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by rit 4658 days ago
He was in a position to hire people, and expressing views that clearly indicated bias towards certain protected classes.

That alone would be cause for concern. I don't know that I"d advocate his firing, but I'd certainly question his authority to hire & fire staff based on the things he's said.
2 comments
hosay123 4658 days ago
This generalizes further than just antifeminism. Christians and atheists are usually in positions to hire people. I guess we should just fire everybody who ever believed in anything, and then we'd have a perfect world, right?
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untog 4658 days ago
Where did you get the idea that "believing in anything" is the reason he got fired?

It's quite simple (and already explained by rit). He posted numerous messages disparaging various groups - blacks, women, gays. He is responsible for hiring within the company. This places Business Insider in an utterly compromised position and in danger of lawsuits.

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hosay123 4658 days ago
Been chewing on this since you made the comment, and I don't think I buy it. The "legal issues" angle is a dirty cop-out, and it ignores the issue at hand: he's being suppressed for holding an opinion.

Right now I'm looking at the Twitter search results and being reminded why I hate people in general. Should expressing this opinion get me fired? Should I be prohibited from occupying a position of hiring people because I am prejudiced to assume they are capable of what I'm seeing in those search results?

Somehow it's not fair. A Christian or Atheist or (pre-1960s) homosexual sympathizer would present the same risks to a business as Dickinson did here. His views aren't considered progressive by any means, but 50 or 100 years ago neither would the views of an Atheist or a homosexual. I'm trying to find the difference here between firing Dickinson and, say 60 years ago, firing a homosexual sympathizer.

And I can't find that line. I can't say, without making an absolute judgement using a perfect computer and a perfect observation of the global state of the universe, whether the sympathizer was correct at the time, or whether Dickinson is somehow wrong now. All I know is that nobody appears to have been harmed except Dickinson, and I won't be hearing his opinions any time soon, and that's a crying shame.

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untog 4658 days ago
I'm trying to find the difference here between firing Dickinson and, say 60 years ago, firing a homosexual sympathizer.

Well, a homosexual sympathizer in a hiring position 60 years ago would have been more inclusive in their choices for candidate. A bigot in the 21st Century would be be more exclusive.

He is not being suppressed for holding an opinion. He is perfectly entitled to hold that opinion. And Business Insider is perfectly entitled to fire him to avoid being associated with an opinion that does not match their company values.

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hosay123 4658 days ago
That's only true if the sympathizer never heard a candidate say "I fucking hate gays". I'm not sure how I feel about your last paragraph yet.
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theorique 4657 days ago
Been chewing on this since you made the comment, and I don't think I buy it. The "legal issues" angle is a dirty cop-out, and it ignores the issue at hand: he's being suppressed for holding an opinion.

He's not being suppressed (and now fired) for holding an opinion. He was fired for publicly expressing views that were incompatible with his job as CTO.

He said in a public medium (Twitter), tagged with his professional title, that he believed superb female developers were as rare as unicorns. Any woman who had ever interviewed and been turned down for a dev position at Business Insider might have a legal case for unfair discrimination in hiring.

The other stuff (racism, sexism, etc) is one thing, but the example I mentioned above exposed his company to legal liability. That's not a responsible thing for a person in a decision-making and hiring position to do.

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rit 4658 days ago
Exactly. And it potentially opens up legal grounds, with evidence. Every member of the protected classes he has venomously disparaged, who applied for and didn't get a job (or was fired) to claim discrimination by him.
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fedvasu 4658 days ago
Yeah, But he is not announcing anything on behalf of BI right? There is an implicit disclaimer that all views are his not his employers (I am sure atleast he thinks that way). Yes BI is entitled to fire him as it portrays them in bad-light in public but that wouldn't attract lawsuits (may be american law is fucked-up). I don't know.
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dragonwriter 4658 days ago
> Yeah, But he is not announcing anything on behalf of BI right

So? Even aside from the PR (and potential advertising sales) aspects -- which are probably the main factor -- anything he says in public on behalf of himself is, even if not made on behalf of the company, evidence that can be used to establish his motive in any decision he makes on behalf of the company (e.g., hiring/firing) in the event of a lawsuit.

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bigonlogn 4658 days ago
His views aren't the issue, his outspokenness is. How could a woman ever feel comfortable interviewing with this guy, let alone, working for him. What if said woman was a great fit for the company and had a lot to contribute? His ability to hire and fire effectively is compromised. Not because of his views, but because he couldn't keep his mouth shut about them.

Sometimes knowing when to shut the hell up is a far greater asset than being outspoken and opinionated. Especially about things related to your job...

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jcromartie 4658 days ago
I'm not sure I see that bias. Did he ever indicate that he thought certain people were unfit for a job because of their gender, religion, etc.?
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theorique 4658 days ago
This one specifically disparaged female devs:

"Tech managers spend as much time worrying about how to hire talented female developers as they do worrying about how to hire a unicorn."

https://twitter.com/paxdickinson/status/202095372355633152

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Thrymr 4658 days ago
He made this public comment on a BI job posting thread [1]:

"@Liberal Insider: Haha, you'd feel pretty silly for writing that comment if you ever saw my twitter feed and read all the horrible things I say about Obama. :)"

[1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/hiring-mobile-apps-developer-...

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jcromartie 4658 days ago
I don't get it. "Liberal Insider" said that you need to be a "bleeding heart liberal" who would support Barack Obama to work at BI. Pax refuted this referring to his history of statements against Obama.

I doubt it very much that he was implying you needed to be liberal OR conservative to work at BI.

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Thrymr 4658 days ago
You can read it that way, sure. But why would anyone with hiring authority ever make a comment like that on a public forum about his own job posting?
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