"I Upended My Life For Apple" A former Facebook project manager, author, and journalist who uprooted his life in Washington to take a job with Apple is livid, after a woke mob of employees circulated a petition demanding his ouster over controversial statements from a book he wrote five years ago.
The petition took aim at Cuban-American Antonio García Martínez over his book, Chaos Monkeys (dedicated to "all my enemies") - an autobiography which traces his journey from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Martínez has described the book as "total Hunter S. Thompson/Gonzo mode."
According to woke Apple employees, it's both racist and sexist. And of course, when it comes to Silicon Valley, divergent opinions need not apply. Except, Martínez did apply, and was hired - despite Apple being "well aware" of his writing, according to a pissed-off Martinez.
In Chaos Monkeys, Martínez compares Bay Area women in tech to a 'broad-shouldered' British woman he met who "made Bob Vila of This Old House look like a fucking pussy." In comparison, Bay Area women in tech are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit. They have their self-regarding entitlement feminism, and ceaselessly vaunt their independence, but the reality is, come the epidemic plague or foreign invasion, they’d become precisely the sort of useless baggage you’d trade for a box of shotgun shells or a jerry can of diesel." Unlike, we assume, broad-shouldered, self-sufficient women.
Obviously, the jerrycan brigade didn't take too kindly to that, and organized a woke cancel mob.
According to a Friday Twitter thread by Martínez, Apple knew about his writing going in, and is now defaming him.
Antonio García Martínez @antoniogm · May 14, 2021 I have thus far maintained my silence on the Apple situation as I've sought to settle things amicably with the company that I admired, and at which I hoped to build the future of ads privacy.
As they however are not maintaining their silence on the matter, neither will I.
Antonio García Martínez @antoniogm
1. Apple actively recruited me for my role on the ads team, reaching out via a former colleague to convince me to join. Apple found my experience in the ads space, specifically around data and privacy, highly relevant to their efforts and persuaded me to leave my then role.
Antonio García Martínez @antoniogm · May 14, 2021 Replying to @antoniogm
2. I upended my life for Apple. I sold my WA residence which I built with my own hands, relocated myself, shut down any public media presence and future writing aspirations, and resolved to build my career at Apple for years to come.
Antonio García Martínez @antoniogm
3. Apple was well aware of my writing before hiring me. My references were questioned extensively about my bestselling book and my real professional persona (rather than literary one).
This set of prominent Valley VCs and execs are all willing to assert as much under oath.
Antonio García Martínez @antoniogm · May 14, 2021 Replying to @antoniogm
4. I did not 'part ways' with Apple. I was fired by Apple in a snap decision.
Antonio García Martínez @antoniogm
5. Apple has issued a statement that clearly implies there was some negative behavior by me during my time at Apple. That is defamatory and categorically false.
Mike Saint-Antoine @mike20731
Replying to @antoniogm and @Graham_Factor It’s getting to the point where I can’t really take someone seriously as a public intellectual unless they’ve been cancelled at least once.
mdsjql80 @mdsjql80
As a woman who has worked in Tech/Bay Area for over 12 years I support @antoniogm
. Cancel culture is out of control. To be an expert in your career is no longer enough. You now have to be defined by others' expectations of what a "good person should say/do. This is terrifying.