not supporting x?".
So many stories.
My skip level manager had me in a 1-on-1 once and said something along the lines: “you probably got the green card because Trump likes your demographic”. (I have an EB-1 extraordinary ability green card, and I assume they were talking about me being straight and white). What the fuck am I supposed to say there? Was absolutely speechless. Moments like that are basically shit tests: “are you one of us?” Pretty sure I failed that test. Oh well.
One time quite recently I shared a Joe Rogan podcast on slack (Moxie from Signal was on there). I then went to sleep. Man, when I woke up the thread was popping with “I refuse to click on this link”, “Joe Rogan is a transphobe”. Someone posting stories about Joe Rogan being friends with Alex Jones and how problematic that is. Nothing to do with the actual podcast episode with Moxie. If anything, it was hilariously ironic because they were talking about how Signal provides privacy for people and how, if you don’t have privacy, people will scrutinise everything you’ve ever said and find ways to #cancel you. Just bizarre. I couldn’t even be bothered to respond.
Honestly most stories at work are just the accumulation of tiny comments here and there. Just the odd joke about conservatives or the implicit assumption you agree with them. One time some girl at work told me “I can tell you’re not as liberal as us”. I asked her why, because I definitely wasn’t but I also definitely didn’t bother arguing at work. She said she could just tell by my vibe. I mean it’s true. Fair play to her I guess.
"Joe is an evil person who will introduce you to evil things! We do not speak of him here."
"Are you a true believer or not?"
"We can tell you're not a devoted Scientologist."
"Fall in line, or we'll bully and ostracize you."
The company had hired a diversity officer and she began an initiative that requierd all company employees take an optional cultural course that was essentially something about power dynamics between culture/race. Since it wasn't really relevant to my role, I decided not to take the course as it was optional... until I found out it wasn't. I started receiving emails and phone calls from the diversity officer that I should take the course. I thought it was a bit weird and just ignored her. She then contacted my boss and told her to tell me to take the course. Starting to get pissed off, I asked my boss if the course was option, she said yes, then I said I'm not taking it.
I'm mixed race with mainly French and Indian ancestry and while I can pass for full white (albeit a white person that spends time in the sun), my skin is tanned just enough that I can pass for other ethnic groups as well. However, my name is undoubtedly French.
I then received an email from the diversity officer saying that I was an example of a problematic white person and that I was probably ignoring her because she was female and Indian. Then I was contacted by HR for discriminatory conduct and told to report to their office. When I showed up at the office, I could visibly see they were confused as they were clearly expecting someone that didn't look like me. Luckily for me, some of my family is Hindu and I happened to be wearing a religious bracelet I received as a present and I was basically able to fend off their accusations of racism and whatnot. Left the company shortly afterwards.
Are they in a cult? That sounds like some Scientology shit.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonizing_the_enemy [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_bombing
That's society in general, not just work.
https://48laws-of-power.blogspot.com/2011/05/law-38-think-as...
Take the letter people, for example. They will ridicule people for not understanding the difference between G and Q, for example. Phrases like "if you don't know what X means, you must live under a rock" are common.
Then you have the pronoun people who tell us anyone can choose any set of pronouns they like. They tell it's easy to relearn your native language and remember a set of pronouns for each and every person you interact with, from a basically infinite set of combinations.
I'm reminded of the secret languages children invent. But these are now adults doing it, at work. It's especially difficult for older people to change the language they use and can make them feel thoroughly alienated.
You mean LGBT+?
Because dang that's an incredibly insulting way to completely dismiss everyone who isn't straight then
It's absolutely the opposite of "relearning" in relative complexity/difficulty.
> remember a set of pronouns for each and every person you interact with, from a basically infinite set of combinations.
I've literally never met a person of alternative pronouns in real life (both the "unintuitive" variety and the "made up" variety), surely you are exaggerating with unreasonable hyperbole.
> Phrases like "if you don't know what X means, you must live under a rock" are common.
I've gotten this constantly my entire life, no matter how obscure or unimportant the information, more often sports and non political things than politics.
I have. But it's not just the ones with alternative pronouns. Some of them have standard pronouns but still sign their email with them at the end. The implication is I shouldn't assume their pronouns and they can change them at any time.
> I've gotten this constantly my entire life, no matter how obscure or unimportant the information, more often sports and non political things than politics.
At work? Has your career ever been affected by your lack of knowledge about snooker?
In case it's helpful: not all your comments do this, nor even all your comments on divisive topics. When you stick to describing your personal experience, for example, it's fine. But when you call names, denounce others, or pour snark and vitriol, those things are not fine—and you've done a ton of that on HN. That's not cool!
We probably would have re-banned you by now, except I imagine I see signs of improvement here and there. Please improve further. It's not in your interest to make this place nastier; that's guaranteed to make it less interesting, and the odds of it being interesting are the only reason for any of us to come here.