Abandon Politics All Ye Who Enter Netflix

“If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth,” reads the new Netflix corporate manifesto; “Netflix may not be the best place for you.”

Photo by Sayan Ghosh on Unsplash.

The last major update to the Netflix corporate culture values statement came in 2017. Before that, it was a 125-slide presentation in 2009.

By 2017, the corporate manifesto was filled with gems like; “Our version of the great workplace is not comprised of sushi lunches, great gyms, big offices, or frequent parties. Our version of the great workplace is a dream team in pursuit of ambitious common goals, for which we spend heavily.”

And, “On a dream team, there are no ‘brilliant jerks.’ The cost to teamwork is just too high. Our view is that brilliant people are also capable of decent human interactions, and we insist upon that.”

Of course, in 2017, Netflix also asked its employees to, “be curious about how our different backgrounds affect us at work, rather than pretending they don’t affect us,” and, “recognize we all have biases, and work to grow past them,” and, “intervene if someone else is being marginalized.”

Even in 2017, however, there were a few warning signs for any would-be-woke troublemakers and the easily-triggered.

“We model ourselves on being a team, not a family,” warned the corporate memo in 2017. “A family is about unconditional love, despite your siblings’ unusual behavior. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best teammate you can be, caring intensely about your teammates, and knowing you may not be on the team forever.”

In the newest update to the Netflix official marching orders, a few key changes have sent critics raging and raised eyebrows across the industry. The changes, on their surface, first appeared to be in response to the controversy surrounding comedian Dave Chappelle’s most recent comedy special- which trans-activists and some in the LGBTQIA+ community considered harmful.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos famously chose to stand behind Chappelle and defended the decision to platform Chappelle’s content in spite of the objections, including objections from Netflix staff members.

By including this new guideline in Netflix standards and practices, Sarandos and other decision…