I think one of the backstops that would ordinarily prevent online mobs getting out of hand is good journalism. In the case of James Damore, I think there was a lot of shoddy journalism going on due to some combination of laziness, a desire to stir up controversy to drive ad views, a desire not to present complex ideas that readers might find uncomfortable, and willfully misunderstanding a point of view that's unpopular.
I'm inclined to put most of the blame on the rise of clickbait journalism. Explaining all sides of an issue takes effort, but feeding people enough information to make them angry while allowing them to fill in the details according to their own imagination is easy and cheap.
Yeah, this was really all about ethics in google journalism.
Or, alternatively, you just happen to be among the people in the manosphere that pretend the last 20 years didn't happen. Because otherwise there would have been a minimum of engagement with the actual argument, namely that some (alleged) statistical difference between the genders just isn't relevant, it's only confusing what is with what ought to be.
If clickbait journalism deserves most of the blame, how much responsibility do engineers bear for creating a world where responsible journalism struggles to survive financially? Or do we shrug our shoulders and say that this is the cost of a world where information should be free?
I'm inclined to put most of the blame on the rise of clickbait journalism. Explaining all sides of an issue takes effort, but feeding people enough information to make them angry while allowing them to fill in the details according to their own imagination is easy and cheap.