As the midterms approach, Republicans and President Trump talk a lot about the sheer mob-bery of the outraged Left, who attack political opponents both loudly and violently, over issues such as Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, as well as immigration and abortion.
Driven by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who in June called upon fellow liberals to “create a crowd” and “push back on” political opponents anywhere they encounter them, and former Obama attorney general Eric Holder, who said to “kick them,” the Democrat base is taking it to heart, harassing Republican officials in restaurants and pounding on the doors of the Supreme Court.
Less violent, but no less aggressive and harassing, are the silent mob attacking conservatives on the Internet.
And the intolerance is greatest at the highest profile technology companies in Silicon Valley.
Public awareness increased last year when conservative James Damore was dumped from his engineering job at Google for daring to challenge the company’s “ideological echo chamber,” which drove many of its progressive employees into a tizzy.
Despite the efforts of officials at the likes of Google, Facebook, and Twitter to deny or downplay the liberal intolerance among their ranks (and resultant bias built into their products), the mob remains.
Perhaps the most outrageous example to date came during the Senate hearings of the nomination of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president for global public policy, had the temerity to take a seat behind Kavanaugh during the hearings – on his personal time, in a personal capacity – to demonstrate support for his long-time friend. The two worked together in the George W. Bush administration and were in each other’s weddings.
But the Silicon Valley mob would have none of it.
According to a New York Times report earlier this month, the mere appearance of Kaplan with Kavanaugh’s wife, family and friends was an offense worthy of indignation. Hundreds of Facebook employees “posted their concerns” (i.e., raged) on the company’s internal message boards about Kaplan’s presence at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
(On the other hand, conservative supporters showed no similar objection about the presence of leftist actress Alyssa Milano, a vehement Kavanaugh opponent who was constantly in the camera frame behind him as he testified.)
Rather than stick up for Kaplan and his right to support a close pal on his personal time, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg reportedly were “frustrated” that Kaplan showed his face at the hearings, according to NBC News. Outnumbered and bullied, Kaplan apologized to staff – also known as “the mob.”
Calling it a “mind-boggling corporate crisis,” the Dallas Morning News in an editorial wrote that “the day when a person can’t show up to support a friend is the day that common sense has gone off the rails.”
Then there’s the case of Facebook engineering manager Brian Amerige, who simply got fed up and quit after tiring of the “political monoculture” that was intolerant to any employee who didn’t agree with their groupthink.
“We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology,” he wrote in an August memo.
The missive spurred the creation of an online employees’ group called “FB’ers for Political Diversity,” where reportedly hundreds of employees participated and vented about the company’s politics. But apparently that wasn’t enough to stave off the dominance of the “outrage mob” within the walls of the Facebook campus.
“I’m leaving because I’m burnt out on Facebook, our strategy, our culture, and our product…,” Amerige wrote in his resignation earlier this month. “While I remain as in love as ever with our mission and my colleague’s nearly-always good intentions, I disagree too strongly with where we’re heading on these issues to watch what happens next. These issues hang over my head each morning, and I don’t want to spend all of my time fighting about them.”
It remains to be seen how the angry liberal mobs will motivate voters in the midterms. But right now the hostile hordes dominate and control Silicon Valley.