The Way the World Works [Fired Google Employee Goes Radioactive]

There have been some interesting comments made under the post, Fired Google Employee James Damore Is An Idiot.

The post features a youtube video by Lionel Nation stating that the now ex-Google employee James Damore was an idiot for putting out his essay on the internal Google message boards. And Nation is correct.

Damore has said during interviews that he liked his job at Google, well bye, bye to that, and he has no chance of getting a job at any other hot Silicon Valley company.

The Valley is filled with Social Justice Warriors. I could tell you horror story after horror story about some of the things going on.

It is just plain business sense for any major company that is public or trying to raise serious money to avoid Damore. He is radioactive. Why would a CEO want to introduce radioactive hassle to his company?

That is just the way the world works.

Recently, an individual with a company I am affiliated with suggested that a certain person that is publicly radioactive would make a good board member. I immediately shot the idea down. The company will probably in the future be seeking Silicon Valley money and the last thing we need when attempting to raise capital is a radioactive board member.

On the other hand, a couple of years ago, a person I was closely working with went major league radioactive in New York City. He called me about it as soon as it happened. My response to him was, "Sounds like bullshit to me. Don't worry about it. It's not a problem for me."

But my company is private and I don't have outside investors to answer to. If I was raising money publicly, my answer would probably have been different.

That's why when Shimshon commented that Damore did get job offers:

You're wrong, Bob. James received several job offers before he was even fired (from Wikileaks and Gab.ai). Unlike the diversity hires, this man is smart and talented. 

He misses the point.

Neither one of these companies is anything like Google. It would be like a banned NFL player getting signed by a Canadain Football League team. Any publicity for the CFL is good publicity. It is not the same for Google, Facebook, Yahoo or LinkedIn--especially because they have so many social justice warriors lurking,

 Gab.ai appears to be an interesting concept but, drum roll, they have raised all of 467 thousand dollars.

It makes sense for them and Wikileaks to make job offers to Damore but this is not the Silicon Valley big leagues. Maybe Damore will like it at one of these spots but his options are now decidedly changed and it  may all be for the better but his plan wasn't to get stuck with only these two options.

There are consequences to actions and it makes sense to warn young libertarians about the dangers of some moves. We are in a major league battle against social justice warriors and the state. They are vicious and don't play fair. So rather than blindly cheer everyone that takes on social justice warriors or the state, we need to examine the tactics used.

The seemingly bright and decent Ross Ulbricht is now serving life in prison for taking on the state in a manner that turns out was way over his head.

Damore has lost his job. We have to be smart about how we battle,  and we must call out idiot tactics, while appreciating the effort. Not enough focus is made on calling out the idiot tactics. It does not encourage others from thinking about how to improve on sloppy tactics. The Left thinks about this stuff.

Losing a job we don't want to lose or getting thrown in jail is just not smart.

As I wrote in 2013:

I have never been a big fan of getting thrown in jail as a means of  political protest. Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises never ended up in jail and they have probably done more in recent decades to advance libertarian thinking than almost anyone else.

Which is why I found commentary by Saul Alinsky about getting thrown in jail quite interesting.

Alinsky was a very skilled major league lefty rabble rouser, who influenced both President Obama and Hillary Clinton. In his book, Rules for Radicals, he was always calculating, even when it came to protests that could put you in jail. He wrote:

At the same time, the revolutionary leaders should make certain their publicized violations of are  so selected that their jail terms are relatively brief, from one day to two months. The trouble with a long sentence is that (a) a revolutionary is removed from action for such an extended period of time that he loses touch, and (b) if you are gone long enough everybody forgets about you.

I think he is correct, though I would advance the point and say that any time in jail because of a protest is wasted time.

Be careful out there. Don't take yourself out of the game. The idea is to make things difficult for the coercers, not the other way around.

Stefan Molyneux during his interview with Damore asked him a very important question, "Why didn't you publish secretly?'

By this, I am guessing he was asking Damore why he didn't publish anonymously or under a pen name. If he had, and taken proper precautions, he would still be at Google and would have been able to continue his inside game to harass the SJWs.

Even the founding fathers used pen names.

Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton used multiple pen names.

Franklin used at least these: Alice Addertongue, Anthony Afterwit, Benevolus, Busy Body, Caelia Shortface, Martha Careful, Polly Baker, Richard Saunders and Silence Dogood.

Hamilton used at least: Caesar, Phocion and Publius.

Gore Vidal used Edgar Box. Murray Rothbard used two or three.

Fighting SJWs and the state is noble, just don't be stupid about it. They should be suffering not you. This can not be over emphasized.

-RW