... as it relates to "if I saw something like this on someone's profile, should I automatically disqualify them for hiring" ... absent any other information, "Never ascribe to malice ..."

I didn't dig out the guy's profile but he sure looks quite young. Depending on where he grew up, who is teenage influences were and what he was dealing with at the time he was maturing, it could be a sign of immature teenager rather than a sh!thead adult. I wouldn't want to be held responsible for the foolish decisions I made in my youth. Of course, in this case, that man appears to have had a lot going on.

A bit deeper thinking, though. You're carrying around two pieces of information "Microsoft hired this guy to do an important job that would, hopefully, require a mentally stable individual" and "This person was so mentally unstable that he stabbed a dude who's, basically, a stranger[0]." We can play a little modernized Ayn Rand and say where you see a contradictory result, check your inputs. There's enough we don't know about this guy and the circumstances around it that jumping to any conclusion related to his hiring, requirements of his job, his personal life (i.e. he's odd/moderately unstable but can fake it well enough until he has a mental break ... he's young enough that something similar may have never happened in his life ...).

> Or just live in a red state?

*eyes roll* ... My parents were extremely conservative, my Dad a business owner with employees. He actively spoke out against discrimination, hired with only regard for the ability to do the job, spoke frequently* with his children about how ignorant, uninformed, and evil racism, sexism and the like were -- in the 80s -- in an area that doesn't run anything but Red candidates on the local ballot because they can't get elected. I don't recall my mom or dad, once, making a joke about homosexuality -- at a time when it would have been extremely* permissible, otherwise. Growing up in my Red territory, I was shocked in fourth grade when a kid "who wasn't black"[1] used the "N-word".

I have attended rallies for both Red and Blue candidates (with massive crowds) -- nobody holds up signs to burn gay people or seize the means of production[2]. Some on the fringes carry opinions that are not much better than that but it's wildly unfair to make an assumption that ones political party indicates whether or not one is bigoted/biased in any way toward race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Personally, I've been part of both parties, part of neither and apolitical, now (Libertarian most often). It's weird attending a rally for a candidate who's positions you detest, but I've done it a few times, now ... both parties (technically, various). Milling about in the crowd revealed a that I had a whole hell of a lot more in common with the people who were voting for this guy than I didn't. Sure, I felt more aligned with my specific values and it didn't change my vote, but it stopped the whole "these people are evil" error. I'm not saying "go do that" but if you do, attend a mainstream rally for a Republican in a "non-fringe" part of America[3].

When it comes down to brass tacks, I've never heard someone articulate why "Voting Republican or Being a Republican Candidate" is racist. I've heard every variation on "David Duke and some evil organizations[4] support/are Republican", therefore, everyone in the party must be racist. I attended a KKK counter rally. My understanding is NAMBLA supports Democratic candidates -- should the fact that an organization advocating pedophilia supports a Blue candidate have any impact on whether or not an average voter in America supports a Blue candidate? I've heard nearly every Republican candidate get asked to denounce "David Duke" since about the early 90s, but I haven't heard anyone insult a Blue politician with any similar "guilt-by-association" questions (unless they are non-controversial policy things).

So many travesties/evils, including the Holocaust, and every form of racism begin by dividing up the "us"'s and the "them"'s. Nowhere does that exist in a bigger way than political affiliation. I've met people "who won't hire liberals" and people who are afraid to admit their conservative leanings for fear of being fired/isolated. Personally, I won't work at a place that would do either. It speaks to a huge organizational blind-spot.

/end-rant

[0] Is this known, for sure?

[1] It was red-and-yellow-black-and-white back then, after all. The girl, incidentally, would have been considered minority being 100% Albanian speaking no English until first grade.

[2] Not entirely true; in one case a guy showed up wearing a Nazi symbol on his shirt at a Trump rally (didn't attend, it happened in a parking lot a half-mile from my home) -- there's always an a$$hole -- only thing I can think was he was a plant -- my neighbor said he watched him take an over-shirt off, he was noticed, Boos started followed by people hoarding him and the police intervened shortly thereafter, arresting him. ... and I attended Blue governor's rally with a hard-line communist who held up a sign. (yeah, there's that).

[3] We're looking for a "fair perspective" not one that reinforces confirmation bias, so Cletus McCoy's re-election for the 34th House District Somewhere in Appalachia is out. Try suburban areas in Ohio, Michigan or Indiana.

[4] I was always taught it's wrong to remain silent/ignore evil. Yeah, when there's 7 KKK people and a megaphone against 20 gajillion college kids, all you end up doing is giving them a national headline. There's a time to "stop showing up for these clowns" to rob them of their audience. Or show up silently, face away from them and let them talk -- nothing makes the case against racism like the listening to the 7 idiots with enough mental health issues to think it would be fun to show up screaming racist things in a city not a stranger to race riots.