Thursday, April 3, 2014

Brendan Eich committed a thoughtcrime.


Brendan Eich is an American computer programmer and creator of the JavaScript scripting language. He is the chief executive officer at the Mozilla Corporation. (Wikipedia)

◼ Eich Is Out. So Is Tolerance. - Ryan T. Anderson/Heritage

Mozilla Corp. co-founder Brendan Eich has resigned as CEO after a week of public pressure stemming from a campaign contribution he made six years ago. Eich supported the wrong cause; he supported California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
For some who favor the redefinition of marriage, tolerance appears to have been a useful rhetorical device along the way to eliminating dissent.

...In a series of instances we have seen the gatekeepers of civil society attack those who hold the view that marriage is between a man and a woman —Chick-fil-A, Barilla Pasta, Craig James (who was fired from ESPN), and “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson.
This kind of grotesque incivility is toxic for any democratic community. We can—we must—do better.

◼ He supports the traditional definition of marriage. For that, he has now joined the ranks of the unemployed. - Bryan Preston/PJMedia
We have employees with a wide diversity of views. Our culture of openness extends to encouraging staff and community to share their beliefs and opinions in public. This is meant to distinguish Mozilla from most organizations and hold us to a higher standard. But this time we failed to listen, to engage, and to be guided by our community.

While painful, the events of the last week show exactly why we need the web. So all of us can engage freely in the tough conversations we need to make the world better.
“Freely.” That word no longer means what it once did. You’re free to agree with the mob. You’re not free to disagree with the mob.

Update: GLAAD responds with a lie of its own.
Mozilla’s strong statement in favor of equality today reflects where corporate America is: inclusive, safe, and welcoming to all.

“…welcoming to all.” Unless you disagree with us, in which case, you might as well be dead.
GLAAD also gives something away. Mozilla claims that Eich stepped down on his own. GLAAD says Mozilla has made a “strong statement.” That can only be true if Mozilla forced him to step down....So either GLAAD are projecting, or Mozilla is lying.

Update: ◼ Check this out. The IRS abuse scandal started the process that got Eich ousted.
Why, then, the ruckus? Amazingly enough, it is entirely due to the fact that Eich made a $1,000 donation to the campaign urging a ‘yes’ vote on California’s Proposition 8. When this fact first came to light in 2012, after the Internal Revenue Service leaked a copy of the National Organization for Marriage’s 2008 tax return to a gay-advocacy group, Eich, who was then CTO of Mozilla, published a post on his personal blog stating that his donation was not motivated by any sort of animosity towards gays or lesbians, and challenging those who did not believe this to cite any “incident where I displayed hatred, or ever treated someone less than respectfully because of group affinity or individual identity.”
To whom did the IRS leak NOM’s files? The Human Rights Campaign.

The HRC evidently engineered Eich’s ouster, in the name of equality and tolerance.

The IRS actions create a serious chilling effect. Your donations to any group can be leaked by a hostile operative within the government, to your enemies, for use against you — up to and now including costing you your job.
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Was President Obama a bigot back when he supported marriage as the union of a man and woman? How quickly everyone forgets.
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◼ "If this is the gay rights movement today – hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else – then count me out. " - Althouse

◼ The Hounding Of A Heretic - Andrew Sullivan

◼ Brendan Eich and the gay marriage zealots - Neoneocon
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