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After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

latimes.com

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Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#81

Post by Klinky »

nahtnam wrote: post #65
jobeirne wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But to expect that a _federal agency_ will be denied service from a private entity, especially for essentially political reasons, is lunacy. Um, think you've got this backwards. Private entities shouldn't have to take on anyone they don't want as customers (for whatever reason - do you have to justify who you do or don't want in your livingroom?), but publicly-funded institutions shouldn't be able to deny service o…

What about anti-discrimnation laws? Where do you stand on the issue with the baker refusing to bake a cake for the gay couple?

Sexuality is getting closer and closer to being a fully-protected class, so they are going to have to suck it up, just like the bakers who didn't want to serve black people decades ago.

They can deny service to anyone, so long as it does not run afoul of discrimination laws. ICE is not a protected class.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#82

Post by mtgp1000 »

mchanson wrote: post #31
johncena33 wrote: post #2

I guess this is the reason lot of corporates try to stay out of politics. Because once you set a precedence then people will use that as to push their own political agendas. I personally don't like the slippery slope argument since it's very lazy and justifies inaction in many cases. But at the same time when I see news like this, I just wonder how long it will take two different subgroups trying push their own confl…

We are going through a very strange and extreme period in US History. Corporations are a huge part of the political landscape. Of course workers who are powerful will demand things of their workplaces. All corporations are political. By accepting the ICE contract previously it was political. Now by reversing they would be changing sides. They were already in the political fray.

>All corporations are political

This is a meaningless statement that people use to justify railroading their personal politics into everything.

By making my services available to everyone equally I am emphatically not making a political statement.

This same sentiment is effectively turning an increasing proportion of consumers away from entertainment media.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#83

Post by aparsons »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #25
rattray wrote: post #14

What a bummer that workers are publicly demanding this, and (presumably) seeking press attention on it. I'm no fan of ICE – a very large percentage of my friends in the US are immigrants, and I generally want my country to be a welcoming one. ICE has certainly committed unethical and probably illegal acts (probably true of most federal agencies). But to expect that a _federal agency_ will be denied service from a pri…

> It'd attract extreme negative attention from the rest of the government, and great fear from all paying customers that an internet mob could separate them from their code at any time. Using Microsoft as your canonical code repository is already a meaningful risk to your business. It's nice that more companies are recognizing this. They're building nice new features with their ecosystem, too, in traditional Microsof…

Can’t go one thread about Github without the M$FT FUD

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#84

Post by [deleted] »

jobeirne wrote: post #48
rattray wrote: post #14

What a bummer that workers are publicly demanding this, and (presumably) seeking press attention on it. I'm no fan of ICE – a very large percentage of my friends in the US are immigrants, and I generally want my country to be a welcoming one. ICE has certainly committed unethical and probably illegal acts (probably true of most federal agencies). But to expect that a _federal agency_ will be denied service from a pri…

> But to expect that a _federal agency_ will be denied service from a private entity, especially for essentially political reasons, is lunacy. Um, think you've got this backwards. Private entities shouldn't have to take on anyone they don't want as customers (for whatever reason - do you have to justify who you do or don't want in your livingroom?), but publicly-funded institutions shouldn't be able to deny service o…

[deleted]

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#85

Post by umvi »

diN0bot wrote: post #49
duxup wrote: post #6

Is GitHub a hug part of what ICE ... does? Personally I wouldn't want to work for a company actually detaining people, but call me terrible but I'm not sure I'd feel the same about letting them pay to host some code...

Maybe it's a spectrum thing, and everyone has a line they don't want to cross. There are people and organizations that don't align with my beliefs, but sure, it's cool they use my tools. However, would you be ok with Hitler hosting code on your service if it contributed in some small way to genocide? That _does_ make me feel ick. Tacit support by large numbers of "not really effected" people is what made the holocaus…

North Korea/China/ uses Linux. Does that make Linus feel ick and want to take some sort of measures to prevent it? I hope not.

Focus on making great tools. Don't worry about who might use them. That's someone else's job. If Craftsman starts trying to vet customers so nobody buying their hammers can use them to build KKK meeting houses, they will now be pressured to deny their tools to whomever the capricious demands of the internet mob dictate.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#86

Post by klyrs »

ancorevard wrote: post #45
mchanson wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are going through a very strange and extreme period in US History. Corporations are a huge part of the political landscape. Of course workers who are powerful will demand things of their workplaces. All corporations are political. By accepting the ICE contract previously it was political. Now by reversing they would be changing sides. They were already in the political fray.

"By accepting the ICE contract previously it was political." Just a reminder that government entities like ICE are executing the current laws of the land.

I think that a large part of the issue is that ICE is violating human rights on a massive scale. Where they might be executing some laws, they're violating others.

And just a reminder, "just following orders" brings up some scary historical context that a lot of people don't want to help recreate.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#87

Post by [deleted] »

ricefield wrote: post #62
toomuchtodo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Edit: Removed “people are lazy”, poor choice of words) People feel despair, hence pushing on Github instead of the political process. I’m all for unconventional leverage, but Microsoft is a trillion dollar org and has shareholders; this isn’t some VC funded dual class share startup where the founder has a blank check to do whatever they want. Edit: Can’t give up on the political process, that’s where the change happ…

I think it's probably more that people have lost trust in the political proces and are pushing on private companies as a last resort to effect change.

[deleted]

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#88

Post by syshum »

rattray wrote: post #14

What a bummer that workers are publicly demanding this, and (presumably) seeking press attention on it. I'm no fan of ICE – a very large percentage of my friends in the US are immigrants, and I generally want my country to be a welcoming one. ICE has certainly committed unethical and probably illegal acts (probably true of most federal agencies). But to expect that a _federal agency_ will be denied service from a pri…

>> I can't see how this helps improve immigration,

In many ways it does the opposite, for reforms to work you need to build coalitions from all political segments of society, vilifying political opponents (the ones that believe in some kind of immigration control and do not support fully open borders) does not build that coalition that is need to fight the unethical and illegal acts. Instead it puts people on the defensive and further divides the nation ensuring no reform can happen at all

Today it seems if you believe in anything other than fully open unrestricted borders then you are considered to be a racist authoritarian from mid 1940's Germany

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#89

Post by drunkpotato »

ancorevard wrote: post #45
mchanson wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are going through a very strange and extreme period in US History. Corporations are a huge part of the political landscape. Of course workers who are powerful will demand things of their workplaces. All corporations are political. By accepting the ICE contract previously it was political. Now by reversing they would be changing sides. They were already in the political fray.

"By accepting the ICE contract previously it was political." Just a reminder that government entities like ICE are executing the current laws of the land.

Demonstrably and rather obviously untrue. They're violating the law in many instances, including but not limited to the cases of asylum seekers and current green card holders; it's just they're following the evil, xenophobic whims of the current political leadership, who are failing to hold themselves or ICE accountable to the rule of law, so they are, for the moment, getting away with their lawlessness. I hope we can change this with voting in new leadership, but I fear it may be too late.

Aside and personal observation: it's interesting how the same people so vigorously crying for "law and order" are rather particular about which laws they care about enforcing, and which they're willing to overlook. Of course I'm not the first to make this observation.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#90

Post by PascLeRasc »

nahtnam wrote: post #65
jobeirne wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But to expect that a _federal agency_ will be denied service from a private entity, especially for essentially political reasons, is lunacy. Um, think you've got this backwards. Private entities shouldn't have to take on anyone they don't want as customers (for whatever reason - do you have to justify who you do or don't want in your livingroom?), but publicly-funded institutions shouldn't be able to deny service o…

What about anti-discrimnation laws? Where do you stand on the issue with the baker refusing to bake a cake for the gay couple?

No one is born an ICE employee.
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