Former Google engineer James Damore, who was fired for distributing a memo suggesting women are not biologically suited for certain types of work, is now branding himself as a brave truth teller. In what appears to be his new Twitter account, Damore can be seen wearing a shirt with the word “Goolag,” a play on “Google” that means to suggest the Silicon Valley search company is something like the infamous Soviet camps where prisoners were worked and starved to death as part of one of the 20th century’s worst genocides.
Google, which provides free meals, massages, and fitness classes at its Mountain View, California headquarters, pays engineers like Damore a typical salary of $162,000, according to Glassdoor, not including extra compensation like healthcare benefits, retirement savings, and equity. The company also offers its employees training opportunities, including volunteer sessions on subjects like diversity and unconscious bias.
You know, just like a Gulag.
What an ass. I doubt his 15 minutes of online fame is going to pay as well.
While I have lost all respect for this guy, people sometimes refer to overbearing people in authority as nazis, without literally meaning that they are the same as people that murdered 6 million innocent people.
Any educated person ought to know the historical baggage that comes with invoking such things.
Any educated person also ought to know the sometimes people mean things figuratively and not literally. I don’t think is any different than someone calling a forum moderator a forum nazi after getting banned by same forum moderator. I think he is using that shirt to make a point, not because he actually thinks Google is the same the Soviet Union. Keep in mind he was just fired from the company for speaking his mind.
I would think there’s a code of conduct he signed off on when he was hired that he broke when he posted that memo internally, as opposed to posting anonymously elsewhere. Bad idea to do it on the company dime.