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The culture wars have come to Silicon Valley

Some people have accused Google of silencing engineer over the memo issue while others have praised

Facebook, house, build, Silicon Valley
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Architectural rendering of Facebook’s proposed Willow Campus is seen in Menlo Park, California. (Photo: Reuters)

Nick Wingfield | NYT
The culture wars that have consumed politics in the United States have now landed on Silicon Valley’s doorstep.

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.

Silicon Valley’s politics have long skewed left, with

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