Coinbase: Politics for me, but not for thee
Coinbase is a crusader for and against politics in the workplace.
In its infamous manifesto, Coinbase is a mission focused company, Coinbase declared without equivocation: “We don’t advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission, because it is a distraction from our mission.”
The company also emphasized that its new internal communication policies made it clear that it won’t: “Debate causes or political candidates internally that are unrelated to work.”
Luckily for Brian, these very strong-sounding statements still allow him enough room to decide when politicians and political causes ARE related to the mission and are therefore fair game. You must understand that Coinbase isn’t against politics when it benefits Coinbase, it’s only against politics when its employees bring up any issues they care about.
Issues Coinbase cares about are great, issues employees care about are a distraction, that’s how Coinbase politics work.
Read more: Lawsuit says Coinbase ignored red flags before user’s wallet was drained
This is important because Coinbase is trying to use its position as a leading cryptocurrency exchange to quickly ‘educate’ its users on which politicians are ‘pro-crypto.’
The position of only caring about whether or not these politicians are pro-crypto frees Coinbase from having to worry about whether or not these individuals are good, and because cryptocurrency is their mission, the company can discuss it without losing its identity as a “mission-focused company.”
The politicians receive their scores from the Coinbase-funded Crypto Action Network, and it provides some fascinating scores.
Cynthia Lummis, an anti-democracy senator who voted to overturn election results, received an A.
Ted Cruz, another anti-democracy senator who voted to overturn election results, also received an A.
Elizabeth Warren, who didn’t vote to overturn an election, received an F.
The new Coinbase initiative doesn’t just tell you that the politicians working to destroy our government love crypto, it also makes it much easier for you to donate to them, helping them entrench their power and ensure that next time they want to perform an autogolpe, they may be successful. They’re trying to use their users as an extension of their lobbying arm.
You may suggest that this is an abdication of any moral considerations, but Coinbase wants you to know that “it would go against our principles of inclusion and belonging to be more of an activist company on issues outside of our core mission.” Making sure that Ted Cruz remains in power is not being an activist company, because he has said nice things about bitcoin before. Encouraging users to donate their cryptocurrency to anti-democracy crusaders is what it means to be mission-focused.
Coinbase is actively helping the individuals interested in destroying democracy to raise money, while actively forbidding its employees from discussing that these same individuals are actively trying to destroy democracy, all while claiming to be promoting “an open financial system for the world.”
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