# Ethical to screen out Trump supporters applying for a job?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 20, 2020, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467 "2020-12-20T17:48:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/141 "2020-12-22T18:55:04Z")
I wouldn’t hire any delusional, amoral, seething ass who wants to overthrow the government. If you can find me a Trump supporter that isn’t one of those things, they could get hired.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/142 "2020-12-22T19:07:00Z")
One of the jobs of a manager is to protect the company from legal liability. One of the realities of the 21st century is that as a job applicant, you can expect a hiring manager to Google you, review any public posts you’ve made, and take those things into account.
If your social media accounts create a picture of you that is sexist or misogynist, then following through with an offer is not protecting the company from liability. If your social media posts make it look like you are the type of individual to bring divisive views into the workplace, then following through with the offer creates long term management headaches. If your social media presence indicates you have poor judgement you may cause more headaches than you are worth. “You are not a good fit” is not a protected class. This goes for anyone, Trump supporter or not. If your post is filled with weeknights of drunken revels, that is also a problem.
It is hard at this point not to read racism and sexism into support of Trump - but if the rest of their social media presence seems to indicate that they aren’t an asshole, their Trump support is not rabid and conspiratorial and they are well qualified and interview well, maybe they are not a Trump supporter in the problematic sense. Like all hiring decisions that’s a judgement call. Personally, I’d err on the side of not hiring them - more damage can be caused with them inside the company than outside it.
Its unethical NOT to screen someone out for a job who is likely to create problems for the company.
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### Author:  [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/143 "2020-12-22T19:09:18Z")
I don’t disagree with that, but – AIUI – the law does.
You could be a rabid member of the BPOE and _not_ qualify for ‘protected class’ status, but a totally non-practicing Seventh Day Adventist still might.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/144 "2020-12-22T19:13:10Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#):
>
> I don’t disagree with that, but – AIUI – the law does.
The law says that Trumpettes are a protected class?
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### Author:  [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/145 "2020-12-22T19:28:23Z")
Not that I know of, or said.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/146 "2020-12-22T19:49:53Z")
If someone posted this:
[132420953\_10223595690390569\_562888618257356567\_n.jpg (536×960) (fbcdn.net)](https://scontent.fhio2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/132420953_10223595690390569_562888618257356567_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=0pSkhQgL4qoAX-LW6H3&_nc_ht=scontent.fhio2-2.fna&oh=3486f5ab7243571006e4f3cbf213714f&oe=6006AA1A)
on social media, would you have second thoughts about hiring that person?
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/147 "2020-12-22T19:59:54Z")
> [@slash2k](#):
>
> Can I count on them to wear the mask (correctly!) even when I’m not watching? Is it going to be a mask compliant with the CDC recommendations (two or more layers, close-fitting, no exhalation valves, worn over nose and mouth), or am I signing up for constant battles over whether a gaiter or a single layer of netting is compliant? If the governor or the county commission or my boss issues a new mandate, maybe that you won’t enter the building if your body temperature is over 100 degrees or you must now stay 10 feet apart, are they going to comply readily, or am I going to have to hunt them down and browbeat them to secure their agreement to comply? How much supervising and managing are they going to require if they don’t at some fundamental level trust in science and respect the authority of various officials to issue public health orders?
Abs
> [@slash2k](#):
>
> Can I count on them to wear the mask (correctly!) even when I’m not watching? Is it going to be a mask compliant with the CDC recommendations (two or more layers, close-fitting, no exhalation valves, worn over nose and mouth), or am I signing up for constant battles over whether a gaiter or a single layer of netting is compliant? If the governor or the county commission or my boss issues a new mandate, maybe that you won’t enter the building if your body temperature is over 100 degrees or you must now stay 10 feet apart, are they going to comply readily, or am I going to have to hunt them down and browbeat them to secure their agreement to comply? How much supervising and managing are they going to require if they don’t at some fundamental level trust in science and respect the authority of various officials to issue public health orders
Quite possibly you can’t count on their perfect compliance, even (especially) when you’re not watching.
Believe me, that’s not true only of CT-believing Trump supporters.
Here in ultra-liberal brownstone Brooklyn, mask compliance is, _at best_, 80-85%. And Trump supporters might be a tiny fraction of 1% of the population. And of those, believers in idiotic CTs about the election are pretty much an even tinier fraction.
So I guess you better start casting a wider net. Your filter strategy of excluding Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen ain’t gonna work.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/148 "2020-12-22T20:01:05Z")
I wouldn’t go prowling through people’s online postings, or private lives, to be sure that they’re a right-thinking person.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/149 "2020-12-22T20:23:23Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> I wouldn’t go prowling through people’s online postings, or private lives, to be sure that they’re a right-thinking person.
What people voluntarily put online for the whole imperfectly-filtered world to see cannot reasonably be categorized as “private”. If you neglect to pay attention to an applicant’s easily accessible public persona, as Dangerosa pointed out, you might in fact be behaving irresponsibly when it comes to protecting your employer:
> [@Dangerosa](#):
>
> One of the jobs of a manager is to protect the company from legal liability. […]
>
> Its unethical NOT to screen someone out for a job who is likely to create problems for the company.
As for not “prowling through” people’s genuinely “private lives”—i.e., trying to unearth information about discreet personal activities that haven’t been flaunted by them on the internet and/or attracted the attention of law enforcement—I don’t see anybody here arguing that you should.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/150 "2020-12-22T20:25:05Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> What people voluntarily put online for the whole imperfectly-filtered world to see cannot reasonably be categorized as “private”.
I know. That’s why I put “ **or** ” in that sentence.
I still wouldn’t do it.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/151 "2020-12-22T20:33:17Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> I still wouldn’t do it.
Nobody’s saying that you have to do it if you don’t want to: at least, as long as you aren’t in a position of having personnel management responsibilities for an employer who expects you to do it.
What we’re pointing out to you is that you haven’t produced any persuasive reasons on ethical or practical grounds why other people shouldn’t do it.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/152 "2020-12-22T20:34:41Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#):
>
> It is hard at this point not to read racism and sexism into support of Trump - but if the rest of their social media presence seems to indicate that they aren’t an asshole, their Trump support is not rabid and conspiratorial and they are well qualified and interview well, maybe they are not a Trump supporter in the problematic sense. Like all hiring decisions that’s a judgement call. Personally, I’d err on the side of not hiring them - more damage can be caused with them inside the company than outside it.
So, really, we’ve gone beyond just not hiring CT believers who insist that the election was stolen and we’re now excluding someone who voted for Trump, even if “the rest of their social media presence seems to indicate that they aren’t an asshole, their Trump support is not rabid and conspiratorial and they are well qualified and interview well…”
This, I don’t know, just saddens me. The divide in this nation is never going to heal, and the fault isn’t all on one side.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/153 "2020-12-22T20:35:19Z")
Funny how expert witnesses can give conflicting accounts at a trial.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/154 "2020-12-22T20:37:12Z")
Why should any class be protected?
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/155 "2020-12-22T20:39:27Z")
People forget just how devastating wars based on intolerance and irrational demands for ideological purity actually are.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/156 "2020-12-22T20:41:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> at least, as long as you aren’t in a position of having personnel management responsibilities for an employer who expects you to do it.
I don’t have hiring responsibilities now (and I’m very happy about that).
At another job in the past, I did. I worked for a law firm that had a lobbying division. A _Republican_ lobbying division. In tight with the (second) Bush administration.
I resisted pressure to check out people’s political backgrounds and hire only people sympathetic to the firm’s political leanings. I went to bat for employees who wouldn’t “volunteer” for political activities.
I’m pretty proud of my record at that firm.
And I still don’t check out people’s political leanings. Or religious leanings. Or anything like that.
I have a 100% clear conscience.
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### Author:  [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/157 "2020-12-22T20:41:03Z")
Yeah, the difference is, Trump supporters are overwhelmingly delusional and immoral. And he’s currently trying to overthrow the US government.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/158 "2020-12-22T20:57:31Z")
> [@octopus](#):
>
> Why should any class be protected?
Here you go, courtesy of the [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission](https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/small-business/3-who-protected-employment-discrimination):
> [@](#):
>
> Applicants, employees and former employees are protected from employment discrimination based on [race](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24947), [color](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24947), [religion](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24964), [sex](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24948) (including [pregnancy](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24933), [sexual orientation](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24106), or [gender identity](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24106)), [national origin](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24924), [age](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24903) (40 or older), [disability](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/24244) and [genetic information](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/25225) (including family medical history).
>
> Applicants, employees and former employees are also protected from [retaliation](https://www.eeoc.gov/node/26181) (punishment) for filing a charge or complaint of discrimination, participating in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit, or opposing discrimination (for example, threatening to file a charge or complaint of discrimination).
If you are genuinely unaware why those specific protected classes exist in the US, it’s because those classes constitute groups of people who have traditionally and persistently been oppressed and discriminated against in US society. I’m surprised this still needs explaining.
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### Author:  [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/159 "2020-12-22T21:00:49Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> I resisted pressure to check out people’s political backgrounds and hire only people sympathetic to the firm’s political leanings. I went to bat for employees who wouldn’t “volunteer” for political activities.
Would you have been proud of hiring a person who publicly called for overthrowing American democracy? Would you have been proud of hiring a person who publicly posted memes or statements in support of white supremacy or overt misogyny? Do you think your employer would have been on-board with those sorts of hires?
For the radical fringe of MAGA-heads, that’s the kind of people you are talking about: people who are currently calling for the results of a fair election to be thrown out because their guy didn’t win, and people who post links to the Proud Boys and assorted militias and armed wackadoodles.
These aren’t normal times and normal policy disagreements: a Bush Republican and a Clinton or Gore or Kerry Democrat have the same general understanding of American political discourse and what democracy means and the rules of civilized behavior, even if they disagree on specific policies and details. The Trump-heads, by contrast, don’t.
If your firm is lobbying for a policy position with which they disagree, the Trump-heads have no qualms whatsoever about calling for you to be arrested and thrown into prison, and some would call for your execution. THIS IS NOT NORMAL. This is not acceptable. This is not tolerable. Yes, we are on a slippery slope here, and at the bottom of the slope is the destruction of the shining city on the hill. I don’t know how else to phrase this but in apocalyptic terms, because the other side, the extremists among the MAGA community, already think we are in the apocalypse and therefore anything and everything can be justified in the name of making sure they win.
We are not talking here about ordinary Republicans who happen to have policy positions with which I disagree; we are talking about people who think (and publicly say) that people like me don’t deserve to live. How can you tolerate and work well with people who think that you need to be killed?
(And yes, on the extreme fringe, the MAGA-heads really do think that anybody who voted for Biden, or considers themselves liberal or progressive [not to mention foreign or non-heterosexual] needs to be killed or exiled. Go take a look at the comments on NewsMax or OANN or Parler, and then come back and tell me with a straight face that every single one of those people can be a productive employee for you.)
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-to-screen-out-trump-supporters-applying-for-a-job/928467/160 "2020-12-22T21:03:56Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> The divide in this nation is never going to heal, and the fault isn’t all on one side.
Curious how so many of the people lamenting about that problem seem to confine themselves to scolding the side that is being much less divisive, irrational and hateful.
I get that tut-tutting at liberals for objecting to openly delusional and bigoted denialism is less scary than trying to persuade delusional bigoted denialists that they shouldn’t be threatening violence against liberals. But it doesn’t really make you seem as fair-minded and objective as you might think.
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