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National Journal's Rebecca Nelson reports about the Republicans lurking in the shadows of the Bay Area:
Deep in Silicon Valley, where the free market reigns and the exchange of ideas is celebrated, a subset of tech workers are hiding their true selves.
They're the tech company employees, startup founders, and CEOs who vote for and donate to Republican candidates, bucking the Bay Area's liberal supremacy. Fearing the repercussions of associating with a much-maligned minority, they keep their political views fiercely hidden.
The consequences for being outed for conservative views can be dire. In a highly public controversy last year, newly-hired Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich stepped down after critics attacked his 2008 donation to support Proposition 8, the anti-same-sex marriage law in California. Eich, who declined to comment for this story, faced an internal uprising from within the Mozilla community, as well as boycotts from other tech companies, and quit after just two weeks on the job.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday April 10 2015, @06:00AM
In some ways I do, I've had an utterly dreadful experience with a workmate where, after about half an hour of really interesting conversation he told me that if I finished the sentence I had just started he would have to kill me. I said one more word, and he repeated his threat. I stopped, he was serious. Yes, the topic was religion, and yes, he was Muslim, and up until that moment he had seemed relatively well balanced. But I'd still rather know that he was a potentially murderous lunatic than remain ignorant of the fact, and that knowledge could only be gained from having the conversation that we did. Without it, I may have come back from an office party dead. But that is a toxic workplace, as I said before. "Will you kill your workmates if they say something that you don't like?" should be a valid interview question.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 10 2015, @06:02AM
Or perhaps, "Will you destroy your workmates careers if you disagree with their views? It's a real fear:
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/74794.html [psychologicalscience.org]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.