Jeffrey DeLisle
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

Let’s not confuse individual rights, as in the Bill of Rights, with companies’ legal rights. Damore has the right of free speech, and for this he can’t prosecuted. Whether Google acted legally in firing him will be determined by litigation, and I will be rooting for him.

I don’t agree Damore was advancing his own agenda. He was responding to (an apparently insincere) request from the company for its employees to help figure out why more women aren’t in tech jobs. A cynic (me) might speculate what they really wanted was political cover for doing business as usual, and the perfect opportunity fell into its lap. Even better that it was a women who announced the firing!

I think you are off base to disparage Damore as a “snowflake.” IMHO that term should be used for the likes of college students who demand trigger warnings and safe spaces. You don’t crack the Google lineup unless you are tough to begin with.

Jeffrey DeLisle

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enthusiastic dilettante with intellectual pretensions