Missing The Dynamic

     Jack Dorsey admits Twitter has a problem:

     Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that the social media giant’s staffers who have right-leaning political views don’t feel comfortable to speak up because of the company’s ultra-liberal work environment.

     “We have a lot of conservative-leaning folks in the company as well, and to be honest, they don’t feel safe to express their opinions at the company,” Dorsey told New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen in an interview published on Friday by Recode.

     “They do feel silenced by just the general swirl of what they perceive to be the broader percentage of leanings within the company, and I don’t think that’s fair or right,” he added. “We should make sure that everyone feels safe to express themselves within the company, no matter where they come from and what their background is. I mean, my dad was a Republican.”

     Let’s assume, if only for the sake of argument, that Dorsey is expressing a sincere opinion in the above. He’s actually missed the point: the dynamic of large-company sociopolitics at this time favors the Left.

     It doesn’t take a preponderance of Leftist activists to make conservatives feel they must stifle themselves. Indeed, it only takes one, because Human Resources departments automatically favor him who claims to have been victimized. The favor flows in that direction because of corporate risk aversion: specifically, fear of the consequences of confronting the self-nominated victim and compelling him to make an objective case for his complaint. A large company, perpetually fearful of adverse publicity and aware of Leftists’ tendencies in that direction, always finds it easier to placate the “victim.” As the news gets around, “victims” proliferate like toadstools after a rain.

     Large companies whose managements are courageous enough to counter the dynamic are rare. Perhaps when H. Ross Perot was running EDS, or when T. J. Rodgers was running Cypress Semiconductor, they might have had the necessary courage. But I’d be hard pressed to name a publicly traded company operating at this time about whose CEO that could be said.

     A prevailing dynamic can overwhelm an individual’s motivations, however wholesome. Dynamics are founded on incentives, which affect large number of people in a consistent fashion. It takes cojones the size of beach balls to stand against them saying “Not here.” Not many CEOs of publicly traded corporations are that well equipped.