Politically correct fascism has ruled the workplace for decades, and government is obviously the cause, and yet many, including some putative libertarians, are acting as if Google firing James Damore is something new and are placing little blame on government.
The most direct of the many ways in which government caused Google to fire James Damore is that in 1986, the Supreme Court invented sexual harassment, which let's female employees sue the living snot out of any company that has not done everything possible to prevent a "hostile or offensive working environment" for women. Imagine if the 10,000 female employees of a company were all awarded one million dollars each. Companies thus try really hard to make sure that doesn't happen.
A hostile or offensive work environment consists of a man who made a joke about women, or who remarked that a woman was attractive/unattractive, or who denied the imaginary gender wage gap, or who cited a scientific study proving that, on average, women are not as good at something as men. Although the men and women who heard the remark may all be OK with it, which is unlikely, his statement may reach an employee who is not OK with it. Obviously, a company would naturally tend to immediately fire such a man to prove they do not allow a work environment hostile to women, but the man might occasionally successfully counter sue for such a hasty and extreme reaction, so first, a company will give the man another chance after sending him to a reeducation camp.
Such an extreme reaction by a company is still not enough to protect it from lawsuits. A company must also have already preemptively provided reeducation to all employees, and it must have also published a politically correct code of conduct—all to prove that it did everything it could have done to prevent men from stating reality in the first place.It is OK for a woman to comment on a man's appearance or to make jokes about men. In fact, the HR director at one company I worked for had a joke about men on her wall, which is especially disgusting because reeducation, and PC enforcement in general, is the job of the HR department.
Just this one, of the many ways government creates a dysfunctional and politically correct fascist work environment, is very powerful all by itself. Imagine if a manager, VP, or even a CEO were in touch with reality and had integrity, and was thus nauseated by PC fascism in the workplace. Sooner or later he would have to be fired because he would be too much of a threat to the financial survival of the company. If he were not fired, then eventually, that company would be bankrupt from lawsuits, and it would then be bought by one of its PC competitors ... who would then fire him.
Employees who do not get fired would be those who conform, which means they are either out of touch with reality (e.g. true believers), lacking in integrity, or staying at a low level and never speaking of reality. If necessary, such low level people might have to occasionally be actors to keep their jobs, but if they want to climb the corporate ladder, then they would have to be much better actors; they would have to be actors all the time; and they would have to promote the PC fascist agenda. In other words, they would have to lack integrity. Some may go for years without having to directly promote the PC fascist agenda, but sooner or later it would become necessary to keep their job.
It should be clear that for those who would climb the corporate ladder, this PC fascist pressure to be an actor, forfeit their integrity, and occasionally destroy the lives of good people ... would give a HUGE advantage to psychopaths. Psychopaths are all already great actors, already have no integrity, already have no conscience to stop them from destroying the lives of others, and actually enjoy saying anything that manipulates others into rewarding them.
Therefore, government has, for all practical purposes, forced each corporation's board of directors to only hire a CEO who is either a true believer (and thus out of touch with reality) or a psychopath ... because those are the two types who will excel at enforcing the PC fascist agenda.
Naturally, a CEO will tend to hire like-minded executives, who will tend to hire like-minded directors.
It is these decision makers who will create a company's personal code of conduct, such as the one at Google. Although it will make financial sense for them to do so, it will never occur to them to do it any other way. They are in an echo chamber because of government induced PC fascism.
Eventually, after several decades of such conformism, the decision makers have grown up in just such an echo chamber, and thus even the psychopaths are often true believers. Most decision makers do not realize the degree to which they are out of touch with reality, or the degree to which they seem like fascist monsters to those who are in touch with reality. That's where we are today.
Managers and executives are often not the fascist monsters they seem to be because they are true believers, and they are true believers because they are immersed 24/7 in PC fascist propaganda. They never hear a compelling counter argument, so they really think they are the good guys because all of mainstream society has become an echo chamber. Also, they know instinctively what would happen to them if they entertained reality for even a moment, so they don't go there. So, to a large extent, they are innocent. For example, they rarely have to wrestle with the dilemma of destroying good people because good people who are in touch with reality, either don't work for them, or will keep their mouths shut, which is another example of why, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing."
Good men must therefore say something, which will end the innocence of the collaborators. In fact, many good men (and women) who say something will have been former collaborators who finally decided to be the person they really wanted to be.
I wish the story ended here, but you should be asking yourself, "How is it that all of mainstream society could be so out of touch with reality in a way that is so thorough ... so universal ... and yet ... so obviously harmful and so obviously wrong? How is it that one invention by the Supreme Court could be so devastating to society? How is it that one cabal could make this happen?"
Proving there is one cabal with that kind of power is easy—They Live.
There is actually far more than this one invention by the Supreme Court. There is a self-reinforcing matrix of millions of regulations and laws invented by Congress, the President, the Courts, and the bureaucrats, which allow them to punish and reward companies and individuals. Government officials are above the law in this role and can selectively reward and punish on their personal whim—as long as they don't cross their masters. Pretty much none of this is Constitutional, but the Constitution has been unable to prevent it. The Constitution has only slowed this cancer's metastasizing.
Naturally, a board of directors will choose a CEO who will maximize the rewards from government and minimize the punishments. Government rewards given to obedient CEOs include: government contracts, access to classified information, subsidies, bailouts, loans, a free pass on crimes and regulatory violations, and punishment of their competitors. Punishment of an obedient CEO's competitors includes: IRS audits, harsh interpretations of regulations, harsh punishments for violations, fabricated evidence, stealing their secrets, blackmail, police action, military action, media attacks, assassinations, infection, poisoning, sabotage, repealing laws or regulations that hurt an obedient CEO's company more than his competitors, and creating new laws or regulations that hurt an obedient CEO's competitors more than his company.
Suppose a CEO wanted to blow the whistle on the evils of PC fascism in the workplace. He would lose all those rewards and receive all those punishments. It should be clear that in a world in which only obedient CEOs survive ... only obedient CEOs survive.