My heart goes out to the employees squeezed by this.

https://world.hey.com/jason/changes-at-basecamp-7f32afc5

I know how it'd read if where I worked posted something like this and it would not be good.

Reading between the lines, this sounds like someone has run full on into capitalism and its horrors, and has decided to cope by putting on the blinders. Which if it didn't come from a place of privilege, might even be great.

Who is saying this matters. A lot. These exact boundaries could work really well with the right people in the lead — what it means on a day to day level with team of Black women at the helm vs a couple white guys is likely to be night and day difference.

But the message this is sending: "shut up and work". And to the larger world: "we don't care about inclusion".

I strongly suspect that Basecamp will have problems hiring people of color after this.

What leads people to do this is the sloppy thinking that leads to thinking of political viewpoints as protected classes. There is no neutral politics. There is only the bland defaults of power and the work being done who are oppressed.

The Basecamp guys, as far as I've known them by my proximity to their culture of the years, are pretty decent dudes, one on one, as far as I know. No overtly racist views, kind, empathetic — even this letter is very empathetic.

But empathy won't change the problems caused by power imbalanced.

They're retreating to the positions that works well for companies under neoliberal capitalism: Individualism and profits. It's a tidy story, and our culture supports it.

Remember though that this is the same culture that treats black bodies as disposable, women as vessels for babies, and gender nonconformance as aberrant.

But this is exactly what causes the oppression of so many people: making the problems the burden of the individual.

I have a lot of deep distrust for the current approaches to "D&I" in our industry. Most are insufficiently radical to disrupt the capitalist hegemony even slightly, and dysfunctions result. But this? This isn't what you do to fix it.

Yes, we are in a deeply divided culture right now. But to announce that we will simply not allow divisive topics at work is overtly choosing the same silences that got us here. It's empty, not justice. It's oppression, a return to defaults.

Defaults that came from colonizing the world by force, instituting slavery and authoritarian regimes, setting people against each other so the powers can maintain their grip.

You know what is a super imperfect thing but can fix some of this?

Unions.

It won't make you just. It won't make you do right. It won't be easy, or automatic, or anything. But it means there's a chance, just possibly, of having some power.

But even more than that, you know what helps?

Solidarity.

If even half the employees of Basecamp said 'no', it would stop.

Unions just protect and formalize that power.

An interesting tidbit from @DHH's response, though not nearly enough to fix anything:

"Just don't bring it into the internal communication platforms we use for work, unless it directly relates to our business."

If honest, that's a good idea, but missing what could ever make it work: an analysis and frank talk about power, justice, and accountability.

That's the problem, if you can decide what's in bounds, you have the upper hand. And as company leadership, that's where it is. Being anything other than the absolute authority in a company means your employees need to have company-altering power.