It’s not about free speech
In the days since his firing, James Damore has been treated as a victim and a free-speech martyr, deified in the internet’s darkest corners by alt-right pundits who say the young engineer was purged from Google in the name of ideological purity.
Damore’s “thought crime” is by now well known: he wrote in a memo to his colleagues that Google’s attempts to address the gender imbalance in its hiring are ultimately misguided, blind as they are to the innate biological differences between men and women.
The manifesto claims, for instance, that science shows that women, as a group, are more neurotic than men, which “may contribute . . . to the lower number of women in high-stress jobs.” But Damore’s use of science is wildly selective; his simplistic insistence that biology, rather than social factors, largely explains the persistent underrepresentation of women in tech jobs ignores swaths of disconfirming evidence. He accuses Google of being blinded to facts by its “left bias,” but his own ideological blinders are on clear display.
Google’s equity push is part of a larger response among tech firms to a growing body of evidence of pervasive sexism in Silicon Valley. Female employees are sometimes paid less for the same work, and are made to suffer a great deal more. Of the 200-plus women working in senior positions in American tech companies, 84 per cent say they have been told they are too aggressive; 90 per cent say have they have witnessed sexist behaviour at work; 60 per cent say they have had to dodge unwanted sexual advances from colleagues. In many cases, they feared for their safety. It’s not hard to imagine reasons other than biology for the absence of more women in Silicon Valley.
Damore claims in his manifesto to share Google’s concern with diversity and inclusion. Yet when he mentions discrimination, as he does throughout his memo, it is always in reference to the company’s purported discrimination against men. His arguments, like the insufferable braying of men’s rights activists, All Lives Matter and a host of other crypto-bigoted counter-movements, seem aimed at preserving privilege in the guise of promoting equality.
No wonder Damore has been swiftly lionized by the alt-right. In recent days, the movement’s organs have offered him jobs and raised funds on his behalf. The title of his memo, “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” hints at another affinity between the engineer and his far-right defenders: the shared belief that those who challenge political correctness will be victimized for their “truthtelling.”
But the trolls, as usual, have it wrong. In this case, free speech is a red herring. Damore was sacked not for his ideas, but for his actions and their predictable consequences for the functioning of the company. After all, the man distributed a memo to his colleagues arguing that a significant fraction of them are, on average, biologically less well-suited to certain jobs within the organization.
He argues, further, that this idea is being suppressed and should be more widely advanced. It doesn’t take a Harvard-trained scientist to see the problem this is bound to create within the company, both in terms of harmony and morale.
As Yonatan Zunger, a former senior engineer at Google, put it in a public response to Damore: “Do you understand that at this point, I could not in good conscience assign anyone to work with you? I certainly couldn’t assign any women to deal with this, a good number of the people you might have to work with may simply punch you in the face, and even if there were a group of like-minded individuals I could put you with, nobody would be able to collaborate with them.”
The fight for free speech is merely pretext for something much uglier, which Damore’s most ardent advocates have inadvertently made clear. On Friday, Google cancelled a highly anticipated town hall meeting intended to air the issue. After days of vicious online harassment of Googlers who dared to speak against Damore, the company determined that the event would put employees at risk. Despite what they may think, these bullies are not the victims here. It’s not Google’s ideological echo chamber we need to be worried about.
The trolls, as usual, have it wrong. In this case, free speech is a red herring