The Google engineer who authored a now infamous 10-page ‘anti-diversity’ memo which went viral internally before leaking over the weekend has been fired for his beliefs.
In the memo, titled ‘Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,’ author James Damore argues that certain topics of conversation at Google are ‘shamed’ into silence, stifling meaningful discussion. “This silencing has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed,” wrote Damore, who when on to say that political correctness breeds “the most extreme and authoritarian elements of this ideology.”
Damore also said the gender gap and lack of women in technology jobs is due in part to biological differences.
In response, Google CEO Sundar Pichai released an internal memo titled “our words matter,” which states that the senior engineer violated the company’s code of conduct, and that while Damore’s anti-diversity memo was open for debate, “portions of the memo violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in the workplace.”
Pichai’s memo goes on; “Our job is to build great products for users that make a difference in their lives. To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK. It is contrary to our basic values and our Code of Conduct, which expects ‘each Googler to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination.”
Backlash to Google’s decision has spread like wildfire as the hashtag #GoogleManifesto trends
#GoogleManifesto author James Damore has been fired.
This is a disgrace. https://t.co/V0Yc6srK7E
— Jeff Giesea (@jeffgiesea) August 8, 2017
It's not Trump, but Google, who's ushering in 1984. #GoogleManifesto
— David Sutcliffe (@SutcliffeDavid) August 8, 2017
Google's VP of Diversity campaigned for Hillary. Can't make this stuff up. https://t.co/GbiyeyApHD
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) August 8, 2017
This.#GoogleManifesto #googlememo pic.twitter.com/SFWXYIBhsF
— Pelle Billing (@pellebilling) August 7, 2017
Google's Diversity VP follows a President Hillary fanfiction account. No surprise James Damore was fired #GoogleManifesto pic.twitter.com/pn8MUb6Irs
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) August 8, 2017
A Google manager brags about how he keeps an internal blacklist based on his spying on employee emails. #GoogleManifesto pic.twitter.com/VqllkE6Jhc
— Supreme Dark Lord (@voxday) August 7, 2017
No results found. pic.twitter.com/ahoBwz7m2b
— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) August 8, 2017
Here's a picture of Google's censorship team. It explains so much.#GoogleManifesto pic.twitter.com/6fKgd42YIn
— /pol/ News Forever (@polNewsForever) August 8, 2017
Google hired Hillary campaign worker as their Diversity VP. Danielle Brown. What a joke pic.twitter.com/4PTIovTj6Y
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) August 8, 2017
Google Engineer: "Woman & men may be different"
Google CEO: Fires man for "perpetuating gender stereotypes"
Ads are targeted by gender??? pic.twitter.com/FKGhf7Bp0s
— Ed (@DowdEdward) August 8, 2017
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on TwitterHi @sundarpichai,
You're a big dopey moron for firing James Damore. We're going to hire him. Get bent.#GoogleManifesto pic.twitter.com/WIaW4BZB4O
— Gab (@getongab) August 8, 2017
Problem is…The dude is dead nuts correct.
Google will indeed stifle growth and honest deliberation within the company in the name of political correctness. Time to sell.
Joogle: do evil.
Damore’s manifesto and dismissal has caused the Twittersphere to explode with activity. Even @JulianAssange getting into it – has offered Damore a job at Wikileaks. Awful publicity for Google as they handled it very badly. Streisand effect.
I get the impression that his observations about Google could be representative of the whole of Silicon Valley. All one gigantic safe space for emotionally defective lefties.
Thank you Mr. Damore for having the courage to express your convictions in a sincere, honest and constructive way. Thank you for exposing to the entire planet Google’s abject intolerance that they disguise as a ‘diversity’ policy. Orwell’s 1984 is arriving, one corporation at a time.
Google shifted sometime ago to shareholders and political correctness. It jumped the shark from #1 focus being search to advertising revenue, marketing and now is plagued with this crap vs actually creating stuff people want.
I suspect over time people will like they did with Bing and Yahoo mail.. slowly migrate to smaller companies focused on privacy and search results. Clean, crisp, no tracking interfaces. It will take 10 years + but ultimately, the shift will happen.
Great blog write-up!
Google like Facebook is guilty of data manipulation to advance an agenda.
Not good.
I got chased out of tech like this. It was relatively early around 2011, before the current environment that is so obvious to anyone paying attention for the last several years, and before I realized that anyone in tech should stay away from social media with anything that is remotely conservative. I was burned at the stake and it was quite a painful experience that honestly still shapes me today, if I’m being honest.
It was when I saw the liberal tech world throw the likes Brendan Eich, truly a pioneer and titan of the internet itself, to wolves without batting an eyelash that I realized I, nor anyone else in tech, would ever stand a chance to be anything else but a liberal or *extremely* closet-ed conservative. For those that don’t know Brendan Eich was the creator of Javascript the language which along with HTML forms the backbone of every webpage, as well as the founder and CEO of Mozilla. What he did ‘wrong’ was to privately donate some money to prop 8, which sought to ensure that marriage was reserved for men and women, not same sex couples. Prop 8 was so ‘evil’ that it actually won the popular vote in California, only to have the Supreme Court violate its state rights by overturning later on. So yeah, Eich was run out of town without a second thought for privately donating to a cause that won the popular vote.
So it’s OK to look at the sexes differently when it comes to marketing products but not when it comes to anything else… only when money is involved is it OK.
Hasn’t the Google homepage been incapable of saying Merry Christmas on December 25th for many years?