Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich Steps Down

[geldonyetich]

Personally, I find the man having an opinion about gay marriage to be his right, and find it atrocious he's been forced out of his job for having one.

Imagine yourself being forced out of your job for posting something unpopular on The Escapist. That's a sleight against your rights to free speech, another ham-fisted victory for groupthink, and something that would have made the Nazis very happy to see. (Hello, Godwin's Law.)

However, I personally don't have anything against LGBT marriage, and I am a bit disturbed about some of the other decisions Mozilla has been making lately [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132204-Built-In-Advertising-is-Coming-to-Firefox], so if his dismissal results in a reversal of those decisions then don't let the door hit ya on the way out.

 

[The Material Sheep]

Personally, I find the man having an opinion about gay marriage to be his right.

It is his right to have an opinion. It is also the right of others to boycott something. He choose to support an illegal prop (an action, not an opinion, mind) and the public responded.

Freedom of speech =/= freedom from consequence.

The public didn't like him supporting an illegal prop and they took their business elsewhere. Welcome to the free market.

While the free market is nice, it's also one to be an unforgiving and fickle mistress. This kind of short term petty political play only serves you so long as the ideas behind you are favored by the majority, and you can't guarantee that in the long run. You open a can of worms, that I don't think you want open when you start advocating people lose out in their professional lives, for personal convictions. Just wait till opinions you feel strongly about and support become unpopular (deserved or not) and you might be able to see how this behavior is incredibly damaging to the democratic process.

 

[The Material Sheep]

Personally, I find the man having an opinion about gay marriage to be his right.

It is his right to have an opinion. It is also the right of others to boycott something. He choose to support an illegal prop (an action, not an opinion, mind) and the public responded.

Freedom of speech =/= freedom from consequence.

The public didn't like him supporting an illegal prop and they took their business elsewhere. Welcome to the free market.

While the free market is nice, it's also one to be an unforgiving and fickle mistress. This kind of short term petty political play only serves you so long as the ideas behind you are favored by the majority, and you can't guarantee that in the long run. You open a can of worms, that I don't think you want open when you start advocating people lose out in their professional lives, for personal convictions. Just wait till opinions you feel strongly about and support become unpopular (deserved or not) and you might be able to see how this behavior is incredibly damaging to the democratic process.

This is how the free market has been working for a long, long time. If this was EA, it'd be non-news, but it's a fairly popular web browser and this is a nerdy internet forum.

Personal and Professional. Private verses Corporate. If he had been behind getting the company to give money, sure. If he had been instituting anti gay policy in the company sure. This was not the case. His politics have nothing to do with his job. While you are free to boycott, it's a dangerous precedent you set for yourself and your movement when this kind of action is advocated for.

 

[Something Amyss]

[just half a decade ago it was still considered fairly normal to bash gays.

And things haven't changed much. People are acting like it's a radically different world, but....Shockingly, apparently, things really haven't changed that much. In fact, looking at the states that want to afford the religious freedom to discriminate against gays, I have trouble arguing much has changed for the better. It looks like we've made two steps forward and two steps back. Every new state that legalises gay marriage seems met with another state that comes up with a way to condemn gays. Every ruling like Doma leads to new legislation to try and come up with a more Constitutional way to block gays. Every act by the President is met with tantrums.

So pardon me for not doing a cartwheel.

this is business, not politics. Though-I realize the two are inseparably and deeply entrenched in one another.

You just undercut your own argument. If they are inseparable, then there is no real point of saying "keep one out of the other."

Please provide proof of marriage being "basic right" that cannot be questioned before continuing.

There have been multiple rulings in the US that declare it a basic/fundamental right. Now, I don't have the evidence on hand, so I'd have to look. If you really need this info, let me know. I will find it again. But in that light:

He did not deny anyones "equal rights".

Yes, he did.

demanding people loose their jobs because of their personal belief is worse than donating money to support your belief in a legal way. Which law or which job makes no difference.

Since it's unconstitutional, I have trouble seeing the "legal" argument here.

 

[Strazdas]

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You know what, you were right after all. I do make my point from a moral perspective. Thank you for having the patience to discuss it unlike that other poster that just posted personal attacks.

There have been multiple rulings in the US that declare it a basic/fundamental right. Now, I don't have the evidence on hand, so I'd have to look. If you really need this info, let me know. I will find it again. But in that light:

Since it's unconstitutional, I have trouble seeing the "legal" argument here.

See, the way i said it implies that US court ruling is not proof. i am aware there were such rulings. Courts are run by humans and humans can be faulty, like, say, they were when they were slavers. im sure you can see that just because court says so does not automatically mean its unquestionable truth.

Donating money to a proposition campaign and/or voting for it is completely legal. The proposition itself was overturned to be illegal, however the process of supporting and voting for proposition was legal.

 

[CloudAtlas]

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You know what, you were right after all. I do make my point from a moral perspective. Thank you for having the patience to discuss it unlike that other poster that just posted personal attacks.

If you took something away from the discussion, then that's awesome.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Personal and Professional. Private verses Corporate. His politics have nothing to do with his job.

That's what we've been told, but I find it refreshing that there are people who think it does. This schizophrenic division of life into "work" and "private life" isn't healthy and personally, if my gay kid's teacher is anti-gay then I can't see how it won't affect his work or have a seriously negative impact on my child.

 

[IceForce]

Why bother replying if you're going to repeat yourself and not actually reply to the questions asked of you?

why bother quoting if you are going to add nothing to the discussion?

Just give up. Just stop.

You have posted over a dozen times and contributed nothing. You are exactly what is wrong with these forums and your attitude is disgraceful.

I agree, that person's conduct in this thread has been absolutely appalling.

You are exactly what is wrong with these forums

Don't be so hasty. Looks like they've already gotten themselves banned.
They certainly didn't last long.

Can't say I'm surprised, given the way they were behaving.