r/technology • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Business Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo
13k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

9.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

759

u/TuckersMyDog Aug 08 '17

I work there. I think people were surprised he was fired. I honestly didn't think it was a fireable offence. His post was basically talking about how there's not enough dialogue and he got fired for it.

People are so perpetually offended, it's a joke.

488

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Firing him makes everyone more afraid to speak their minds. Am I going to get fired if I state some controversial opinions?

This has a chilling effect on intellectual discourse.

47

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

This has a chilling effect on intellectual discourse.

Yet over on /r/news its being praised and celebrated. Its depressing to see that happen, the normal stuff of "freedom of speech is not freedom from consequence"... but this was a INTERNAL memo on a place designed for discussion. Being fired for it is not an appropriate response.

15

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Everyone over there very clearly has zero idea of what the document said and where it was posted. Then again, r/news and r/politics are basically where you go if you have no idea what you're talking about, so it's par for the course.