James Damore's epiphany and mine

Here is an interesting video interview with James Damore, the young man fired by Google for writing a memo criticizing Google's approach to hiring more women and minorities.

A couple of preliminary comments.

First, the article in which the interview is embedded is just vile. The ad hominem smearing by the Left has begun: obviously, James was a "sexist" even during his time at MIT; after all, he participated in an "inappropriate" (one of the Left's favorite words) skit that embarrassed a couple of professors (themselves probably members of or cowed by the diversity Stasi).

Second, the interviewer, Stefan Molyneux, seems like he has a right-wing axe to grind. Stefan, shut the fuck up and let James talk.

Update: James is allowed to speak more in the interview here with Canadian psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson, who seems to have less of an axe to grind.

To me, the really interesting part of the interview came at about minute 16:55, where James described what motivated him to write his memo:

I went to a diversity program at Google and it was all … it wasn’t recorded at all; it was totally secretive. I heard things I definitely disagreed with in some of our programs, and so I had some discussions with people there. There was a lot of just shaming and ‘no, you can’t say that, that’s sexist’ … There’s just so much hypocrisy in a lot of things they are saying.

Déjà vu. I was magically transported back to the day I realized that something had gone terribly wrong in academia. I was a first-year grad student at UC Berkeley and a group of us new TA's had been brought together in a "TA orientation meeting," whose ostensible purpose was to provide us with helpful information and methodological tips about how to be a good TA. After the leader of the meeting had made some perfunctory introductory comments, the meeting was turned over to a woman whom I can only describe as a raving, lunatic, Berserkeley feminist.

As she harangued us, I remember getting the distinct impression that I had already been tried and convicted in advance. The charge? I was a male. All males are predatory, I was told. Since this was the case, we should, she directed us, write the telephone number of the rape hotline on the whiteboard at the beginning of every quarter and encourage all our female students to call that number if we harassed them in any way.

I remember wanting to stand up and object to what she was saying, to tell her and the rest of the group that it was unfair to prejudge all the male TA's in the group. But I remained silent, realizing that, if I should speak up, serious consequences for my position at the university and for my social status among grad students could ensue.

I changed that day some 40 years ago. I recognized that academia had been taken over by intolerance, dogma, and ideology. I have been a different person ever since. I had experienced my moment of epiphany, just as James would eventually experience his.

One of the main differences I must acknowledge between you and me, James, is that you were brave and stood up. Congratulations! I didn't on that day 40 years ago, and here I am still hiding behind my pseudonym.