@Elliptica The other thing I learned from this era back when you could still meet interesting people online without having to break past a facade or finding everyone living in a private friends only Discord server was that there were only two opinions in the tech industry. You were either with the left wing stuff, or you were shutting the fuck up and putting up with it to obtain your wagie dollars at your Office Space tier job. There was no in between, period.

What happened to James Damore and many others is a very high profile example of what happened when you spoke out: you'd get sacked and blackballed amongst the Big Tech industry. But if you stayed silent, maybe you'd get a slick job with a fancy title at a no-name company like Honeycomb.io, which pays the bills and maybe you'll even deal with less poz there. Plus, nobody really wants to start their own company.

So there's great pressure to not do what he did. What he did is something most people who aren't autistic like he is would never dare to do. They would just go to the diversity meeting and then go back to grinding away at code. I met a Google employee who on Discord recently was very pissed about his job and the diversity shit he put up with and it's clear it was taking a mental toll on him. But that's part of the point: you either are with them or you're silent. If you're against them, well imagine a techbro trying to work a trade job and put up with the coworkers in that field.