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by vertex-four 3242 days ago
There's plenty of people who get up to things that would result in severe professional damage if it became public knowledge - I know a handful of teachers who are into BDSM in their private lives who are eternally terrified of their employers or a journalist catching wind. "Some stranger" isn't necessarily the issue, it's someone who has the ability to harm you that's the issue.
2 comments
jancsika 3241 days ago
I find that to be an awkward form of argument because any category that is sufficiently taboo is going to split the audience into two camps-- a small group who empathize with the practitioners and a larger group who don't. (Otherwise it wouldn't be a taboo.)

The problem at hand is that Google and others are scooping up everyone's data. A change in the way these companies decide to use that data can have an effect on everyone's lives, but without anything like a Congressional Budget Office or public debate to gauge whether the benefits of those changes outweigh the costs for the people who are affected.

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digi_owl 3242 days ago
Or look at the short term Mozilla CEO that was ousted over a public outcry regarding similar private matters.

Edit: Hrmf, never mind. Egg on my face.

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dragonwriter 3242 days ago
Publicly-disclosed (by legal mandate) financial sponsorship of a public advocacy campaign on a public policy matter is about as far as you can be from a “private matter”.
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digi_owl 3242 days ago
Hrmf, did i get my CEOs confused. Could have sworn there was some BDSM stuff involved as well. Or was that some other FOSS project?
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dragonwriter 3242 days ago
> Could have sworn there was some BDSM stuff involved as well.

Well, not with Eich. I don't think there was another short-term Mozilla CEO ousted among public controversy.

ISTR participation in Gor fandom being brought up alongside sexual harassment/abuse claims for a prominent community figure (maybe Jacob Applebaum? I thought it was him, but I don't see that element mentioned in any of the articles on him, so it may have been someone else) but I don't remember that or consensual BDSM related activity being the central concern in any ouster.

EDIT: As a sibling comment suggest, the Gor issue was with Larry Garfield.

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vertex-four 3242 days ago
The only well-known techie BDSM stuff I know of was not a CEO - it was Larry Garfield of the Drupal community.
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