[daeken]

I've gained a massive, massive respect for Mike Rowe over the past 5-10 years. He works to make the world a better place through education and understanding, and this post is a perfect example of this. Kudos to him for speaking out and standing his ground, rather than crumbling to nonsensical public pressure.

[cthulha]

I don't think the public pressure is nonsensical: Koch may be doing the right thing in some areas and not others. Why does it have to be so black-and-white? Can't people raise issues that they genuinely believe to be bad for the country they live in?

[marklyon]

Some people wear such narrow ideological blinders that they're incapable of comprehending that this week's subject of two minutes hate might not actually be the all-encompassing embodiment of evil they've been told. They label everything they encounter as good (generally, where "good" is on the side of agreeing with them) and bad (generally, where "bad" transgresses by deigning even remotely disagree with the "good"). That sort of approach silences thought, innovation, argument and compromise.

It's a sad state of affairs that serves only the leaders who utilize such simplistic division so that they can lock in votes with far less effort than is required to meaningfully solve real problems.

[hnpuff]

> Kudos to him for speaking out and standing his ground

Come on. Koch is literally paying him. How is it brave to write a letter endorsing the person that is paying for you to run your charities? How is this not a paid endorsement?

[daeken]

1) Unless he was paid on the condition of posting this (which seems tremendously out of line with his character), this isn't a paid endorsement. That's the definition -- an endorsement for which one is paid -- and no amount of linguistic gymnastics will change that.

2) It's brave because the Koch brothers aren't the only people he cares about, whether for money or otherwise. Posts in support of "bad" figures run a risk of losing credibility, support, funding, and partnerships; I strongly doubt that the check to his foundation was large enough to compensate for that.