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by alexandercrohde·9y ago·view on hn ↗
>> Nope. My dad's tech workplace in the '70s was hostile to black people even though there was almost no visible action.

What do you mean? They didn't hire, fire, promote, or speak differently?

>> Yes, but cherry-picking results and selectively quoting articles isn't rigorous science. There is a long history of misusing science to promote preconceived agendas (tobacco industry, new age quantum garbage, eugenics, etc).

This is fair. Except from my side, I feel like I'm seeing cherry-picking by the other side. I studied psychology, and in college nobody seemed to dispute innate differences between men and women (I was taught of some in infants).

So since both sides feel the other is cherry-picking, we can either A) fire people for it B) talk it out like scientists.

>> I apologize, I just can't understand the last half of your post. It sounds like you're saying the women who wrote this reply are part of some powerful in-group-alliance?

I'm not suggesting there is an alliance of women. I'm suggesting there is a politically motivated core (SJW is the closest word I know for the group) at google and the larger public. The fact that this group is treating science as politics explains why:

- They are trying to fire people for ideas (because it's US vs THEM in their heads)

- They are deliberately lying about what Damore said (because it's politics, so no holds barred).

- They are not at all expressing a coherent vision of what "equality" would look like if they could make all the rules, but instead fighting for their own minorities (and disregarding Jews, Mexicans, ugly people, fat people, tattooed people, and all the other groups that certainly are slightly discriminated against)

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> They didn't hire, fire, promote, or speak differently?

Sure, now prove it. Other than the lack of black engineers in his department and some comments made at non-work-related functions, there wasn't anything you could point to and say "a-ha!" It can be insidious.

> nobody seemed to dispute innate differences between men and women

I think everyone agrees there are innate differences. At least, the women who wrote this article do as well.

Now, do those innate differences make women inferior engineers? (I know, Damore never explicitly said this, but he implied it. Maybe it's just poor writing? I wish he'd run his memo past some interested women before posting internally so he'd have a chance to clarify.)

The "core" of which you speak is basically Google's exec staff. It's not a conspiracy, it's just the company.

They fired Damore because, whether it's due to unfair implications or just bad writing, his presence had become hostile to a good percentage of Google's workforce. He's not going to be in a position to manage many female engineers after posting that.

Personally, I wish Google could have condemned the memo and let HR handle it. Their reaction seemed over the top. Ah well, sometimes life isn't fair, even for white male engineers. :)