Understanding the Leaked Google Memo

James Damore made a lot of headlines over the past week. He sent a memo across Google that was later leaked. In the memo, he dared to suggest that Google’s diversity and inclusion programs weren’t working. Even worse, he suggested that non-discriminatory hiring and retention programs might actually be more successful.

The memo itself is long and technical. I suggest you give it a read, but if you’re pressed for time, I’ll summarize it and the political situation that surrounds the issue.

Content

Before we get into the frenzy surrounding Damore’s memo, let’s take a moment to discuss the content. Overall, it was a criticism of the way Google treats ideology and inclusion. The memo suggests that Google does not value ideological diversity as it argues that such diversity is the most important kind. Damore points out that colleagues who sympathize with his views are afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation and that the ideological majority at Google has suppressed all opposition into silence. Such a state is not conducive to good business and does not foster the kind of universally safe space that Google claims to want to provide.

The memo also discusses the failures of Google’s diversity programs. He demonstrates that many of these programs are guilty of discrimination in an attempt to promote gender and racial diversity. These programs are clearly failing as Google is still less than 25 percent female. Damore suggests that improving diversity might be better served by looking at population-level statistics. According to vast amounts of research, women, on average, tend to find Google positions less appealing. These positions include engineering, coding and high-level management. Damore then goes deeper and suggests that these statistics might not solely be explained by social issues. Some of the differences could in fact be biological.

Criticism

By and large the resounding criticism of this memo is that it is violently sexist. If you read it for yourself, you’ll see that the synopsis above is not protecting Damore’s point of view. There is absolutely no sexist language or points within the entire document. The critics suggest that Damore paints women as inferior. Instead, he accurately points out that the lack of women at Google stems mostly from disinterest. Whether this disinterest is biological or not, Google won’t bridge the representation gap with female exclusive seminars. They need to address the issue of disinterest to better recruit females.

In reality, the criticism against Damore is the exact ideological problem his memo identifies. The left has double and tripled down on demonizing their opponents, and now they have to be offended by any position that suggests men and women might have inherent biological differences. They have to rail so hard against it that they are blatantly ignoring important analysis that could actually help many of their causes. If you really want to attack the real gender pay gap (which is almost exclusively relegated to tech jobs), then you need to better appeal to the female base. Hiring more women in tech is the obvious and inescapable first step.

Politics

As for Google, their political position left them no real options. They had to fire Damore or risk extensive backlash from the left. They knew from the start that Damore would be able to win a wrongful termination suit, but the cost of that lawsuit is almost certainly less than the losses they would have incurred if they hadn’t jumped on the bandwagon and vilified him with the rest. It is extremely unlikely that any jury would side against this being a retaliatory firing, and Damore is likely to get a large settlement.

The Irony of it All

In the end, Google and the left responded exactly the way Damore predicted. Adding to the irony is the fact that Damore himself is a fairly left-wing liberal. He merely wanted to help his peers see the dangers of close-minded ideology. What he failed to understand is how the left has painted itself into a corner. They are so committed to silencing dissenting points of view that, like Google, they had no real options in their response. They had to attack him wholeheartedly specifically because his arguments against their stance were reasonable and quantifiably accurate.

With every passing day we only see more evidence that the hard left doesn’t care about facts and will attempt to cling to what little power they have left by any means possible.

~ American Liberty Report


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