And who benefited from that? Not talking about it is politics. You cannot avoid that. It's literally impossible.
Also, if someone does that to me, the first thing that comes to mind is "Fuck off". Unapologetically.
Not a good way to convince people.
The method in this case, writing an open letter, seems like a way to weaponize network effect and have an outsized influence over say simply talking to your manager or using an internal feedback system. I think SpaceX is right to say this causes social pressure internally to sign on and not be on the wrong side of the "if you're not with us you're against us" attitudes of politics today.
Hard to disagree with that.
> the exact issues you care about could be very different from someone else's and having all these discussions is pretty distracting.
Definitely, which is part of why women and minorities get ignored and hence exploited when the status quo is embraced.
> weaponize
God I'm so tired of people's exaggerations. Nonsense.
its *
How would you feel if you asked me about a hot button issue important to you at work and I declined to talk about it. Would you approach HR?
No it's not. Trying to change society is politics. What you're saying is akin to "silence is violence" which is just as ridiculous.
Well, no. Not talking about something, is nothingness, silence, an absence of speech. I can demand that void of speech be filled with literally anything.
At some point common sense kicks in and you realize that talking to your wife about the colour of her favourite mug, is not politics. You realize, deciding what bread to eat for breakfast hasn't been calculated on how many votes Ron Paul got in the last primary, or whatever.
Making politics everything and making everything about politics, turns it into a religion. It isn't one, it's not a cosmology, and it'll never satisfy as a 'theory of everything'. Politics is one category out of many.
It's just a method of wrangling everybody's desires together for the purpose of governance. That's it. It's got nothing to do with coding up a widget for some factory and it's economic aim to serve the entire population with quality mugs at a cheaper price.
if there is a social conflict (and boy are there social conflicts), not talking about those social problems is tacit support for the dominant position. pretending that one's work life can be neatly compartmentalized and has no bearing on the rest of the world is a fantasy of those who value their own comfort over the well being of others
Why are we surprised when employees then want to talk politics?