| As a non-hypothetical: consider support for communist brutality. "My belief is that the nature of Sterling's public statements disqualifies him from acting in good faith with the broader community, at least until he has withdrawn them. I do not believe someone can leave something like: "then you will enjoy hard labor in the North, after we send all the counterrevolutionaries there!" [1] at the door. Even if he could, it wouldn't do anything for our speakers and attendees who are not comfortable sharing a stage or a room with him. The job of an event organizer is to make sure that conditions are comfortable for the people who have entrusted the organizer with their safety." The presence at a tech conference of an overt, unrepentant promoter and apologist for the brutality of Communism, is offensive, demeaning, and endangering to: - Victims, and descendants of the victims, of Stalin's "Great Purge" [2] - Victims, and descendants of the victims, of Mao's "Cultural Revolution" [3] - All other victims of the failed experiments in Communism; which is to say: all experiments in Communism. - All "counterrevolutionaries" who oppose further experiments with this irreparably broken ideology. [1] http://imgur.com/rlqa73W
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution |