所有研究数字化问题的人都应该有一个自知之明，就是你永远预测不到数字领域下一秒将会产生什么。本月初，达莫尔的备忘录和随后发生的解聘事件就像一个炸药桶，宣告了硅谷文化战争的开始。这次文化冲突的影响达到了继2014年“游戏玩家门”（Gamergate）以来的最大值。这一次，是一家影响了我们日常生活的上市公司与右翼势力开战。大众面临的文化冲突终于蔓延到了科技行业，这个对我们生活的影响力呈指数级别增长的行业。
凛冬将至
——硅谷文化战争
译者：李苏苑&赵萌萌
校对：徐嘉茵
策划：赵萌萌
The culture wars that have consumed politics in the United States have now landed on Silicon Valley's doorstep.
席卷美国政坛的文化战争现已逼近硅谷。
本文选自 The New York Times | 取经号原创翻译
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That became clear this week after Google on Monday fired a software engineer, James Damore, who had written an internal memo challenging the company's diversity efforts. The firing set off a furious debate over Google's handling of the situation, with some accusing the company of silencing the engineer for speaking his mind. Supporters of women in tech praised Google. But for the right, it became a potent symbol of the tech industry's intolerance of ideological diversity.
这一现象开始愈演愈烈，尤其在8月7日，谷歌辞退了软件工程师詹姆斯•达莫尔（James Damore）之后，他写了一份内部备忘录，质疑公司为多样化作出的努力。谷歌对此事的处理引发了人们的激烈辩论，一些人指责谷歌不让达莫尔表达个人想法，而支持女性在科技领域工作的人则对谷歌的做法称赞有加。但对右派来说，这传递出了一个强烈信号，科技行业排斥意识形态多样化。
Silicon Valley's politics have long skewed left, with a free-market's philosophy and a dash of libertarianism. But that goes only so far, with recent episodes putting the tech industry under the microscope for how it penalizes people for expressing dissenting opinions. Mr. Damore's firing has now plunged the nation's technology capital into some of the same debates that have engulfed the rest of the country.
长期以来，硅谷在政治上一直偏左，有着自由市场理念和几分自由主义倾向，但也仅限于此——因为最近发生的事情把科技行业放到了显微镜下，让人们看到了这里是怎么惩罚表达不同观点的人们的。现在，谷歌开除达莫尔使得美国科技也像其他行业一样，卷入了这种争论。
Such fractures have been building in Silicon Valley for some time, reaching even into its highest echelons. The tensions became evident last year with the rise of Donald J.Trump, when a handful of people from the industry who publicly supported the then-presidential candidate faced blowback for their political decisions.
这种分歧在硅谷积聚已久，甚至渗透到了高层。去年，随着唐纳德•J•特朗普的当选，硅谷气氛更加紧张。少数业内人士公开支持彼时的总统候选人特朗普，这个决定给他们带来了负面影响。
At Facebook, Peter Thiel, an investor and member of the social network's board of directors, was told he would receive a negative evaluation of his board performance for supporting Mr. Trump by a peer, Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix. And Palmer Luckey, a founder of Oculus VR, a virtual reality start-up owned by Facebook, was pressured to leave the company after it was revealed that he had secretly funded a pro-Trump organization.
Netflix执行总裁里德•哈斯廷斯（Reed Hastings）告诉自己的同僚，Facebook投资人兼董事会成员彼得•蒂尔（Peter Thiel），由于支持特朗普，他在董事会的表现会得到负面评价。Facebook旗下虚拟现实初创公司Oculus VR创始人帕尔默•拉奇（Palmer Luckey）被曝私下资助一个支持特朗普的组织后，迫于压力从公司离职。
【译者注：里德•哈斯廷斯于2011年加入Facebook董事会，与彼得•蒂尔同为董事会成员】
Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business, said Mr. Damore's comments carried additional weight to people on either side of the political spectrum because he was an engineer at Google, one of the world's biggest technology companies.
纽约大学斯特恩商学院市场营销学教授斯科特•加洛韦（Scott Galloway）表示，达莫尔的言论对左右两派都具有额外分量，因为他是世界最大的科技公司之一——谷歌的工程师。
Alongside other giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Apple, these companies "are seen as pillars of our society," Mr. Galloway said. "Controversy and statements that emanate from these employees take on a different heft."
谷歌与Facebook、亚马逊、苹果这些巨头公司都“被视为我们社会的顶梁柱，”加洛韦教授表示，“与这些公司雇员相关的争议和声明都有着不同的分量”。
The technology industry has long marched in lock step on issues such as supporting immigration and diversity, even though their companies remained largely male, white and Asian. But last year's election of Mr. Trump — with his broadsides against political correctness, his coarse language toward women and his actions to restrict immigration and deny climate change — seemed to threaten many of those ideals.
长期以来，虽然科技公司内雇员以男性，白色或黄色人种为主，但整个科技行业在支持移民与多样化的步调上还是一致的。但去年特朗普当选后，他对政治正确性大肆抨击，对女性恶语相向，采取行动限制移民、否认气候变化，这些都威胁到了很多业内理想。
lockstep [n.]
In lockstep (with sb/sth)
(1) at the same time and same rate as:
rise/fall/move in lockstep
e.g. Gold prices don't tend to rise or fall in lockstep with those for stocks and other financial assets.
(2) agreeing completely with someone:
e.g. The Senator seems to be in lockstep with the big health insurance companies.
broadside [n.]
A volley of abuse or denunciation
At the same time, Mr. Trump's words may have made dissenters in the tech industry more comfortable about speaking out.
同时，特朗普的言论也许鼓励了科技行业内的异议者大声说出自己的观点。
"Trump, in a sense, licensed people to express what some people would call politically incorrect thoughts," said Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia University's Business School. "Then there's the other force that a lot of Trump's policies go against the inclusive ideals these companies espouse."
“特朗普，从某种意义上讲，怂恿了人们表达别人所称的政治不正确观点，”哥伦比亚商学院教授亚当•加林斯基（Adam Galinsky）如是说，“这样就会形成一股势力，在这之中，特朗普的很多政策都与这些公司拥护的理想背道而驰”。
At Google, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive, said in an email on Monday that Mr. Damore was fired for violations of the company's code of conduct, specifically his perpetuation of "harmful gender stereotypes" in the workplace. Mr. Damore had argued that biological reasons might explain the underrepresentation of women in the tech industry, causing widespread outrage inside and outside Google. In his defense, Mr. Damore said he had a right to express himself and said he was considering legal action against Google for firing him.
8月7日，谷歌执行总裁桑达尔•皮查伊（Sundar Pichai）发邮件称，达莫尔之所以被开除，是因为他违反了公司的行为准则。具体是指他在工作场合总是持有“具有伤害性的性别成见”。达莫尔认为，科技行业内女性比例不高可能是生理原因所致，这种说法在谷歌引发众怒。达莫尔为自己辩护，称他有权表达自己的想法，还说要对谷歌开除他的做法提起诉讼。
Amy Siskind, president of the New Agenda, a women's advocacy group, tweeted that Mr. Damore is "every white male Trump voter feeling threatened" that women and people of color, "if given an equal chance, will reveal his mediocrity."
女权倡导组织New Agenda主席艾米•希斯坎德（Amy Siskind）发推称，达莫尔就是典型的“投票支持特朗普的白人男性”，这种人就担心“一旦女性与有色人种获得平等机会，他们的平庸就会一览无遗”。
The New Agenda is a organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home.
Mr. Damore's memo and dismissal transformed him into a hero on right-wing news sites like Breitbart, which has long criticized the political leanings of the tech industry.
因为达莫尔的备忘录和他被撤职这件事情，右翼新闻网站把他当作了英雄，比如Breitbart，该网站批评科技行业政治倾向已久。
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said on Twitter that "censorship is for losers" and offered to hire Mr. Damore. Steven Pinker, a Harvard University cognitive scientist, said on Twitter that Google's actions could increase support for Mr. Trump in the tech industry.
维基解密创始人朱利安•阿桑奇（Julian Assange）发推特称“审查是败者所为”，并向达莫尔伸出了橄榄枝。哈佛大学认知科学家史蒂文•平克（Steven Pinker）教授发推特称，谷歌的行为会让特朗普在科技行业获得更多支持。
"Google drives a big sector of tech into the arms of Trump: fires employee who wrote memo about women in tech jobs," Dr. Pinker wrote.
平克写道，“开除了在备忘录里谈论女性技术人员的员工后，谷歌反而把科技行业中很大一部分群体推向了特朗普的怀抱。”
One of the most outspoken supporters of Mr. Trump in Silicon Valley has been Mr. Thiel, a founder of PayPal, who has since faced derision from other people working in tech for his political stance. In a sign of how deep that ill feeling runs, Netflix's Mr. Hastings warned Mr. Thiel last August, a few weeks after Mr. Trump had accepted the Republican nomination for president, that he would face consequences for backing Mr. Trump.
在硅谷，PayPal创始人蒂尔是最高调的特朗普支持者之一，这种政治立场使得他遭到了其他同行的嘲笑。下面这个例子，人们对蒂尔的敌意有多深就可看出端倪。去年八月，特朗普成为共和党候选人的几周后，Netflix创办人哈斯廷斯对蒂尔发出警告，他会为支持特朗普付出代价。
derision [n.]
The situation in which someone or something is laughed at and considered stupid of of no value.
e.g. They treated his suggestion with derision.
Mr. Thiel, also one of the original investors in Facebook, had given a prime-time speech supporting Mr. Trump at the Republican convention. In contrast, Mr. Hastings, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, said earlier last year that Mr. Trump, if elected, "would destroy much of what is great about America."
蒂尔也是Facebook的原始投资人之一，曾在共和党代表大会的黄金时段发表过支持特朗普的演讲。相比之下，哈斯廷斯则是希拉里•克林顿的支持者，他在去年早些时候表示，如果特朗普当选，他“会毁掉很多美国的伟大之处”。
Mr. Hastings, the chairman of a committee that evaluates Facebook's board members, told Mr. Thiel in an email dated Aug. 14 that the advocacy would reflect badly on Mr. Thiel during a review of Facebook directors scheduled for the next day.
作为评估Facebook董事会成员的委员会主席，哈斯廷斯在8月14日的邮件中对蒂尔说，他的政治主张会在第二天对Facebook高管的审查中对他产生不利影响。
"I see our board being about great judgment, particularly in unlikely disaster where we have to pick new leaders," Mr. Hastings wrote in the email to Mr. Thiel, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. "I'm so mystified by your endorsement of Trump for our President, that for me it moves from 'different judgment' to 'bad judgment.' Some diversity in views is healthy, but catastrophically bad judgment (in my view) is not what anyone wants in a fellow board member."
《纽约时报》得到了该份邮件的副本，其中哈斯廷斯对蒂尔写道，“我们的董事会一直有着良好的判断力，尤其是在这个新任领导人可能带来意外之灾的特殊时刻。我对你支持特朗普担任总统很不解，这就使得我对你的评价从‘不同的判断’转向了‘糟糕的判断’。一定程度的思想多样化无伤大雅，但是灾难性的糟糕判断（在我看来），可不是董事会成员想要在自己同事的身上看到的”。
Mr. Thiel and Mr. Hastings declined to comment through their spokesmen; neither challenged the authenticity of the email. Both of the men remain on Facebook's board.
蒂尔与哈斯廷斯通过发言人表示拒绝作出评论，但两人都未否认这封邮件的真实性。目前，两人仍在Facebook董事会任职。
Another prominent Trump supporter affiliated with Facebook, Mr. Luckey, did not last at the company. Last September, The Daily Beast published a story saying that Mr. Luckey had been secretly funding a pro-Trump political organization called Nimble America. Subsequent reports and social media posts accused Mr. Luckey of financing sexist and racist "memes," viral internet content.
Facebook内部另一支持特朗普的显著人物，拉奇没能在公司待下去。去年九月，《每日野兽》发表一篇报道称，拉奇一直在暗中资助一支持特朗普的政治组织，该组织名为“Nimble America”。后续报道与社交媒体所发帖子都在指责拉奇资助别人制作性别歧视与种族歧视的段子，即在网上病毒性扩散的内容。
Mr. Luckey, whose company was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion, said in a Facebook post that the stories misrepresented his views, though he apologized for the negative coverage it brought to Oculus. (Indeed, there was little evidence that the organization's activities went beyond a billboard in the Pittsburgh area that showed a cartoonish image of Mrs. Clinton with the message "Too Big to Jail" beneath it.)
拉奇的公司以20亿美元的价格被Facebook收购。他在Facebook发帖称，报道歪曲了他的观点，但他仍为Oculus受到负面报道而道歉（的确，鲜有证据表明Nimble America除一块匹兹堡广告牌之外，还在其他地方打过广告。那块广告牌上是希拉里的卡通形象，下面写着“官大到不能入狱”）。
Mr. Luckey, through mutual agreement with his employer, stayed away from the Oculus offices to let the controversy die down, according to three people with knowledge of the episode who asked for anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. In December, before returning briefly to the office, he told colleagues he was committed to staying at the company, according to a copy of a message he posted on an internal discussion board, which was reviewed by The Times.
据三位内部人士称，拉奇与上司达成一致后离开了Oculus办公室，以便争议平息下来。这三位内部人士不愿透露姓名，因为他们签订了保密协议。12月，拉奇在回办公室之前，告诉同事自己一定要留在公司，并把该消息发布在了公司内部论坛上。《泰晤士报》对该消息作出了评论。
But by the end of March, Oculus said he was no longer working there.
但到了三月底，Oculus表示拉奇已经不在公司任职。
A Facebook spokeswoman reiterated an earlier company statement saying that Mr. Luckey's departure was unrelated to his political views. Mr. Luckey declined to comment on his departure from Facebook.
一位Facebook女发言人在早先的公司声明中重申，拉奇的离开与他的政治观点没有关系。拉奇拒绝对自己从Facebook离职发表评论。
Some prominent Silicon Valley figures are concerned there is too much political conformity in the tech industry. On a podcast in May, Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist, said he knew of only two Trump supporters in Silicon Valley, Mr. Thiel and Mr. Luckey.
硅谷的一些大人物担心科技行业的政治一致性太强。五月，风险投资家马克•安德森（Marc Andreessen）在播客中表示，自己在硅谷只听说过两个特朗普的支持者，蒂尔与拉奇。
conformity [n.]
behaviour that follows the usual standards that are expected by a group of society.
e.g. It's depressing how much conformity there is in such young children.
"What does it do to somebody when they feel like they literally can’t express themselves?" said Mr. Andreessen, a Facebook board member who backed Mrs. Clinton last year.
安德森在Facebook董事会任职，去年支持的是希拉里。他表示，“当人们觉得完全无法自由表达自己思想时，他们会怎么样呢？”
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