The Difference Between Transparency and Stupidity
Dave Kerpen
Candidate for Town Supervisor, North Hempstead, NY, Serial Entrepreneur & NY Times Best-Selling Author
Last week, Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson was fired after gossip tech blog Valleywag reported his homophobic, racist, misogynistic tweets he'd been tweeting for years. His tweets included phrases such as:
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"In The Passion Of The Christ 2, Jesus gets raped by a pack of ni--ers. It's his own fault for dressing like a whore though."
and
"Who has more dedication, ambition, and drive? Kobe only raped one girl, Lebron raped an entire city. +1 for Lebron."
It's shocking that he thought he could have a senior level position at a publishing company and share words like this publicly. It's shocking that he's been tweeting such comments since 2010 and nobody else has called him out up until now. Most shocking all, however, is that he not only didn't apologize, he continued to defend himself, even with dozens of offensive tweets on the record forever, and even set up a hashtag and website to raise money for his new venture.
I've written before about transparency and its importance in becoming a better leader and marketer. I'm all for increased transparency, from people, from companies, and from governments. But when transparency means writing hurtful, bigoted remarks, you must know there will be consequences. Sure, it's legal, protected by our free speech laws. But if you ever want a respectable job or company, to say things like Dickinson said is just plain stupidity.
There's a Twitter account, @YesYoureRacist. The account's content is tragic: retweeting hatred, vitriol and racism from dozens of people daily in the spirit of exposing them. Here are a couple of examples of tweets:
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"@_swalm: We need Reagan back, he was a president. Not this ni**er Obama."
and
"@shevs631: I cannot stand f*cking obama, trust me ni**er I wish you were trevon martin, you actually deserved it you f*cking goon."
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Do these people want to ever have a job? Keep their jobs? Run a business? It's hard to imagine what people are thinking when tweeting such hatred. The bottom line: If you care at all about your career, there is a line between transparency and stupidity. I'm all for openness, honesty and transparency.
But when in doubt, use the Mom Rule I love: Don't tweet or share publicly anything that your mom wouldn't approve of. If your mom is bigoted, well then, be better than she is, and keep it to yourself. Because the internet doesn't forget. Just ask Pax Dickinson.
What do you think the difference between transparency and stupidity is?
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Dave Kerpen is the founder and CEO of Likeable Local. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Likeable Media, and the New York Times-bestselling author of Likeable Social Media and Likeable Business, and the new collection, Likeable Leadership. To read more from Dave on LinkedIn, please click the FOLLOW button above or below.
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Retired 01/07/2017.Sadur medical city-clinc, chem.lab.
10 年the women is more than a half of the population as a count,& 2/3 for its in building , & all of its in hypostasizing .
I help ordinary people become famous
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11 年Transparency does not mean copping to every opinion you have about people. Transparency, as it relates to my business, goes something like this: if you are hired to write a book about someone, say the president of the United States, and the person you were hired by is say, one of the Koch brothers, you should reveal that in your book-perhaps the acknowledgment page. Why? Because your point of view is influenced by the payer of your work product. In this case, the payer of your work product-say the Koch brothers- surely would not want any of your writing to benefit the person -in this case, the president-they've paid you to write about.This is when transparency is critical. We should know your influence-rs before we plunk down good money for your product.
Growth Partner - Tech Mahindra Consulting
11 年the guy is one accident short of being a dick-tator, justifying his name is he ? :)