Scroll down to read this post.

 

Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Today’s blacklisted Americans: Trump supporters blackballed by employers

Survey graphic
Click for full image.

Blacklists are back and the Democrats got ’em: According to a new survey, those who publicly supported Trump or expressed conservative opinions on social media are being willingly blackballed by the hiring managers in corporate America.

A new survey of hiring managers provided to Secrets found that backing Trump on social media is the top reason to reject a job applicant.

The apparent reason: Human resources departments want to avoid “tiffs” between employees. “Likely to avoid future office tiffs, a significant portion of hiring managers admitted to negatively judging candidates based on the political content posted. For 27% of hiring managers, social media posts endorsing Donald Trump for president would negatively impact their decision to hire a candidate,” read the analysis of the poll done for Skynova, an online business software company.

While the list of political positions that causes employees heartburn in the graph above also includes some pro-Democratic Party positions — such as endorsing Joe Biden, supporting unions and a minimum wage — the majority are pro-Trump or conservative positions. Though there is a small chance you might be denied a job if you publicly stated your leftist beliefs, you almost certainly will be blackballed if you dared speak out against such beliefs.

Moreover, leftist workers are now eagerly looking for ways to blacklist conservative companies as well. From the survey:

Holding a similar stance as hiring managers, 40.6% of employees said evidence endorsing Donald Trump for president would negatively impact their decision to apply for a job, compared to only 21.6% reporting the same of endorsement for Joe Biden for president. Anti-immigration posts, urging people not to vote, and even supporting the idea of election fraud were also major red flags for employees.

Furthermore, as noted in the graph above, almost twice as many managers identify as Democrats. Democrats, both in and out of the work force — are more willing to blacklist. And they by a large majority control the hiring decisions for more companies.

It is amazing that just a few short years ago the Democrats advocated the idea that no one should be refused a job or any commercial service for any reason whatsoever. Doing so was bigoted and a return to “Jim Crow” segregation (a suddenly popular word among Democratic Party politicians). Now however such discrimination has suddenly become acceptable, as long as the blackballing does harm to conservatives and Republicans. They don’t deserve the right to pursue their happiness. They have dared to oppose Democrats and the leftist agenda. Such dissent cannot be allowed, and must be crushed.

Let me be clear about one point. If you insert your political agenda into your job — whether conservative or leftist — and that agenda is completely irrelevant to that job and disrupts the work, your status at your work should certainly be questioned. To be blacklisted prior to hiring however is wrong. Hiring managers should hire people solely on their specific skills related to the work involved. Only after hiring should a person’s status be re-evaluated if that person disrupts things for political reasons.

Our culture is supposed to honor freedom of speech. To do so means you allow people that right, in their personal lives. You don’t use as a club against them in hiring.

Apparently too many Democrats no longer honor these values. Freedom of speech is great, as long as no one disagrees with them.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

36 comments

  • That’s the main reason I don’t have any social media accounts: I don’t want it/them showing up for a job interview.

    The internet is forever. There’s some brouhaha going on now with 9News Denver and discrimination. Someone went to a party in blackface as Michael Jackson. Leaving aside the inherent irony of that, it was in the early 1980s! Something from 40 years ago is somehow relevant now, how?

  • Edward_2

    Use Fake Names.

    WhoDini

  • George True

    So the Human Resources geniuses want to avoid hiring those with right wing leanings in order to avoid possible future tiffs among employees, eh? Okay, fine. Then why not instead scrupulously avoid hiring those with leftist leanings? After all, according to virtually all polls, they comprise at most about 20-40% of the electorate. That would make the HR Department’s job much easier, as they would only have to screen out 20-40% of applicants, rather than 60-80% of all applicants. Of course, they won’t do that, which is a dead giveaway that the given reason of supposedly avoiding tiffs is not the real reason.

  • Quick glimpse into the future for these companies:

    Late last year the City of Portland commissioned a volunteer advisory panel to determine the best way to distribute COVID-19 vaccine. Four weekly meetings, open to the public, and a fifth ‘wrap-up’ meeting. The panel submitted a plan after the third week, which came to Anyone-But-Whites. The panel was advised that they could not discriminate by race/sex/age (you know, the things Progressives have been screaming about for decades), and they would have to re-submit. The final recommendation was, as one City Council member put it, ‘thrown together’.

    If you hire by ideology, you get people more concerned with internal angst and herd mentality than actually addressing the issue at hand. These organizations are going to be steadily less competitive, and, one might argue, are already less competitive due to hiring practices. Where have we seen this before?

  • Jeff Wright

    Populist America-First Repubs aren’t going to be shills for Corporate types like the Romney Zombies. Time for reverse psychology. Now Musk should reach out to the Bernie bros and hatch a plan to oust corporate dems who are an enemy to Trump Bernie and Musk. Put a 99 percent tax on Gates Balmer Zuckerburg, etc. All for reparations in the form of Teslas given to the poorest if an internet bill of rights is passed. Trump gets revenge-Bernie gets to soak jerks none of us like-the poor get new cars and Musk gets richer. And Soros goes bankrupt.

  • Col Beausabre

    You can’t even ask someone if they have a criminal record or have been incarcerated – not even if you are a bank or investment house.

  • “Likely to suppress dissent from the One True Way of Progressive Thought, a significant portion of hiring managers admitted to negatively judging candidates based on the political content posted. “

    Edited for accuracy. These people are so self-righteous that they see the world not as Left vs. Right, but as Normal vs. The Evil Others Who Must Be Silenced.

  • I remember speaking to an IT person in my company a couple of years ago who had been with us for a while.

    He was shocked to discover I supported Trump and said I was the 1st Trump supporter he ever met. That’s likely not true it’s more likely I was the 1st open Trump supporter he ever met.

  • GWB

    Only after hiring should a person’s status be re-evaluated if that person disrupts things for political reasons.
    I would disagree slightly. Some social media accounts are so egregious you could cut them right out of the herd. And it wouldn’t be just politics.

    And remember, progressivism is more than politics – it’s a religion. It’s an all-encompassing worldview, endowed with righteousness and goodness by its gods SCIENCE! and Compassion.

  • 370H55V

    I knew this was coming way back then, which is why I never signed up for Facebook, Twitter, et al.

    However, I was once GOP chairman in a small county, and no doubt that would show up on a search under my name. Good thing I’m long retired and don’t have to put up with this [deleted].

  • 370H55V: Please read the rules, clearly posted. No obscenities allowed. I have edited your post to clean it up. You are warned. Next time you face suspension or banning.

  • Arm The Homeless

    The same proportion of Republican hiring managers would avoid Biden voters.

    You goons can’t even get your propaganda straight. Sad!

  • Rich Miller

    “It is amazing that just a few short years ago the Democrats advocated the idea that no one should be refused a job or any commercial service for any reason whatsoever. Doing so was bigoted and a return to “Jim Crow” segregation (a suddenly popular word among Democratic Party politicians)”

    So which is it? ”JimCrow” is “suddenly popular” or “a few short years ago” something something? I must have missed the memo that no one should be refused a job for any reason. The term “Jim Crow” is back, now, today (not a few years ago), in the context of voting rights, not employment. But nice try.

    As an employer, I would be reluctant to hire a Trump supporter, unless it was to fill a quota of disabled hires. As an employer, I know there is at least a 50% probability that a Trump supporter also buys into QAnon, a mass delusion subscribed to by people with mental health and gullibility problems. I can also assume a Trump/QAnon hire would bring that defective mindset into the workplace. They would, in effect, proselytize, which would disrupt my workplace. Who needs that?

    If I were that desperate for workers, I might as well just hold a job fair at a mental hospital and hire people that I know, going in, are crazy. Then I could set up the workplace to segregate the crazies from the rational workers. I don’t have time to assess the levels of crazy I might expect from a pro-Trump hire, and then have to implement mitigation measures to protect the stable, rational workers from the Trump/QAnon nut jobs.

  • Rich Miller: Refuse to sell pro-gay rights cakes or take photos at a lesbian wedding recently? According to you such refusals by Christians are okay, right?

    And would you refuse to hire a Black Lives Matter supporter also, for the same reasons?

  • Cotour

    Rich Miller:

    Why not hire the best person for the job you need to get done and have it well understood that there is a policy in your company that bans political discussion? And you as the owner set the example.

    I do that every day.

    Your generalization is in fact a part of the problem today in America, it is ignorant. You must be a very weak leader.

    And for every “Crazy” Trumper you give me I will give you 10 ignorant (Just like you, they know very little about politics and they are only half educated) Liberal democrats who are now in the process of supporting the invasion of our country by agenda.

    How do you feel about our current president and his many un and anti Constitutional actions? Anti second amendment, invade the border with illegals AND pay them when they get here, empowering the Communist Chinese, and the packing the court has got to be at the top of the Democrat, now Leftist Democrat party leadership.

    How do you feel about any of that?

    And Trumpers are crazy?

    Oh, and try this on for crazy, wait until the 2020 election is physically examined in the several counties that are suspicious to say the least for fraud and corruption.

    “A majority (51%) of voters believe it is likely that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including 35% who say it’s Very Likely cheating affected the election.”

    “Arizona Also Adjudicated Thousands of Ballots (One Out of Eight) in 2020 Election – This Should Never Happen Again”

    I think the acceptable adjudication rate is in the range of less than 1%. Nothing suspicious going on here.

  • GWB

    Rich Miller
    April 13, 2021 at 12:04 pm

    As an employer, I would be reluctant to hire a Trump supporter, unless it was to fill a quota of disabled hires. As an employer, I know there is at least a 50% probability that a Trump supporter also buys into QAnon
    You’re full of baloney. Or you have a seriously warped view of Trump supporters. Or both.

  • Icepilot: Thank you. It goes into the hopper, which is now so long I could literally quit writing about science and space and devote my entire blog to this evil now blacklist culture.

  • Rich Miller

    Robert Zimmerman: In your scenario, gay cakes and lesbian wedding photos have to do with patronizing a business, not hiring an employee. For the record, I, personally, do have a problem with a Christian, Muslim, or Hindu commercial baker or photographer refusing to provide those services on the basis of a religious objection. That is obviously a slippery slope with no bottom.

    However, as an employer, I would not hesitate to hire someone who practices the Christian, Muslim, or Hindu religions. STANDING ALONE, religious beliefs are not disqualifying in terms of employment; working for me. But if you set up a distracting Hindu temple to the Hindu God Vishnu in your cubicle at my workplace, we would have a problem.

    The Christian, Muslim and Hindu faiths do not teach that Democratic Party leaders and celebrities murder and drink the blood of children. And the rest of the insane beliefs of QAnon adherents, including that Trump will soon line them all up for firing squad disposals.

    Black Lives Matter is not a religion. BLM is just one social justice group among many advocating for a legitimate, fact-based cause. QAnon/Trump is not a legitimate, fact-based cause. The beliefs that people drink the blood of murdered children, and that the presidential election was “stolen” are both delusions, bereft of any factual support. If you can’t see, or don’t agree with that critical distinction, I can’t help. To try to convince you wastes my time and yours.

    Religion is a socially acceptable delusion with a track record of mostly not causing problems in a workplace. Generally, religion has well established boundaries and guardrails in a workplace environment. The QAnon/Trump belief system does not. Atheists and mainstream religion believers have learned to coexist, even if some believers believe that, upon death at the end of life, atheists are going to “hell.” The QAnon/Trump belief system believes that many non-believers should, and will be executed SOON. And that Trump will be returned to the throne in – what is it now? – August?

    Again, if you don’t get that distinction, I can’t help.

  • Rich Miller

    Cotour: Thanks, you are Exhibit A to my initial comment, representing an actual QAnon/Trump supporter. You believe many things to be true that are demonstrably, and factually false.

  • Hmmm

    They only surveyed 233 people and out of that only a third are Democrats?

    233 people is a crappy sample size. The conclusions here are based entirely upon what a few dozen self-identified Democrats said. At any rate, it’s clear the vast majority of hiring managers do not in fact take politics into account regardless of whether you are a democrat or republican or if they are a Democrat or Republican, at least if you believe these survey results.

    Now if you want to see a really interesting bias in hiring look at the stings that they pull on employers where they will submit two identical resumes with one of them having a white sounding name like Fred McClintock and another person having an Asian or black sounding name like Eddy Wong or LaShawnda Jones. Because whenever this is done it turns out that the white people get called in for interviews more often than minorities. And even when they edit the resumes to make the white people less qualified they still get offered interviews for jobs more than people who are non-white.

  • Rich Miller: So you admit, you blacklist Trump supporters indiscriminately, merely because they supported Trump, but do not blacklist Black Lives Matter supporters. Seems you have a political agenda in your hiring, and that agenda is aimed at blackballing conservatives.

    Thank you for proving my point.

  • Cotour

    Rich Miller, please be specific and I will gladly accommodate your further education.

  • Cotour

    And let me guess, the 2020 presidential election was the most honest election in American history. Right?

  • Rich Miller

    Robert Zimmerman: You are not engaging with me in good faith. I did not say – as you claim – that I would “blacklist Trump supporters indiscriminately.” You are putting words in my mouth. In the context of hiring an employee, I provided very specific, fact and logic-based reasons why I would blacklist Trump/QAnon supporters from employment.

    You have now made clear that you have a significant ax to grind with respect to BLM. It is, or should be self-evident that I wold not “blacklist” BLM people for the same reasons I would not blacklist Rotary Club members, or Shriners, or non-Trump Republicans, or Federalist Society members, or NRA members, or ACLU members.

    None of the very specific reasons I gave for blacklisting QAnon/Trump people applies to any members of these other organizations (unless an individual member is also Trump/QAnon). I know you disagree and it is clear that you are clueless to the obvious distinctions between Trump/QAnon people and BLM people, so no response needed.

    I ended up here because somehow your original post made it onto Memeorandum. I can see now that was a fluke and that your obscure blog here is just a circle jerk of group think and, frankly, racism. I apologize for interrupting your cult meeting. It won’t happen again.

    No response needed.

  • Cotour

    Why are they all so nasty?

  • Cotour: When first, you no longer have any rational and reasonable arguments, and second you have been exposed as an oppressive person who likes to hurt those who disagree with you, and third, and most important, you don’t have the intellectual honesty to admit these facts and begin the human effort to change, the natural reaction is to lash out at everyone who exposes these facts to you and to others.

    It is sad, but it is also true.

  • Cotour

    Juvenile silliness and no substance, just more Potemkin facades.

    And no ability to communicate in any other manner.

  • Robert, what you just described is the state of those who see the national debate as Normal vs. the Evil Other … it also ties into the post on Congresswoman Greene.

    As an employer, I know there is at least a 50% probability that a Trump supporter also buys into QAnon

    Mr. Miller, do you always type in stereo, as you ignore the ACTUAL mob violence fomented by BLM and its false narratives? Who died and made you God, the Arbiter of Truth?

  • gb_in_fl

    It is amazing how freeing it has been since I retired. I no longer care what they think of me, and I’m not looking for a job anyway. There’s literally nothing they can do to me other than threaten violence, and I have a means of countering that.

  • wayne

    Rich–
    ref: “If I were that desperate for workers, I might as well just hold a job fair at a mental hospital and hire people that I know, going in, are crazy.”
    [first of all– we have mental and physical disabilities, two different things, entirely.]
    {sounds like you have a hate-on for people with disabilities….. not very Woke of you, eh?!}

    Having spent many years doing Vocational-Rehabilitation (profit & non-profit) with the ‘crazy’ people (and those with physical disabilities] I can tell you that’s not how it works.

    -Your local community mental health will contract with someone (or organization) like me. They will pay me $32/hour to find (or create) a competitive employment position for the ”crazy person.’ [supported employment is an entirely different animal, which I always avoided ->endlessly stealing from tax-payers never set well with me] (personally, I don’t do fast-food or Greeters, I was only ever interested in real competitive jobs, that put coin in people’s pocket’s, and showed them the Power of Work.)
    –Community Mental Health (or your State Rehab Agency) generally don’t like to spend a lot so I know I only have about 120 hours, and because jobs are scarce for ‘crazy’ people, I’m only intending (ideally) in performing this task once. [Not to mention– there are Risk-Sharing agreements in place, if I can’t perform within the allotted time-frame, I generally have to EAT any additional hours I spend.]
    –I’m going to search out or create [“productivity is only limited by the division of labor”] a position from a universe of employers in my rolodex. ( despite the numerous tax advantages & credits available, I’ve never met an employer who only went after the financial gain involved, that was all gravy to them, but a complete afterthought.) What they wanted firstly was a good employee. [bleeding hearts get murdered by the Market] We are going to do everything by-the-book; you’ll have a resume & references, and you’ll show up for your interview on time and appropriately dressed, you will answer every [legal] question and explain away any objection.
    Then, I’m going to intimately learn the required tasks myself, then stick to the person like glue for 2-3 weeks, ensuring they can perform their job. Then I’m going to follow them along for 1-3 months. Generally, at the 90 day mark of successful placement, I’ll receive a Risk-Sharing bonus which generally equates to the pre-budgeted balance they planned to spend in total.
    If the person can’t succeed in 3 months, it’s my responsibility, and depending on the contract, I have to do it all over again, for free.

    How many people with disabilities, are on your payroll?

  • Edward

    Rich Miller wrote: “Black Lives Matter is not a religion.

    Oh, look at that. Rich Miller ran out of arguments so he changed the topic from political leanings to religion. And for the record, (Only) Black Lives Matter is founded on the lie of “hands up, don’t shoot,” not on facts.

    Speaking of facts, of the lack thereof: “I know there is at least a 50% probability that a Trump supporter also buys into QAnon

    Which means that Rich Miller knows that more than 35 million Americans buy into QAnon. From what I hear, virtually no one even knows what a QAnon is, much less buying into it.

    Again, if you don’t get that distinction, I can’t help.

    Demonstrating that Rich Miller does not understand the distinction he advocates.

    I provided very specific, fact and logic-based reasons why I would blacklist Trump/QAnon supporters from employment.

    Which turned out to lack fact and failed to provide logical explanation. Although the words used are different, the causes (reasons) and effects (results) are the same. Indiscriminate prejudice and bigotry were expressed freely and proudly.

    I can see now that was a fluke and that your obscure blog here is just a circle jerk of group think and, frankly, racism. I apologize for interrupting your cult meeting. It won’t happen again.

    Rich Miller thinks he must be the first person to ever disagree with Robert, on this site. Silly boy. Plus, once he realized that some people here do not agree with him, he calls everyone here “racist.” Classic liberal/progressive. The thinking, emotions, and maturity of a three-year-old.

    He picked an intellectual fight, but it turned out that his intellect was merely what other people had told him to say.

  • wayne

    Edward-
    Good stuff!

    tangentially–
    “LGBTQ-Anon”

  • wayne

    Rich–
    “me thinks thou do protest too loudly.”
    Ref:
    “…..obscure blog here is just a circle jerk of group think and, frankly, racism.”

    I would put forth the Proposition; That about describes the Left, exactly.
    (in the Psych-Biz, some would say “Projection.” As in, “I’m rubber, you’re glue, everything you say, bounces off me, and sticks to you.”)

    ‘The Maximum Possible Mayhem in the Shortest Period of Time”
    How Hitler was more Evil than you think
    Jordan Peterson
    (Excerpted from“2017 Maps of Meaning 11: The Flood and the Tower”)
    https://youtu.be/jMqQBLZwRIE
    4:22

  • Jeff Wright

    A lot of the Q-Anon conspiracy stuff began as lefty anti-military/industrial complex stuff. I remember how I thought MSNBC did a good job in being critical of Bush-War. Rachael even warned us about embedding reporters in the military. Trump populists agreed-but instead of being happy about this turn-liberals embrace neo-cons and spooks like Clapper that Fox used to trot out. Now dems sound like John Birchers-and you are the party that should know better. I’m an old Gephardt Democrat that never did like Wall Street or free trade. So when did you sell out, Rich?

  • pzatchok

    First off I have never gone looking for conspiracy theory web sites.

    I get enough of that from years of Coast to Coast and Ground Zero.

    But what the heck is Q-Anon? and how many people actually go to the web site a day? A week? A month?

    I have NEVER talked to someone who has even mentioned the site.

    The only people who mention it are lefties trying to cast the right as nut cases(apologies to the real tree fruits).

    My guess is that at least 25% of the people who to the web site are those lefties who mention it all the time.
    Anyone remember what a Q-boat was?
    Q-Anon could be the same thing. A site set up to suck in the stupid. And if the left keeps going there and referring to it who could be the stupid ones.
    25% might be a very low estimate.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *