“I find it offensive to suggest that people that I don’t identify with might just be having a harder time in my industry. [...] I don’t want to be inclusive and considerate of other people. But it looks like they [sic] only way to survive is to be that.”

There are quite a few nebulous claims here. Which 'outsiders' do you feel are 'assaulting' tech? What is their 'selfish agenda'? What do you feel they have to gain by targetting white male programmers?

I'm torn on this issue. On the one hand I've never noticed anything which is often stated as "blatant everyday sexism". Even when I've started looking for it I was never able to see the things described in these discussions. On the other hand I cannot simply say "you don't notice it, so it doesn't happen" .. maybe here in Germany things are different than the states (which seem to have - just from the reports read here - a massive gender equality problem) .. maybe not. I have no idea.

After that long(winded) introduction: You have a right to state your opinion. You don't have the right to state it without someone saying "that sucks". Whatever you say, whatever you do, will have consequences. And that is a good thing. Consequences remind you that there's nothing free in life. And if your opinions are not worth fighting for - why do you hold them?

While I agree that this 'gotcha culture' stuff is nonsense, being offended that there are "claims" of sexism just means you're not paying attention. Do you know any female programmers? The amount of bullshit my wife has had to deal with makes me crazy. It's mind boggling what a lot of women have to put up with.

Yes, of course some people blow things out of proportion but it's nuts to say tech is some magic bubble where people are blind to differences. I believed that when I was a lot younger but I'm not blind and cannot believe it now. There are too many guys who act like jerks to women for no reason or are unprofessional / creepy in the workplace even when told about it.

The key is, don't be a dick and do your best to treat people equally. That will get you pretty darn far.

> we were already diverse by design decades ago

What do you base that on? The opposite has been documented numerous times. See the most recent example, this link, http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-cod... at the bottom of section "2.6 What’s With All These Conferences, Anyway?"

These are contentious issues, and HN is good at quality discourse on many topics. But this one is IMHO not among them.

If you're asking "am I the only one who..." then no, you won't be. But that's a particular phrasing. "Am I correct or justified in this" is not the same question or the same answer.

IT used to be diverse. It simply isn't today, which makes the trade vulnerable to this sort of manipulation. While political correctness is the generally agreed-upon method to display tact and awareness of others, it is easy to abuse for selfish, misguided reasons. Harpies, those who abuse political correctness and strict adherence to social rules, are a long standing group that infest every culture on earth.

This discussion is useless without specific examples. Who/Where are these politically incorrect people who are having their careers systematically "ruined" to the scale that one would think that "tech" itself is under siege?

> Ask HN: ... political correctness in tech

> ... on twitter and media outlets

Twitter and media outlets are tech? Examples would help.

I'm sorry you find it offensive that there are "claims of sexism in OSS and tech." Maybe you should find an industry that doesn't care about gender equality or making strides to create a better working atmosphere for everyone. I'm sure whatever that industry is, will appreciate your opinions and political incorrectness.

Maybe you should try academia?

> Maybe you should find an industry that doesn't care about gender equality or making strides to create a better working atmosphere for everyone

Construction, drywall, plumbing, fixing cars, or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[1]

---

[1] http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/more-than-350-femal...

This post will be flag-killed soon, and rightly so (I'm flagging it myself), as these discussions usually bring out the worst in the HN community, with some truly amazing displays of unchecked misogyny.

My opinion: absolutely not. Right now tech -- especially software, especially in the Bay Area -- is suffering from extreme sexism. That sexism is real, measurable, and hurts the industry tremendously. Sexism and privacy are the top two political concerns of the software industry at this point in time. Anyone disputing that is either burying their head in the sand or unaware of what sexism is. Software is currently the only white-collar industry where women participation has been consistently dropping for over two decades. Sure, whenever there's a just cause, it can be taken too far. But so far, the verbal abuse directed towards some white men in the industry -- occasionally perhaps unjustifiably -- is puny compared to the damage sexism has caused our industry.

Also, I don't like the term political correctness, as it's just a pejorative used to denote any cause that you disagree with or consider unimportant enough.

No, political correctness has NOT gone too far. You just don't know the correct way to think. And the only reason you would think or ask questions is because you're a racist, and sexist and a bigot.

You just can't understand social issues at all because you're privileged and your opinion is invalid. Unless you can prove that you're in one of the protected groups who are victimized by you just by you being white and/or male and/or not poor, you should be fired immediately.