- cypherpunks@lists.ogf.org

House Judiciary Committee taps /r/The_Donald subreddit for Amended Resolution
by Razer 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

> > If this sounds like the work of conspiracy theorists, that’s because > that’s exactly what it is. > > LawFare: The House Judiciary Committee has a unique role to play in times of great national crisis in the functioning of the presidency. As the congressional body with jurisdiction over the initial stages of the impeachment process, it’s the committee’s responsibility to weigh whether the president’s misconduct is sufficiently severe so as to merit what Charles Black refers to as “this most drastic of measures.” Fortunately, Chairman Bob Goodlatte and the Republican members of his committee are up to the task. Last week, with Russia matters heating up and the White House in full meltdown, they stayed focused on the real danger at hand: Huma Abedin. The committee voted to adopt an amended resolution introduced by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) calling for a special counsel investigation into, variously, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s instructions to former FBI Director James Comey to refer to the Clinton email probe as a “matter” rather than an “investigation”; Comey’s leaks to Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman; Comey’s leaks to New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt as far back as 1993 (when Schmidt, who graduated college in 2005, would have been around ten years old); “collusion” between Comey and Robert Mueller; any knowledge by Comey of the Steele dossier and of efforts by the intelligence community to surveill Trump or unmask his associates in a quest to damage Trump’s campaign or his presidency; immunity deals provided by the FBI to various Clinton aides over the course of the email investigation; whether Clinton secretly approved a deal to transfer U.S. uranium deposits to Russian control in return for donations to the Clinton Foundation; and yes, the specific circumstances of Huma Abedin’s employment at the State Department. If this sounds like the work of conspiracy theorists, that’s because that’s exactly what it is. Wired reported on Friday that a Gaetz staffer appears to have crowdsourced the amended resolution with the help of r/The_Donald, a pro-Trump subreddit notorious for both its embrace of conspiracy theories and its gleeful offensiveness. The Reddit user, “Devinm666,” regularly posted on the forum praising Gaetz, referencing his work in Congress, and at one point publishing a picture of his congressional ID badge with his name and face blacked out. According to Wired, Gaetz confirmed that “Devinm666” is Devin Murphy, a legislative aide in his office. “I work for Congress and have been asked to come up with a list of Clinton/Obama/election scandals for my boss ASAP,” Murphy apparently posted on Reddit, asking for suggestions. “This is not a shitpost. This is real. Congressional investigation. Do it for America!” So r/The_Donald rose to the occasion and did it for America. The text in question is not a bill, but rather a resolution of inquiry. If passed by the House, it wouldn’t require the Attorney General to begin a special counsel investigation running in parallel with Robert Mueller’s investigation (and possibly branching into it in order to investigate Mueller himself), but would merely “express the sense of the House of Representatives that a special counsel should be appointed.” That may be for the best, as there is already an investigation into a number of the issues listed in the resolution by the Department of Justice Inspector General. Additionally, most of the offenses fail to measure up to the standards for a special counsel appointment set out in either the Department of Justice regulations or the now-defunct independent counsel statute, which both anticipate possible violations of criminal law. This procedural note on Gaetz’s call for a special counsel—its technical status as a resolution of inquiry, rather than a bill—is key to understanding how it came to exist in the first place. On July 14th, Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and David Cicilline (D-RI) of the House Judiciary Committee introduced a resolution requesting that the Department of Justice provide Congress with various documents relevant to the firing of James Comey. After the committee took up the resolution, Rep. Gaetz introduced an amendment to scoop out the content and replace it with Gaetz’s request for a special counsel, while keeping Jayapal and Cicilline’s names on top. Gaetz’s proposal was adopted with the full support of the committee’s majority. Though Gaetz’s amendment and the majority’s vote were within the letter of House procedures, Democrats on the committee are—to put it mildly—somewhat put out by what they view as a “hijacking” of the normal process. But who can blame the majority? With the Mueller investigation continuing apace and the presidency spiraling ever further into chaos, you wouldn’t want a responsible body of congressional oversight to get distracted from what’s really important. Good thing the majority can boot up Reddit. Links to pertinent dox on page: https://lawfareblog.com/your-house-judiciary-committee-hard-work-peoples-bu…

4 15

From Barter to Blockchains - WTF is… Money?
by Razer 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

Hackermoon... > 13.7 billion years ago, the Big Bang brought the universe into > existence. 3.8 billion years ago, life first appeared on our planet. > 1.9 million years ago, Earth witnessed a hominid species, Home > erectus, walking upright for the first time. > > And, 7,000 years ago, money was invented. > > But first, people bartered. > > Not everyone had everything. We always had something in surplus, and > we always needed something that the other person had. As the common > sense would have said, we started exchanging our surplus assets for > what we needed. > > Imagine I had extra apples and you had extra oranges, we could simply > exchange fruits with one another. > > What if I had a surplus of apples, and didn’t want your oranges, but > I’d love to have some strawberries. > > You would go and find someone who can give you strawberries in > exchange for your oranges. Luckily you find your friend, Joe, to > barter with you. > > Then, you’d bring me those strawberries, and I’d give you some apples. > > Joe, you and I are all happy. > (Did I mention the lovely illustrations?) > But what if Joe had a surplus of bananas, but he didn’t want your > oranges either? That would be a problem. > > The smart among us started asking a profound question, “Can there be > something that everyone wants?” > > Then, there was commodity money. > > There were a few things that almost everyone used, like salt, seeds, > sheep, and cows. They became the commodity money. If we had any of > these, we could use them to get whatever we wanted.... In full at hACKERMOON: https://hackernoon.com/wtf-is-money-2a5d78072128

6 16

Cicada: A Distributed Direct Democracy and Decentralized Application Platform
by /tech/ 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

Hey niggers found this. 3301 and pics related. Cicada: A Distributed Direct Democracy and Decentralized Application Platform github.com/the-laughing-monkey/cicada-platform + /archive/master.zip ABSTRACT This paper outlines a revolutionary, open source, decentralized application platform (DAPP) along with its first major application, a distributed direct democracy (DDD). To create something scalable enough to run an entire nation with no representatives, we created two cutting edge technologies to serve as the foundation of the platform: 1] A decentralized, privacy guaranteeing Human Unique Identifier (HUID) unique to every person on the planet that returns control of personally identifying information (PII) back to individuals, allowing for revocable role based access control to that data. 2] A new Distributed Proof of Work (DPoW) backed blockchain that is immune to centralization because of a unified client/miner with only one miner allowed per person, linked anonymously to a HUID. Miners are randomly drafted into built-in pools, meaning everyone contributes yet nobody dominates. The system provides a workable UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME (UBI), i.e., it pays users to participate, since everyone is drafted to secure the network. It is incredibly energy efficient because it does not mine all the time and it is also storage efficient because it uses a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) of historical blockchain transactions, allowing it to fit and run on a cell phone.

1 0

All VOIP-related crimes did not happen
by Ryan Carboni 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

I have examined VOIP-related crimes, and I have come to the conclusion they did not happen. If they did happen, a sane policy would be in place. (I have come to similar conclusions regarding Bin Laden, we never expelled any Pakistani diplomats) When you ship alcohol, many states require showing ID proving the recipient is of legal age. When you order an OVH server, they require ID. For Chinamen, they require a deposit. http://spitfirelist.com/news/school-shootings-are-technologically-obsolete/ Klinger said that Internet-based organizations charged the equivalent of $50 in bitcoins to create a bomb scare using automated phone calls, which account for 13 percent of all threats, according to her school security research. http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/03/bernie-backers-say-wasserman-schultz-inte… Defendants are very concerned that this was a ‘spoofing’ incident, whereby a caller unaffiliated with the Congresswoman or her office, used one of any number of means to place a call that would appear, on the recipient’s caller ID, to be coming from that office. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/12/cuban-telephone-frau… Well... to summarize this link concisely, basically international VOIP companies are violating common carrier rules and are spoofing recipient numbers with voice readings of books. Now there is of course another possibility. The police enjoy investigating things they can't solve, they have too many resources. Erm. Now if they spend this much time investigating things that they can't solve, couldn't they take a step further and petition their representatives to make their jobs easier? Clearly VOIP-related crimes did not happen. Is it so hard to code it so that if you call a number, you end up with "The number you have dialed is registered with a service that is prohibited from operating an interstate VOIP service in the United States." The illegality of some VOIP activities, I mean, there's nothing comparable to that of other common carriers. A congresswoman was the victim of a VOIP-related crime. No one has written a law. What will it take for anyone to notice anything wrong?

1 0

[Cryptography] Trump wants to collaborate with the Russians to secure U.S. elections
by Don B. 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

> Steve Kinney admin at pilobilus.net > Mon Jul 10 10:15:28 PDT 2017 > > law > Is a social contract. > an instrument in the hands of State enforcers > The people are the enforcers of the state. > The State's mandate is to preserve and expand > The family. > the already too powerful > You sound like commieanon. > United States populaion 360+ million > 500 billionaires > 300,000,000 vs 500 Can't into maths. > own > Rent. > self-rule is not possible > Absolute nonsense, nihilismanon. Self-rule is the only state. > Justice means > classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

1 0

[pfiir at pfinr.org: [ PFFR ] Google Employee's Anti-Diversity Manifesto Goes 'Internally Viral']
by Don B. 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

> juan juan.g71 at gmail.com > Sun Aug 6 15:38:08 PDT 2017 > > joo = kristian > the state = the family > You suck balls at maths, beansandrice(butnopork)anon, you should join the tech industry as a theoretical mathematician. I hear the Tor(ah) project is hiring. > the family is the source of all > authoritarian 'culture' > The family is in direct conflict with the state. MGTOW cancer get the fuck out !! Abolition of the family!"" Blessed is he who has no family."" -Karl Marx These four authorities - political, family, religious, and masculine - are the embodiment of the whole feudal-patriarchal ideology and system, and are the four thick ropes binding the Chinese people, particularly the peasants."" -Mao Tse Tung > that makes the state possible. > Niggers like you make the state possible. If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."" -Jesus (Luke 14:26) Sounds like you're heyzues' kind of guy, juan. Though I am sure you are too busy reading passages from 'The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State' by Friedrich Engels to pick up the good book. But since you like to read: howstuffworks.com/communism It's red for a reason. Stop.

1 0

BBC News: Defending Tor - gateway to the dark web
by jim bell 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: Defending Tor - gateway to the dark web - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40810771

1 0

Jewgle's Employee Manifesto Becomes Cancer
by Danielle 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

> Danielle thisbitchshould at getbackinthe.kitchen > Sun Aug 6 12:16:00 PDT 2017 > > diversity post > We have a response and the cancer cannot be contained. Pics related. Update 7:25pm ET: Google’s new Vice President of Diversity, Integrity & Governance, Danielle Brown, issued the following statement in response to the internal employee memo: Googlers, I’m Danielle, Google’s brand new VP of Diversity, Integrity & Governance. I started just a couple of weeks ago, and I had hoped to take another week or so to get the lay of the land before introducing myself to you all. But given the heated debate we’ve seen over the past few days, I feel compelled to say a few words. Many of you have read an internal document shared by someone in our engineering organization, expressing views on the natural abilities and characteristics of different genders, as well as whether one can speak freely of these things at Google. And like many of you, I found that it advanced incorrect assumptions about gender. I’m not going to link to it here as it’s not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages. Diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of our values and the culture we continue to cultivate. We are unequivocal in our belief that diversity and inclusion are critical to our success as a company, and we’ll continue to stand for that and be committed to it for the long haul. As Ari Balogh said in his internal G+ post, “Building an open, inclusive environment is core to who we are, and the right thing to do. ‘Nuff said. “ Google has taken a strong stand on this issue, by releasing its demographic data and creating a company wide OKR on diversity and inclusion. Strong stands elicit strong reactions. Changing a culture is hard, and it’s often uncomfortable. But I firmly believe Google is doing the right thing, and that’s why I took this job. Part of building an open, inclusive environment means fostering a culture in which those with alternative views, including different political views, feel safe sharing their opinions. But that discourse needs to work alongside the principles of equal employment found in our Code of Conduct, policies, and anti-discrimination laws. I’ve been in the industry for a long time, and I can tell you that I’ve never worked at a company that has so many platforms for employees to express themselves—TGIF, Memegen, internal G+, thousands of discussion groups. I know this conversation doesn’t end with my email today. I look forward to continuing to hear your thoughts as I settle in and meet with Googlers across the company. Thanks, Danielle

1 0

Jewgle's Employee Manifesto Becomes Cancer
by Danielle 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

> Zenaan Harkness zen at freedbms.net > Sat Aug 5 22:39:48 PDT 2017 > > vice > not breaking links > We have a style guide for posting here, fakenewsanon; use it. > Employee's Anti-Diversity Manifesto Goes 'Internally Viral' > Here is the fucking post, niggers: # REPLY TO PUBLIC RESPONSE AND MISREPRESENTATION I value diversity and inclusion, am not denying that sexism exists, and don’t endorse using stereotypes. When addressing the gap in representation in the population, we need to look at population level differences in distributions. If we can’t have an honest discussion about this, then we can never truly solve the problem. Psychological safety is built on mutual respect and acceptance, but unfortunately our culture of shaming and misrepresentation is disrespectful and unaccepting of anyone outside its echo chamber. Despite what the public response seems to have been, I’ve gotten many personal messages from fellow Googlers expressing their gratitude for bringing up these very important issues which they agree with but would never have the courage to say or defend because of our shaming culture and the possibility of being fired. This needs to change. TL:DR >Google’s political bias has equated the freedom from offense with psychological safety, but shaming into silence is the antithesis of psychological safety. >This silencing has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed. >The lack of discussion fosters the most extreme and authoritarian elements of this ideology. >Extreme: all disparities in representation are due to oppression >Authoritarian: we should discriminate to correct for this oppression >Differences in distributions of traits between men and women may in part explain why we don’t have 50% representation of women in tech and leadership. Discrimination to reach equal representation is unfair, divisive, and bad for business. # BACKGROUND [1] People generally have good intentions, but we all have biases which are invisible to us. Thankfully, open and honest discussion with those who disagree can highlight our blind spots and help us grow, which is why I wrote this document.[2] Google has several biases and honest discussion about these biases is being silenced by the dominant ideology. What follows is by no means the complete story, but it’s a perspective that desperately needs to be told at Google. Google’s biases: At Google, we talk so much about unconscious bias as it applies to race and gender, but we rarely discuss our moral biases. Political orientation is actually a result of deep moral preferences and thus biases. Considering that the overwhelming majority of the social sciences, media, and Google lean left, we should critically examine these prejudices. Left Biases: >Compassion for the weak >Disparities are due to injustices >Humans are inherently cooperative >Change is good (unstable) >Open >Idealist Right Biases: >Respect for the strong/authority >Disparities are natural and just >Humans are inherently competitive >Change is dangerous (stable) >Closed >Pragmatic Neither side is 100% correct and both viewpoints are necessary for a functioning society or, in this case, company. A company too far to the right may be slow to react, overly hierarchical, and untrusting of others. In contrast, a company too far to the left will constantly be changing (deprecating much loved services), over diversify its interests (ignoring or being ashamed of its core business), and overly trust its employees and competitors. Only facts and reason can shed light on these biases, but when it comes to diversity and inclusion, Google’s left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence. This silence removes any checks against encroaching extremist and authoritarian policies. For the rest of this document, I’ll concentrate on the extreme stance that all differences in outcome are due to differential treatment and the authoritarian element that’s required to actually discriminate to create equal representation. # POSSIBLE NON-BIAS CAUSES IN THE GENDER GAP IN TECH [3] At Google, we’re regularly told that implicit (unconscious) and explicit biases are holding women back in tech and leadership. Of course, men and women experience bias, tech, and the workplace differently and we should be cognizant of this, but it’s far from the whole story. On average, men and women biologically differ in many ways. These differences aren’t just socially constructed because: >They’re universal across human cultures >They often have clear biological causes and links to prenatal testosterone >Biological males that were castrated at birth and raised as females often still identify and act like males >The underlying traits are highly heritable >They’re exactly what we would predict from an evolutionary psychology perspective Note, I’m not saying that all men differ from women in the following ways or that these differences are “just.” I’m simply stating that the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership. Many of these differences are small and there’s significant overlap between men and women, so you can’t say anything about an individual given these population level distributions. # PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES Women, on average, have more: >Openness directed towards feelings and aesthetics rather than ideas. Women generally also have a stronger interest in people rather than things, relative to men (also interpreted as empathizing vs. systemizing). >These two differences in part explain why women relatively prefer jobs in social or artistic areas. More men may like coding because it requires systemizing and even within SWEs, comparatively more women work on front end, which deals with both people and aesthetics. >Extraversion expressed as gregariousness rather than assertiveness. Also, higher agreeableness. >This leads to women generally having a harder time negotiating salary, asking for raises, speaking up, and leading. Note that these are just average differences and there’s overlap between men and women, but this is seen solely as a women’s issue. This leads to exclusory programs like Stretch and swaths of men without support. >Neuroticism (higher anxiety, lower stress tolerance).This may contribute to the higher levels of anxiety women report on Googlegeist and to the lower number of women in high stress jobs. Note that contrary to what a social constructionist would argue, research suggests that “greater nation-level gender equality leads to psychological dissimilarity in men’s and women’s personality traits.” Because as “society becomes more prosperous and more egalitarian, innate dispositional differences between men and women have more space to develop and the gap that exists between men and women in their personality becomes wider.” We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism. # MEN'S HIGHER DRIVE FOR STATUS We always ask why we don’t see women in top leadership positions, but we never ask why we see so many men in these jobs. These positions often require long, stressful hours that may not be worth it if you want a balanced and fulfilling life. Status is the primary metric that men are judged on[4], pushing many men into these higher paying, less satisfying jobs for the status that they entail. Note, the same forces that lead men into high pay/high stress jobs in tech and leadership cause men to take undesirable and dangerous jobs like coal mining, garbage collection, and firefighting, and suffer 93% of work-related deaths. # NON-DISCRIMINATORY WAYS TO REDUCE THE GENDER GAP Below I’ll go over some of the differences in distribution of traits between men and women that I outlined in the previous section and suggest ways to address them to increase women’s representation in tech and without resorting to discrimination. Google is already making strides in many of these areas, but I think it’s still instructive to list them: >Women on average show a higher interest in people and men in things >We can make software engineering more people-oriented with pair programming and more collaboration. Unfortunately, there may be limits to how people-oriented certain roles and Google can be and we shouldn’t deceive ourselves or students into thinking otherwise (some of our programs to get female students into coding might be doing this). >Women on average are more cooperative >Allow those exhibiting cooperative behavior to thrive. Recent updates to Perf may be doing this to an extent, but maybe there’s more we can do. This doesn’t mean that we should remove all competitiveness from Google. Competitiveness and self reliance can be valuable traits and we shouldn’t necessarily disadvantage those that have them, like what’s been done in education. Women on average are more prone to anxiety. Make tech and leadership less stressful. Google already partly does this with its many stress reduction courses and benefits. >Women on average look for more work-life balance while men have a higher drive for status on average >Unfortunately, as long as tech and leadership remain high status, lucrative careers, men may disproportionately want to be in them. Allowing and truly endorsing (as part of our culture) part time work though can keep more women in tech. >The male gender role is currently inflexible >Feminism has made great progress in freeing women from the female gender role, but men are still very much tied to the male gender role. If we, as a society, allow men to be more “feminine,” then the gender gap will shrink, although probably because men will leave tech and leadership for traditionally feminine roles. Philosophically, I don’t think we should do arbitrary social engineering of tech just to make it appealing to equal portions of both men and women. For each of these changes, we need principles reasons for why it helps Google; that is, we should be optimizing for Google—with Google’s diversity being a component of that. For example currently those trying to work extra hours or take extra stress will inevitably get ahead and if we try to change that too much, it may have disastrous consequences. Also, when considering the costs and benefits, we should keep in mind that Google’s funding is finite so its allocation is more zero-sum than is generally acknowledged. # THE HARM OF GOOGLE'S BIASES I strongly believe in gender and racial diversity, and I think we should strive for more. However, to achieve a more equal gender and race representation, Google has created several discriminatory practices: >Programs, mentoring, and classes only for people with a certain gender or race [5] >A high priority queue and special treatment for “diversity” candidates >Hiring practices which can effectively lower the bar for “diversity” candidates by decreasing the false negative rate >Reconsidering any set of people if it’s not “diverse” enough, but not showing that same scrutiny in the reverse direction (clear confirmation bias) >Setting org level OKRs for increased representation which can incentivize illegal discrimination [6] These practices are based on false assumptions generated by our biases and can actually increase race and gender tensions. We’re told by senior leadership that what we’re doing is both the morally and economically correct thing to do, but without evidence this is just veiled left ideology[7] that can irreparably harm Google.**** # WHY WE'RE BLIND We all have biases and use motivated reasoning to dismiss ideas that run counter to our internal values. Just as some on the Right deny science that runs counter to the “God > humans > environment” hierarchy (e.g., evolution and climate change) the Left tends to deny science concerning biological differences between people (e.g., IQ[8] and sex differences). Thankfully, climate scientists and evolutionary biologists generally aren’t on the right. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of humanities and social scientists learn left (about 95%), which creates enormous confirmation bias, changes what’s being studied, and maintains myths like social constructionism and the gender wage gap[9]. Google’s left leaning makes us blind to this bias and uncritical of its results, which we’re using to justify highly politicized programs. In addition to the Left’s affinity for those it sees as weak, humans are generally biased towards protecting females. As mentioned before, this likely evolved because males are biologically disposable and because women are generally more cooperative and areeable than men. We have extensive government and Google programs, fields of study, and legal and social norms to protect women, but when a man complains about a gender issue issue [sic] affecting men, he’s labelled as a misogynist and whiner[10]. Nearly every difference between men and women is interpreted as a form of women’s oppression. As with many things in life, gender differences are often a case of “grass being greener on the other side”; unfortunately, taxpayer and Google money is spent to water only one side of the lawn. The same compassion for those seen as weak creates political correctness[11], which constrains discourse and is complacent to the extremely sensitive PC-authoritarians that use violence and shaming to advance their cause. While Google hasn’t harbored the violent leftists protests that we’re seeing at universities, the frequent shaming in TGIF and in our culture has created the same silence, psychologically unsafe environment. # SUGGESTIONS I hope it’s clear that I’m not saying that diversity is bad, that Google or society is 100% fair, that we shouldn’t try to correct for existing biases, or that minorities have the same experience of those in the majority. My larger point is that we have an intolerance for ideas and evidence that don’t fit a certain ideology. I’m also not saying that we should restrict people to certain gender roles; I’m advocating for quite the opposite: treat people as individuals, not as just another member of their group (tribalism). My concrete suggestions are to: 01. De-moralize Diversity: >As soon as we start to moralize an issue, we stop thinking about it in terms of costs and benefits, dismiss anyone that disagrees as immoral, and harshly punish those we see as villains to protect the “victims.” 02. Stop Alienating Conservatives: >Viewpoint diversity is arguably the most important type of diversity and political orientation is one of the most fundamental and significant ways in which people view things differently. >In highly progressive environments, conservatives are a minority that feel like they need to stay in the closet to avoid open hostility. We should empower those with different ideologies to be able to express themselves. >Alienating conservatives is both non-inclusive and generally bad business because conservatives tend to be higher in conscientiousness, which is require for much of the drudgery and maintenance work characteristic of a mature company. 03. Confront Google’s Biases: >I’ve mostly concentrated on how our biases cloud our thinking about diversity and inclusion, but our moral biases are farther reaching than that. >I would start by breaking down Googlegeist scores by political orientation and personality to give a fuller picture into how our biases are affecting our culture. 04. Stop Restricting Programs and Classes to Certain Genders or Races: >These discriminatory practices are both unfair and divisive. Instead focus on some of the non-discriminatory practices I outlined. 05. Have an Open and Honest Discussion About the Costs and Benefits of our Diversity Programs: >Discriminating just to increase the representation of women in tech is as misguided and biased as mandating increases for women’s representation in the homeless, work-related and violent deaths, prisons, and school dropouts. >There’s currently very little transparency into the extend of our diversity programs which keeps it immune to criticism from those outside its ideological echo chamber. >These programs are highly politicized which further alienates non-progressives. >I realize that some of our programs may be precautions against government accusations of discrimination, but that can easily backfire since they incentivize illegal discrimination. 06. Focus on Psychological Safety, Not Just Race/Gender Diversity: >We should focus on psychological safety, which has shown positive effects and should (hopefully) not lead to unfair discrimination. >We need psychological safety and shared values to gain the benefits of diversity >Having representative viewpoints is important for those designing and testing our products, but the benefits are less clear for those more removed from UX. 07. De-emphasize Empathy: >I’ve heard several calls for increased empathy on diversity issues. While I strongly support trying to understand how and why people think the way they do, relying on affective empathy—feeling another’s pain—causes us to focus on anecdotes, favor individuals similar to us, and harbor other irrational and dangerous biases. Being emotionally unengaged helps us better reason about the facts. 08. Prioritize Intention: >Our focus on microaggressions and other unintentional transgressions increases our sensitivity, which is not universally positive: sensitivity increases both our tendency to take offense and our self censorship, leading to authoritarian policies. Speaking up without the fear of being harshly judged is central to psychological safety, but these practices can remove that safety by judging unintentional transgressions. >Microaggression training incorrectly and dangerously equates speech with violence and isn’t backed by evidence. 09. Be Open About the Science of Human Nature: >Once we acknowledge that not all differences are socially constructed or due to discrimination, we open our eyes to a more accurate view of the human condition which is necessary if we actually want to solve problems. 10. Reconsider Making Unconscious Bias Training Mandatory for Promo Committees: >We haven’t been able to measure any effect of our Unconscious Bias training and it has the potential for overcorrecting or backlash, especially if made mandatory. >Some of the suggested methods of the current training (v2.3) are likely useful, but the political bias of the presentation is clear from the factual inaccuracies and the examples shown. >Spend more time on the many other types of biases besides stereotypes. Stereotypes are much more accurate and responsive to new information than the training suggests (I’m not advocating for using stereotypes, I [sic] just pointing out the factual inaccuracy of what’s said in the training). # FOOTNOTES [1] This document is mostly written from the perspective of Google’s Mountain View campus, I can’t speak about other offices or countries. [2] Of course, I may be biased and only see evidence that supports my viewpoint. In terms of political biases, I consider myself a classical liberal and strongly value individualism and reason. I’d be very happy to discuss any of the document further and provide more citations. [3] Throughout the document, by “tech”, I mostly mean software engineering. [4] For heterosexual romantic relationships, men are more strongly judged by status and women by beauty. Again, this has biological origins and is culturally universal. [5] Stretch, BOLD, CSSI, Engineering Practicum (to an extent), and several other Google funded internal and external programs are for people with a certain gender or race. [6] Instead set Googlegeist OKRs, potentially for certain demographics. We can increase representation at an org level by either making it a better environment for certain groups (which would be seen in survey scores) or discriminating based on a protected status (which is illegal and I’ve seen it done). Increased representation OKRs can incentivize the latter and create zero-sum struggles between orgs. [7] Communism promised to be both morally and economically superior to capitalism, but every attempt became morally corrupt and an economic failure. As it became clear that the working class of the liberal democracies wasn’t going to overthrow their “capitalist oppressors,” the Marxist intellectuals transitioned from class warfare to gender and race politics. The core oppressor-oppressed dynamics remained, but now the oppressor is the “white, straight, cis-gendered patriarchy.” [8] Ironically, IQ tests were initially championed by the Left when meritocracy meant helping the victims of the aristocracy. [9] Yes, in a national aggretavistock, women have lower salaries than men for a variety of reasons. For the same work though, women get paid just as much as men. Considering women spend more money than men and that salary represents how much the employees sacrifices (e.g. more hours, stress, and danger), we really need to rethink our stereotypes around power. [10] “The traditionalist system of gender does not deal well with the idea of men needing support. Men are expected to be strong, to not complain, and to deal with problems on their own. Men’s problems are more often seen as personal failings rather than victimhood,, due to our gendered idea of agency. This discourages men from bringing attention to their issues (whether individual or group-wide issues), for fear of being seen as whiners, complainers, or weak.” [11] Political correctness is defined as “the avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against,” which makes it clear why it’s a phenomenon of the Left and a tool of authoritarians.

1 0

[pfiir at pfinr.org: [ PFFR ] Google Employee's Anti-Diversity Manifesto Goes 'Internally Viral']
by You Fags 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

> John Young jya at pipeline.com > Sun Aug 6 04:35:47 PDT 2017 > > Trump > dictatorial betrayal > Trump is the savior of Western Civilization and you can't prove otherwise.

1 0