Both Sides on the Google Memo Flap Are Right

The response to the Google memo flap has fallen along predictable lines. The right is valorizing James Damore for honestly acknowledging that sexual differences are bound to doom Google’s diversity efforts. And the left is condemning him for downplaying that sexism is a major cause of the gender gap in high-tech.

Both have it half right, I note in my column at The Week. But of course that doesn’t mean that they’ll see that. No, given that they are in a perennial and increasingly ugly culture war, they will dig in their heels and call each other names.

“The dilemma of the Google memo is that all sides have a point.”

Go here to read the whole piece.

P.S.: Nick Gillespie and I disagree on whether Google was right to fire the memo bro. But you won’t hear us cursing each other out 🙂 Actually, I agree quite a bit with his general point that the libertarian tendency to refrain from passing judgement on the decisions of market actors causes us to look the other way when companies engage in gross injustices, which erodes the broader cultural foundation one needs to build a free and open society.