Posted on 05/16/2022 4:57:33 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The data about police shootings just didn't add up, but no one at Thomson Reuters wanted to hear it.
If you are a devoted reader of Common Sense, by now you have surely noticed a trend: workplaces—in some cases, storied institutions—that turn hostile to independent thinking seemingly overnight.
That’s what Paul Rossi experienced at Grace Church School. It’s what Jennifer Sey went through at Levi’s. It’s what Antonio García Martínez dealt with at Apple. And Roland Fryer at Harvard. And Gordon Klein at UCLA. And Maud Maron at Legal Aid.
Now comes the story of Zac Kriegman, who, until not so long ago, was a director of data science at Thomson Reuters. Kriegman’s crime? Questioning the Black Lives Matter narrative.
Kriegman is a person who loves numbers and statistics. As you’ll read below, he didn’t just voice an opinion to his colleagues. He made an argument after having done extensive research. He thought logic would win out. He was wrong.
This story is most obviously about the assault on difference. The assault on the notion, previously taken for granted, that you shouldn’t punish employees for having heterodox opinions or for voicing disagreement with the political consensus in an organization. But it is also about the assault on reason itself. — BW
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Until recently, I was a director of data science at Thomson Reuters, one of the biggest news organizations in the world. It was my job, among other things, to sift through reams of numbers and figure out what they meant.
About a year ago, I stumbled on a really big story. It was about black Americans being gunned down across the country and the ways in which we report on that violence. We had been talking nonstop about race and police brutality, and I thought: This is a story that could save lives. This is a story that has to be told.
But when I shared the story with my coworkers, my boss chastised me, telling me expressing this opinion could limit my ability to take on leadership roles within the company. Then I was maligned by my colleagues. And then I was fired.
This is the story Reuters didn’t want to tell.
I had been at Thomson Reuters for over six years—most recently, leading a team of data scientists applying new machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to our legal, tax and news data. We advised any number of divisions inside the company, including Westlaw, an online legal research service used by most every law firm in the country, and the newsroom, which reaches an audience of one billion every day around the globe. I briefed the Chief Technology Officer regularly. My total annual compensation package exceeded $350,000.
In 2020, I started to witness the spread of a new ideology inside the company. On our internal collaboration platform, the Hub, people would post about “the self-indulgent tears of white women” and the danger of “White Privilege glasses.” They’d share articles with titles like “Seeing White,” “Habits of Whiteness” and “How to Be a Better White Person.” There was fervent and vocal support for Black Lives Matter at every level of the company. No one challenged the racial essentialism or the groupthink.
This concerned me. I had been following the academic research on BLM for years (for example, here, here, here and here), and I had come to the conclusion that the claim upon which the whole movement rested—that police more readily shoot black people—was false.
The data was unequivocal. It showed that, if anything, police were slightly less likely to use lethal force against black suspects than white ones.
If it is still there (I downloaded the audio), there is a great You-Tube clip of Reagan telling Soviet jokes which he collected while on a visit there.
Great quote there by Voltaire.
One heckuva story. I’d seen some excerpts but not the full. Thanks for posting.
The insanity of woke!
Reads like a dystopian novel with a sad ending (for no.)
Foreshadowing the disaster? He went to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion slug in HR. Ummm, guy. There is no DEI. There is only BLM.
“I had come to the conclusion that the claim upon which the whole movement rested—that police more readily shoot black people—was false.”
The author is no doubt a bright guy. He had just never grasped the concept that leftists don’t operate on logic, but raw emotion. Mountains of data will do nothing to move them. Leftists arrive at an emotion-laden opinion and their minds will not be moved by facts.
Bkmk/bari weiss
BLM stats bookmark
There was an old joke some years ago....
American: I can walk into any government office and complain about the policies of the American government.
Soviet: We have the same right.
American: How so?
Soviet: I can walk into any government office in the Soviet Union and complain about the policies of the American government.
Since a certificate is almost always filled out by a local M.D., a challenge would have to come from another M.D. who has experience as a medical examiner.
Just challenging one certificate can cost thousands of dollars. Who is going to pay for that, besides the CDC, which does not want ANY Covid related death certificates re-examined?
I actually pay close attention to death certificate data.
I have not seen even one death certificate that claims the victim was killed by the Covid vaccine.
There may be vaccine death certificates out there, but good luck finding them online.
Still alive today in Russia. Just watch on-the-street interviews with ordinary Russians. Typical answers:
“I’m not political.”
“It is best not to have opinions on such matters.”
“I don’t follow those kinds of stories.”
The story in the article correctly focuses on where the rot is: Human Resources Departments.
Look at the organization charts of any large business. They are special staff and usually have a direct reporting relationship to the executive suite. More importantly, they do not typically turnover when leadership changes. They are also insulated from accusations of responsibility for creating or sustaining these politicized environments by pointing out that all the policies, directives, etc. were reviewed and approved by executive leadership, corporate counsel (a very important enabler), special study committees, etc. They, the HR leadership, will, in response to criticism, point out in defense that their actions all flow from decisions meant to implement those approved policies.
It’s what could (and perhaps, should) be called the “Adolf Eichmann defense:” ‘I am just a functionary carrying out orders.’” (Students of history will note that the “just following orders”’defense was first used (unsuccessfully) by defendants at the original Nuremberg trials in 1945-46; well before justice caught up with Eichmann in the 1960s.)
it would remiss not to point out that HR Departments normally have significant - if not dominant - percentages of liberal-leaning minorities, LGBTQI, and women on their staffs.
The only time HR departments get thoroughly cleaned out is when external events cause a change in top level leadership. Normally this follows - although not always immediately - the loss of a very expensive lawsuit.
Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law usually applies here and the dismissed HR staff simply spread the infection to their new companies.
Virtue Grandstanding is a religion which will not tolerate heretics.
Thought provoking story, hope it gets greater attention.
I think the frustrations explained in the article will resonate with millions of Americans.
Logic is a weapon of oppression by the white racist cisgender patriarchy.
This guy had to learn that lesson the hard way.
:-(
ping
The national madness since he showed up is nothing short of jaw-dropping
I think it is a sad story and a troubling story. I think it is more common than many people think. Mainly from leftists who hate conservatives. I have experienced it myself.
Agree it’s disturbing, his frustrations are what so many of us have been dealing with for years - fake statistics, fake news, censorship and manipulation of public perception and opinion. The newly formed Ministry of Truth seems to fit right into this downward slide deeper into Leftism.
In the story the author said, ‘...my fellow liberals..’ which surprised me given his rational approach to the question and his search for facts vs feelings and groupthink. Perhaps the author will now be a strong voice on our side.
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