Let’s say one day I wear my favorite “All Lives Matter” t-shirt to work. I’m sitting there eating my lunch and someone wearing a BLM t-shirt starts harassing me for wearing my shirt. Now, I was just quietly eating my sandwich, not bothering anyone, and then this person starts yelling at me. Tell me, which one of us is creating the toxic workplace environment? Would it be me, the person calmly drinking a soda, or would it be the person screaming like a maniac and calling me a racist?
Unfortunately, here’s what would happen. The person wearing the BLM t-shirt would be escorted to a safe space set aside for the emotionally weak. And I would get reprimanded. I might even get fired. And all I did was eat my lunch.
Now, let’s reverse that. Let’s say I were the one who was “offended” by the BLM shirt and calmly suggested to them that it might be more accurate to say that all lives matter. They proceed to go insane and started cursing me out and calling me names. Now which one of us would be creating the toxic workplace environment?
You guessed it. It would still be me.
If someone displayed a picture of George Floyd on their desk, that would be OK (for the record, I would find that reprehensible).
But if you wanted to display a photo of one of the dozens of police officers killed in the line of duty in 2020, well, that would be considered offensive. A “Black Lives Matter” coffee mug? That’s cool. A “Blue Lives Matter” coffee mug? You might find yourself looking for a new job.
There is no reciprocity. Workplace rules preventing the display of ideological messages apply only to Conservatives. And those lopsided rules are intimidating Conservatives to act in ways they normally wouldn’t.
A private company can decide what is considered appropriate conduct for their employees…while at work. I don’t have a problem with that. It’s when companies start to exert influence outside the office that I start to have a problem.
Here’s an example: Let’s say that you’re in a private group on social media. Someone you work with joins this private group and sees that you’ve posted some facts showing that police aren’t hunting innocent black men and that BLM is pushing a Marxist agenda. Then that person who voluntarily joined a private group shows a screenshot of your post to the HR department at work.
What do you think would happen? What should happen is nothing. You should be able to say and do anything you want on your own time as long as you don’t bring it to the office. Especially when what you say is the truth.
After all, you do your job every day and you do it well. You’ve never done or said anything to anyone at work that could be even remotely construed as racist or threatening. You’re well-liked by your peers and are, by any measure, an ideal employee. The only thing you did is post some honest-to-goodness-for-real-true facts in a private setting.
But, what will happen? The truth is, you don’t know what will happen. So, to prevent yourself from getting fired, you start being more careful about what you post on social media and you keep your opinions to yourself.
This sort of thing happens all the time.
About once a week, I get an email from someone telling me how much they like what I write. Typically, they’ll also say they wish they could share them with others but are afraid that doing so may jeopardize their job. It used to be that they’d “like” it because they do or “share” it because they want to.
But not so much these days. They limit what they say and do on their own time, and in their own homes, because there’s a possibility that someone won’t like that they “liked” something. And they’re afraid it could cost them dearly. The threat of potentially losing their job keeps them from freely expressing themselves at home.
Let’s sum this up. Conservatives are being intimidated to compel them to do something against their will by the use of psychological pressure.
There’s a word for that. The word is coercion. And it’s illegal.
Wanting to eliminate a toxic workplace environment is admirable. But it’s the Liberals and their woke bullshit that is creating the toxicity, not the Conservatives and that pesky little thing known as “the truth”.
Creating a healthy workplace environment is easy. But, the solution isn’t to threaten into submission the people who disagree with your political views. Because not all disagreement is toxic and little disagreement can actually be a good thing for everyone. No, the solution isn’t punishing the people who don’t agree with you. The solution is to simply fire the people who are acting like assholes.
