{"id":901460,"date":"2021-10-20T10:29:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=901460"},"modified":"2021-10-20T10:29:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:29:29","slug":"coinbase-ceo-faced-massive-backlash-for-banning-politics-a-year-later-heres-what-he-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/coinbase-ceo-faced-massive-backlash-for-banning-politics-a-year-later-heres-what-he-discovered\/","title":{"rendered":"Coinbase CEO Faced Massive Backlash For Banning Politics. A Year Later, Here\u2019s What He Discovered  \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcoinbase-ceo-faced-massive-backlash-for-banning-politics-a-year-later-heres-what-he-discovered%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=901460&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>What a difference a year makes.<\/p>\n<p>In October 2020, Brian Armstrong, CEO and founder of the cryptocurrency brokerage Coinbase, was facing a barrage of bad press.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times accused him of \u201ctokenizing\u201d black employees. CNN claimed he feared a \u201creckoning around racial and social justice.\u201d And his highest-profile colleagues made public statements not-so-subtly implying he was blinkered by white privilege at best and an outright racist at worst.<\/p>\n<p>All because Armstrong <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.coinbase.com\/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804\">decided<\/a> the workplace, or, at least, his workplace, was not the appropriate venue for political debates or pushing social agendas.<\/p>\n<p>The firestorm started during the summer madness of the 2020 race riots, when mayors were inviting left-wing activists to burn down their cities and every blue-chip on the NASDAQ from Apple to Pepsi was rushing to post Black Lives Matter boilerplate to their corporate social media accounts.<\/p>\n<p>All except Coinbase.<\/p>\n<p>While Armstrong did send an email to employees expressing support for those who were \u201churting\u201d over the death of George Floyd, he stopped short of voicing support for BLM. This sparked a spiral of internal Slack carping that led Armstrong to call an all-hands meeting where he encouraged the disgruntled to \u201cask [him] anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mostly what they asked was why he couldn\u2019t just make a public proclamation of allegiance that included those three little social justice buzzwords: Black Lives Matter.<\/p>\n<p>Armstrong demurred, insisting that while he did care about black lives, he worried that making a statement explicitly tied to a political movement would be bad for the company. Furious, a group of employees organized a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2020\/10\/09\/coinbase-silicon-valley-libertarian\/\">walkout<\/a>, much to the delight of the establishment press, which covered their protest in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2020\/10\/09\/coinbase-silicon-valley-libertarian\/\"> breathless<\/a> terms. Later that day, presumably in a bid to stop the bleeding and avoid throwing any further grist to the media mill, Armstrong did, at last, post a generic BLM-branded <a href=\"https:\/\/moguldom.com\/307940\/coinbase-crypto-exchange-offers-exit-packages-to-employees-who-want-to-talk-racial-justice-politics-at-work\/\">message<\/a> to Twitter, saying \u201cpolice brutality, and unequal justice are unequivocally wrong, and we need to all work to eliminate them from society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But upon a few weeks\u2019 reflection, he appeared to think better of his capitulation. He deleted the tepid BLM tweets and instead issued a thought-out, deeply considered new plan. In a company-wide<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.coinbase.com\/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804\"> memo<\/a> that was published on Medium for the world to evaluate, he officially declared Coinbase a no-politics zone.<\/p>\n<p>While the 38-year-old billionaire acknowledged that \u201cit has become common for Silicon Valley companies to engage in a wide variety of social activism,\u201d he said he didn\u2019t want his team preoccupied with \u201cbroader<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a difference a year makes.In October 2020, Brian Armstrong, CEO and founder of the cryptocurrency brokerage Coinbase, was facing a barrage of bad press.The New York Times accused him of \u201ctokenizing\u201d black employees. CNN claimed he feared a \u201creckoning around racial and social justice.\u201d And his highest-profile colleagues made public statements not-so-subtly implying he was blinkered by white privilege at best and an outright racist at worst.All because Armstrong decided the workplace, or, at least, his workplace, was not the appropriate venue for political debates or pushing social agendas.The firestorm started during the summer madness of the 2020 race riots, when mayors were inviting left-wing activists to burn down their cities and every blue-chip on the NASDAQ from Apple to Pepsi was rushing to post Black Lives Matter boilerplate to their corporate social media accounts.All except Coinbase.While Armstrong did send an email to employees expressing support for those who were \u201churting\u201d over the death of George Floyd, he stopped short of voicing support for BLM. This sparked a spiral of internal Slack carping that led Armstrong to call an all-hands meeting where he encouraged the disgruntled to \u201cask [him] anything.\u201dMostly what they asked was why he couldn\u2019t just make a public proclamation of allegiance that included those three little social justice buzzwords: Black Lives Matter.Armstrong demurred, insisting that while he did care about black lives, he worried that making a statement explicitly tied to a political movement would be bad for the company. Furious, a group of employees organized a walkout, much to the delight of the establishment press, which covered their protest in breathless terms. Later that day, presumably in a bid to stop the bleeding and avoid throwing any further grist to the media mill, Armstrong did, at last, post a generic BLM-branded message to Twitter, saying \u201cpolice brutality, and unequal justice are unequivocally wrong, and we need to all work to eliminate them from society.\u201dBut upon a few weeks\u2019 reflection, he appeared to think better of his capitulation. He deleted the tepid BLM tweets and instead issued a thought-out, deeply considered new plan. In a company-wide memo that was published on Medium for the world to evaluate, he officially declared Coinbase a no-politics zone.While the 38-year-old billionaire acknowledged that \u201cit has become common for Silicon Valley companies to engage in a wide variety of social activism,\u201d he said he didn\u2019t want his team preoccupied with \u201cbroader societal issues\u201d while at work. Instead, he wanted them \u201claser focused\u201d on achieving the company mission of creating an open financial system for the world.Armstrong\u2019s reason was simple. He felt such politicking, while \u201cwell intentioned,\u201d created divisions and distractions that had the potential to destroy much of the value of his business. He argued that companies that \u201cdabble in unrelated efforts\u201d often fail to stand the test of time.\u201cWe\u2019ve seen what internal strife at companies like Google and Facebook can do to productivity,\u201d he stressed, \u201cI believe most employees don\u2019t want to work in these divisive environments.\u201d Then he outlined how Coinbase\u2019s new apolitical strategy would work.Three things the new policy banned explicitly flew in the face of what the Left now demands from the corporate world: advocating for political causes, expecting Coinbase to represent political beliefs on the public stage, and assuming negative intent of coworkers who view social issues differently.Yet part of Armstrong\u2019s reasoning was the very diversity for which many of his social justice employees were agitating. The only difference was, they cared only about outward diversity based on skin color, he acknowledged diversity of thought, and wanted to protect the ideological outsiders as well. \u201cWe have people with many different backgrounds and viewpoints at Coinbase,\u201d he said, \u201cand even if we all agree that something is a problem, we may not agree on how to actually go solve it.\u201dThus, protest for black lives or against masks on your own time, not the company\u2019s.Armstrong sweetened the offer for those who weren\u2019t willing to leave the agenda-grinding at home \u2014 they could resign with a generous four-to-six months of severance. \u201cLife is too short to work at a company that you aren\u2019t excited about,\u201d he granted magnanimously. \u201cHopefully, this package helps create a win-win outcome for those who choose to opt out.\u201d\u00a0The internal fallout from this policy turned out to be relatively trivial. Only about five percent of employees took the severance. Of that five percent, Coinbase reported that minority staffers weren\u2019t over-represented, suggesting they didn\u2019t take more offense at the activism ban than non-minorities. And that should have been the end of it.Except, the Left, which has been tightening its hold on Silicon Valley through a bit of Marxist sleight-of-hand known as \u201cstakeholder capitalism\u201d (the idea companies have an obligation to serve the \u201cinterests\u201d of society as defined by progressives), can\u2019t abide an abstainer.The media\u2019s retaliation for Armstrong\u2019s rebellion was uniform and intense.TechCrunch, arguably the most influential publication in Silicon Valley, ran multiple op-eds against the move, with one claiming all Armstrong had done was \u201chighlight his tremendous position of privilege.\u201d\u201cIt means he doesn\u2019t wake up worrying about how institutional racism or systemic oppression might affect him,\u201d the essay opined.In the \u201csilence is violence\u201d school of thought, Fortune\u2019s senior tech editor insisted that Armstrong\u2019s disinclination to make political statements is \u201ca political statement all its own.\u201dYahoo Finance\u2019s editor-at-large said, \u201cThe rise of \u201cstakeholder capitalism\u201d and ESG [environmental, social, governance] investing makes Armstrong\u2019s longing to keep Coinbase apolitical look clumsy.\u201dFinally, despite the fact that the vast majority of Coinbase employees stuck with the company, The New York Times ran a one-sided hit piece that failed to find even one staffer happy with or simply ambivalent toward the no-politics decision. Instead, every source the Times quoted hurled veiled accusations of bigotry.\u00a0\u00a0\u201c[Working at Coinbase] was the first time I realized what racism felt like in the modern world,\u201d said one former employee, \u201cI felt like I was being bullied every day at work.\u201d A diversity officer in the story dinged Armstrong for failing to provide an atmosphere of \u201cpsychological safety.\u201d The report also accused the company of institutional prejudice, editorializing that \u201c[Crypto companies like Coinbase] have propagated a brash male-dominated way of life, facing criticism for sowing racism and sexism.\u201dBut if the tech world\u2019s condemnation of Armstrong was fierce, it was nothing to that of his peers, all of whom had recklessly dived into the very type of politicking Armstrong was banning. Just a sampling of the reactions:Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey publicly rebuked him, saying that cryptocurrency itself is a form of activism and Armstrong owed it to his customer base to \u201cacknowledge\u201d the \u201crelated societal issues.\u201d He also accused Coinbase\u2019s politics ban of \u201cleaving people behind.\u201dDorsey\u2019s predecessor at the top of the Twitter heap, Dick Costolo, went far more nuclear, saying, \u201cMe-first capitalists who think you can separate society from business are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution. I\u2019ll happily provide video commentary.\u201dAaron White, founder and chief technology officer of software management company Blissfully Tech told The Hill Armstrong was indulging an \u201cisolationist fantasy\u201d that would guarantee his company would end up \u201con the wrong side of history for absolutely every issue.\u201dJill Carlson of venture capitalist firm Slow Venture, mocked Armstrong\u2019s goal of keeping employee attention on company business while at the office, tweeting, \u201cHave you ever thought about what a privilege it is to be able to NARROWLY FOCUS at work?\u201dJessica Alter, founder of Tech Campaigns, scolded, \u201cStating out loud that you think economic freedom and social justice can be conveniently disconnected is the epitome of why [Silicon Valley] has a bad reputation.\u201dNearly everyone predicted Coinbase would experience dire outcomes.Which brings us to today. Over the last year, despite the pressure of a multi-sided PR onslaught, Coinbase stuck to its guns. No corporate statements about voting rights, election results, abortion legislation, or any other social causes were forthcoming from Coinbase leadership. The company quietly went about its crypto business. Until, two weeks ago, that is, when Armstrong broke his silence to update the world on how the company\u2019s no-politics experiment was going.In a word: swimmingly.On October 1, Armstrong posted a tweet thread revealing that, contra prophecies that his company would face a mass exodus and public shunning over the ban, Coinbase has instead gained new staff comprised of professionals eager to work in an environment dedicated to clear corporate goals rather than murky outside social agendas.\u201cWe have a much more aligned company now, where we can focus on getting work done toward our mission,\u201d Armstrong shared, adding, \u201cit has allowed us to hire some of the best talent from organizations where employees are fed up with politics, infighting, and distraction.\u201dNor, he revealed, was this growth limited to white applicants. \u201cSince my post,\u201d he said, \u201cwe\u2019ve grown our headcount about 110%, while our diversity numbers have remained the same, or even improved on some metrics\u2026It turns out that there are people from every background who want to work at a mission focused company.\u201dPerhaps the best service the Coinbase CEO rendered to the world in his update was highlighting the difference between reality and media perception when it comes to the average worker\u2019s feelings on politics in the workplace.\u00a0Said Armstrong:What was amazing was the contrast between the news following my post, and the reaction from employees and people who spoke to me in private. While the media reports were mostly negative, and it even spawned some retaliatory and intellectually dishonest hit pieces, the reaction both from employees and people I spoke to in private was overwhelmingly positive.In fact, I would say it was probably the most positive reaction I\u2019ve gotten from any change I\u2019ve made in the history of the company, which is saying something. How could something be so negative in the press, but turn out to be incredibly positive with every stakeholder.The only sense I can make of it, is that there is a huge mismatch between peoples stated and revealed preferences right now, and we\u2019re operating in an environment of virtue signaling and fear of speaking up.Put simply, Armstrong concluded that he would \u201crecommend the change to others.\u201dGiven the intense interest the media and tech world showed in Armstrong\u2019s original memo, you might think they would be equally interested in the follow-up on how the policy played out on the ground. You would be wrong. To date, since Armstrong issued his update two weeks ago, not one of the major outlets who gnashed their teeth at his initial announcement has covered Coinbase\u2019s positive results. Not a single one.But that\u2019s because the backlash against Coinbase was never really about Coinbase.\u00a0The media and tech world\u2019s fierce reaction was intended as a warning to other independent-minded companies that neutrality will not be tolerated. If Coinbase is allowed to courageously abstain from pushing the progressive agenda, other corporate leaders might be inspired to think they can just get back to business as well. A Leftist project decades in the making, to co-opt corporate America for political purposes, would risk being squandered.\u00a0After all, a crack in the dam as big as Brian Armstrong could eventually lead to a flood of CEOs looking for off-ramps. Only months after Armstrong\u2019s memo, for example, business software company Basecamp instituted a similar policy with similar language to a similar rending of media garments.As Paypal co-founder David Sacks observed there\u2019s a lesson for the tech industry, and really all industries, in Coinbase\u2019s experience. \u201cCompanies can choose to be Coinbase or Apple,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can leave politics at the door and have a happy productive workplace like Coinbase. Or they can give in to boycotting mobs and be constantly roiled like Apple.\u201dIt\u2019s a message Armstrong echoed.The biggest lesson he says he took away from the backlash his company experienced is that \u201cif you believe something is the right path, it\u2019s worth speaking up about it, even if it\u2019s controversial.\u201dWhat he\u2019s learned is that while social media mobs seem intimidating at the time, in reality, their impact is negligible and their bullying tactics the weapons of paper tigers. Real leadership resists the urge to appease troublemakers by mouthing the slogans they demand.\u201cYou will get lots of attacks online, and not everyone will agree, but ultimately people want clarity and authenticity from leaders, not platitudes,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cIt will come back to you tenfold.\u201d\u00a0He then advised executives to \u201cthink about any area where you aren\u2019t being 100% authentic, and instead are trying to keep the peace, or say what you think people want to hear.\u201dThe entire business world from the NFL to fast food has been taken hostage by the outsized influence of a few angry activist staffers. Armstrong\u2019s message to them could not be more timely: \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly difficult to do, but if you stand up and say what you really think, it may turn out better than you thought.\u201dThe views expressed in this opinion piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-901460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}