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Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

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Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#911

Post by lern_too_spel »

akerl_ wrote: post #742
lern_too_spel wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? I don't care if my neighbor believes aliens built the pyramids and some deity created all animals in their present form in six days. I do care if they pressure the school board to teach those things to my children. In the same way, I don't care if somebody believes that different races shouldn't intermarry because of dilution of racial purity or that people of the same sex shouldn't marry because of Adam and…

This is the same logic that was used to justify policies like Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We are not perfect beings; we make mistakes, we believe things that end up being false, and we do things that we (or the rest of society) will regret later. As such, advocating that opinions other than the current prevailing set should be suppressed is a dangerous game to play. I know that like most of the people advocating it are do…

Really? You think there's a chance we're wrong about the pyramids and allowing racial mixing?

Clearly, we aren't. Clearly, the people who push the opposing policies are harming society. Just like with evolution, there is no debate among thinking people about this.

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#912

Post by _Simon »

Disgusted with the treatment of Brendan Eich by the community. You guys bullied, slandered and libelled and individual. Your behaviour towards him is far worse than his views. As far as I'm concerned, Mozilla no longer exists. I'm not interested in anything that a organisation that supports this kind of community says or does. Fucking hypocrites, every last one of you.

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#913

Post by dnr »

thrwwwy wrote: post #658

Eich's outing was as a result of a leak from an IRS employee. Could he sue the US government, and/or the IRS employee that leaked the donor list? It pains me to use a National Review blog as a source but it seems that the Obama administration hasn't made an effort to prosecute the leaker: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/362667/investigation-i...

Campaign contributions over $200 are public record in California. This information has been publicly available since 2008, it's just that nobody bothered to look before. You can see his contributions here (the site is really slow for me right now):

http://dbsearch.ss.ca.gov/

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#914

Post by dnr »

Yoric wrote: post #674

I see many people discussing freedom of speech and the right to be against gay marriage (or some metaphors thereof). While this is partially true, I believe that this is largely missing several points. Brendan Eich made a private choice in a democratic vote. This private choice was leaked 4 years after the fact. Two more years later, this private choice prevents him from stepping into a new position. Brendan Eich wen…

You seem to not be very familiar with the facts. We can guess that he voted for prop 8, but his vote is truly private and nobody but him knows how he voted.

What do know is that he gave $1000 to an organization that campaigned for the proposition. This is a matter of public record, by law in California. It was not "leaked" (well, it was leaked, but it was also publicly available in 2008 if anyone had bothered to look). You can find his contributions by searching here:

http://dbsearch.ss.ca.gov/

It would have been clearly stated on the form that he filled out to make his contribution that contributions over $200 would be made public. He knew that, and made the contribution anyway.

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#915

Post by Havvy »

jasonlotito wrote: post #430
DangerousPie wrote: post #45

I am a strong supporter of gay marriage, but I have to say that I find this very unfortunate and worrying. Apparently many Mozilla supporters seem to think it is okay to bully a qualified person out of his job only for his political views, even if they had absolutely no effect on his qualification or his actions on the job. I can't help but feel like this campaign has done a lot more harm to him than his $1000 donati…

> even if they had absolutely no effect on his qualification or his actions on the job. It did affect his ability to fill his role as CEO of Mozilla. A CEO is not just another employee. A CEO is the face of the organization.

What does this even mean? I have no clue who any of the past CEOs of Mozilla were, or that Mozilla was without a CEO for a period of time until Brenden Eich, somebody I've known about for years as a person in the Mozilla Organization, became the CEO.

You want the face of Mozilla? Look at http://planet.mozilla.org/, not the CEO.

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#916

Post by Aloha »

dalke wrote: post #459
Aloha wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an openly gay male, I came out at 15. Why should there be social or employment consequences - in my mind this is just as bad as when employers fire employees for being gay.

http://www.popehat.com/2013/09/10/speech-and-consequences/ describes it well: > Speech is designed to invoke private and social consequences, whether the speech is "venti mocha no whip, please," or "I love you," or "fuck off." The private and social consequences of your speech — whether they come from a barista, or your spouse, or people online, or people at whom you shout on the street — represent the free speech an…

Exercising Freedom of Speech and Association shouldn't open one up to trial by public opinion - we did this once before, McCarthyism and the blacklist in the 50's - I'd rather not see us ever return to an era where there are bogymen lurking in the corners.

As much as I strongly disagree with the Prop 8 folks, I think resorting to trying them in the court of public opinion is fundamentally wrong.

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#917

Post by huehue »

Making a great job for many years. Forced to step down by social justice warriors.

Such is the dictatorship of political correctness. A scary world to live in.

Learn from his mistake as it might happen to you. Today's witch hunt is about gay marriage, in ten years it could be polyamory, underage drug usage or being forced to wear a burqa. You just cannot predict.

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#918

Post by oberto »

wpietri wrote: post #755
Spooky23 wrote: post #683

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Says you. I would rather work with and disagree with someone who has the integrity to stand by what they believe. I work in a group with folks of Indian decent from different religious backgrounds (Islamic, Hindu, Catholic), an Orthodox Jew, a bunch of Irish catholic types (including myself), and a person from Nigeria. We are literally from many corners of the earth, with different backgrounds, traditions, etc. If we…

I don't think anybody's contesting Eich's right to not get gay-married. And likewise, nobody's contesting his legal right to try to strip a civil right from gay people through California ballot propositions. But I don't think one can to try to harm gay people and then expect to have no problem becoming the boss of a bunch of them. They have a right to express their opinions too. I also think your live-and-let-live st…

The "civil right" phrase is a red herring. You can define any arbitrary item as a civil right - let's say unborn children deserve not to be killed, and thus we should ban all abortion. Then we can talk about any CEO who's donated to Planned Parenthood as stripping civil rights from fetuses and should be unfit for CEO-ship. Gay marriage is at a similar level of contention. Many believe it to not be a a civil right at all until very recently, nor is it accepted by many cultures. Or some accept civil unions but not semantically marriage. If you think you're always going to be right, there will be a definition of "civil right" or just plain "correct" that is diametrically opposed to you.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7526663

Re: Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO

#920

Post by oberto »

wpietri wrote: post #749
hackinthebochs wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but if you are actively working to remove existing rights from other people How is opposing redefining marriage (in the context of law) working to remove existing rights of people? Its framed in terms of removing rights/civil rights because it suits the cause. But this characterization is not supported by a dispassionate reading of the issue here.

Untrue. If you read Judge Walker's decision against Prop 8, or the recent judgment against the Michigan Marriage Amendment, you'll see that both Prop 8 and the MMA failed because they violate the 14th Amendment's grant of equal protection: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Protection_Clause In particular, both Prop 8 and the MMA failed to meet the Rational Basis test: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_basis_revi…

Untrue. Courts have also upheld many Prop 8-like measures in other states - see Nebraska's Initative 216, which the Eighth Circuit ruled was acceptable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_Equal_Protection_v...). So the courts disagree, and you cannot simply cherry-pick the "right" cases where the preferred side wins, to say that courts (who are always right) support you.

And ultimately, the courts are decided by majority vote, by being appointed by politicians that citizens vote for. A Supreme Court in Russia may find a rational basis for opposing gay marriage, and then write that in an opinion.

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