Talking to the other side - Antifa

[DBTrek]

Sorry to hear that Jedi, but not surprised.

I contract at Microsoft at the moment and you should see some of the anti-Trump emails that freely circulate at work. They aren't particularly nasty, it's just amazing to me that the culture there is so comfortably left that no one thinks twice about sending anti-Trump jokes or rants to a list of some twenty or thirty people, contractors included. Of course, that might just be their polite way of putting everyone on notice, right? Like, "just in case you don't know how we roll around here, heads up!"

Seven months ago I was putting a meeting together and the full-timer I was working with (the only full-time white male on the team, btw), asked about the software devs I was inviting. I told him there was one from a particular team whose name I couldn't remember, but once I located him he'd be added to the invite.
"Is it Saresh?" he asked.
"No, they're on the same team but it's the Asian guy," I said.
My co-worker looked like I hit him with a stun gun.
"Dude, you can't say that!"
"What? Asian?"
"Seriously, you have to watch yourself around here. You never know who is listening."

I thought the guy was joking, but as the interaction went on I saw he was dead serious. Of course, I'm thinking to myself "What do we call people from the Continent of Europe? Europeans. What do we call people from the continent of Australia? Australians? South America? South Americans . . .". But it was a wake-up call to just how leftist-fascist crazy the software industry on the west coast has become.

And those are just a couple of examples . . . so . . . I guess you know how things roll out here on the Left Coast now. Sorry you lost a job over it. Don't feel bad, that guy from Google had a PhD and they canned him for less.
/shrug

[Speaker to Animals]

Of course, that might just be their polite way of putting everyone on notice, right? Like, "just in case you don't know how we roll around here, heads up!"

That's exactly what it is.

[Kazmyr]

What's funny is, with the types of email that get flung around and applying those to the company's code of conduct, you'd never see those kind of things acted upon by HR, right? But Damore drops the memo and all hell breaks loose? I'm sure some you can easily find some anti-Trump stuff that violates it, but would said sender ever be disciplined? Probably not.

[DBTrek]

I should point out that at least one of the emails came from management three levels up the chain. So, not my manager (low-level manager in charge of contractors), or her manager (the manager of other MS managers), but the next manager (the manager of a significantly large group within MS).
So . .. this isn't just a bunch of college kids making mistakes at their first job, which would be understandable. These are people who have been in the workforce for decades and have achieved positions of significant power.
(Kazmyr's comment on HR reminded me that I should probably give some details. It's not low-level employee squabbling with low-level employee here, it's top-down "culture")

[Speaker to Animals]

I should point out that at least one of the emails came from management three levels up the chain. So, not my manager (low-level manager in charge of contractors), or her manager (the manager of other MS managers), but the next manager (the manager of a significantly large group within MS).
So . .. this isn't just a bunch of college kids making mistakes at their first job, which would be understandable. These are people who have been in the workforce for decades and have achieved positions of significant power.
(Kazmyr's comment on HR reminded me that I should probably give some details. It's not low-level employee squabbling with low-level employee here, it's top-down "culture")

He's signaling what is allowed to be expressed. It's exactly what you described. This is not just light-hearted jokes. Be assured if you counter-signal that, you will be out of there for one reason or another.


The tech industry is becoming a really bad place to work. You are better off trying to migrate into defense and intelligence work these days, but even that's not safe from the deep state customers.

[SuburbanFarmer]

"No, they're on the same team but it's the Asian guy," I said.
My co-worker looked like I hit him with a stun gun.
"Dude, you can't say that!"

What is the new PC term?? Asian is kosher, afaik..

[PartyOf5]

What I'm reading this as, is ....

Translated: I don't like that the facts contradict my view, therefore I am going to twist the facts as much as possible to get them to somewhat, maybe, sort of fit my view.

Party, he's said some pretty crazy stuff. Help me understand it then. He says "Take out their families" of terrorists. He says "Strip the second amendment rights of people on the terrorist watch list." He says "I'd do a hell of a lot worse than water boarding."

His negotiating tactic (and correct me if I'm wrong) is to bid big, just in case the other party goes "ok I'll give that to you." The other party here is the American people and our democratic system. You're telling me when he bids big on things like this, he doesn't actually want what he's saying, even if he got it he wouldn't want it? If the system/people let him ban on the basis of religion, he wouldn't do it? If the system/people let him strip 2nd amendment rights without due process, he wouldn't do it? If the system/people let him do a hell of a lot worse than water boarding, he wouldn't do it?

Stop it already. You asked for proof that the travel ban was not a religious ban on Muslims. I proved that by showing you how few Muslims are affected by the travel ban. Now you want to move the goalposts because you lost the original argument.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Translated: I don't like that the facts contradict my view, therefore I am going to twist the facts as much as possible to get them to somewhat, maybe, sort of fit my view.

Party, he's said some pretty crazy stuff. Help me understand it then. He says "Take out their families" of terrorists. He says "Strip the second amendment rights of people on the terrorist watch list." He says "I'd do a hell of a lot worse than water boarding."

His negotiating tactic (and correct me if I'm wrong) is to bid big, just in case the other party goes "ok I'll give that to you." The other party here is the American people and our democratic system. You're telling me when he bids big on things like this, he doesn't actually want what he's saying, even if he got it he wouldn't want it? If the system/people let him ban on the basis of religion, he wouldn't do it? If the system/people let him strip 2nd amendment rights without due process, he wouldn't do it? If the system/people let him do a hell of a lot worse than water boarding, he wouldn't do it?

Stop it already. You asked for proof that the travel ban was not a religious ban on Muslims. I proved that by showing you how few Muslims are affected by the travel ban. Now you want to move the goalposts because you lost the original argument.

What exactly do you want him to stop? It's a legitimate question that the board seems unable to answer:

Why are we flipping our collective shit over what SJWs and wanna-Nazis say, but the words of POTUS mean nothing?

[Speaker to Animals]

You lot are the ones who should examine your words and consider the ramifications. All it will take is one more terror attack because of this asinine leftist immigration policy and Trump will sweep you into the dustbin with the support of most Americans.

This opposition to the travel ban is probably the stupidist thing you people have done thus far, which is saying quite a lot.


All these years we were talking about how another 9-11 is going to spell the end of our constitutional rights (what remains of them). I really wonder if, in fact, it will spell the end of the left.

[SuburbanFarmer]

You lot are the ones who should examine your words and consider the ramifications. All it will take is one more terror attack because of this asinine leftist immigration policy and Trump will sweep you into the dustbin with the support of most Americans.

This opposition to the travel ban is probably the stupidist thing you people have done thus far, which is saying quite a lot.


All these years we were talking about how another 9-11 is going to spell the end of our constitutional rights (what remains of them). I really wonder if, in fact, it will spell the end of the left.

It will spell the end of the Left and the Right. There's no point in debate under a dictatorship.