A teacher doing “Michael Turton” blogging would probably take a hit in student numbers at my school though. If his or her blog were as big as Michael’s it would be almost inevitable. Being in the heart of the city, my students’ political views are as “blue” as the deep blue sea. In the few times when I’ve mentioned anything related to Chén Shuĭbiān (陳水扁), such as when teaching the words “president” or “leader”, I’ve been shouted down for even mentioning him… by 8 year olds. Several kids said he’s “bad”, and one kid even started yelling “thief”.

I wouldn’t want to put any limits on a teacher, but I would probably make sure that they realized how political it is here and how blogging strong views about politics might hurt their student numbers, and thus their pay. Sadly, I don’t know if any of my student’s parents would get worked up about Nazi views or not. Most Taiwanese don’t seem too sensitive to that issue. You’re right, though. You don’t want an employee you can’t get along with.

I would terminate his butt if his public views were so objectionable to me that they might hurt my business.

I just realized that’s a bit of a nonsequitur. The degree of my objection over someone’s public views shouldn’t have any effect on my business at all. I should have said that if someone’s public views were very objectionable to me, I’d probably fire them even if they weren’t bad for business.

While a political blogger like Michael Turton wouldn’t cause me to lose any sleep, I would fire a Taiwanese Nazi advocate in a second for his political views, whether or not they were bad for my business.

Still, it is something that I’ll have to think about carefully before being in a situation where I have to make a decision.

Blogs are not the same as diaries kept under a pillow. They’re public media. Why should anyone keep someone whose public philosophies might be a liability to their organization?

Similarly, I would never hire Don Imus to work at a company I own, because his public views might be a liability to my business.