Add to this that companies now screen your social media presence. You get turned down for jobs if you say something wrong.
It's no longer safe to have an opinion that's not mainstream.
It's held against you.
It's no longer safe to have an opinion that's not mainstream.
It's held against you.
If a company is trawling your private opinions on social media, then they're not just opinions, they're public statements. Maybe they ought not to be, but they are.
Of course, your main point stands that companies generally shouldn't hire based on an employee's political opinions (unless it's a PR/representative position or such), outspoken or not, but let's use the correct terminology here:
publicly stating political stuff under your real name is more than just "having an opinion".
You're reasoning as if only "political" speech is relevant, but everything can be made "political stuff". Saying the words "master bedroom" is considered racist now. What will be racist tomorrow? No one knows. What is racist today that I don't yet know is racist? What is considered racist by one group if I say it but racist by others if I don't say it (Silence is violence and all that)?
Of course anyone can get fired for saying "master bedroom" or absolutely anything else if it's said to be racist. I could agree with your take if the dialogue around those terms was that they were merely harmless. But that is not the dialogue. They are being labeled racist, and being racist naturally implies that they must be stamped out along with the people that say "racist" things. The entire point of labeling things "racist" rather than "tactless" is so that the dogma of the week can be enforced with actual consequences. You can't get a Twitter mob together for someone being tactless, but you can absolutely do it to someone that's "racist".