[danielhooper]

I feel you. Once again I'm finding HN's culture very reminiscent of the "techbro" epidemic that we are only pretending to be against.

Can people here just not imagine what it would be like to be gay and also be working for someone making political donations to anti-gay groups? Would you not think that would feel fucking awful???

[explainplease]

How do you think it felt for Eich to be virtually lynched and forced out of his job? Can you not imagine that?

[dragonwriter]

Eich wasn't “virtually lynched”. Serious questions about his credibility in adhering to values some people expected of Mozilla were raised, creating a PR issue for Mozilla which he was evidently incapable of managing. Mm

This is in no way similar to a lynching, and one must be extraordinarily sheltered to find them similar.

[explainplease]

> Eich wasn't “virtually lynched”.

He certainly was. I was there and I remember it very well. Twitter and the media went nuts, demanding he be fired.

> Serious questions about his credibility in adhering to values some people expected of Mozilla were raised

And Mozilla employees stood up for him, saying that he always treated all employees equally with respect and fairness.

> creating a PR issue for Mozilla which he was evidently incapable of managing. Mm

How would you suggest he should have "managed" it? Mm.

> This is in no way similar to a lynching, and one must be extraordinarily sheltered to find them similar.

It exactly is, and there's no need for you to turn to personal attacks against me.

[dragonwriter]

> Twitter and the media went nuts, demanding he be fired.

Demanding someone be fired by the people with the authority to do so because you perceive that they are unsuitable for a particular role isn't lynching. It may be, in some cases, unjustified by he facts, but what makes a lynching a lynching has nothing to do with whether the accusations made are unjustified.

> It exactly is

I don't think you understand what a lynching is, because none of what you have described resembles one in any meaningful way.

[explainplease]

> It may be, in some cases, unjustified by he facts, but what makes a lynching a lynching has nothing to do with whether the accusations made are unjustified.

I agree with this statement. A lynching is a lynching regardless of why it is done.

> I don't think you understand what a lynching is, because none of what you have described resembles one in any meaningful way.

I don't think you understand what a lynching is, otherwise you would recognize that a mob of people reacting emotionally to harm another person is exactly that. e.g. Webster, 1913: "To inflict punishment upon without the forms of law." That is literally what happened.

[johnny22]

lynching means you usually die... please choose a better word.

[JoeAltmaier]

Easily imagined. But he's the CEO; the spokesperson for the company. Its an entirely different bar.

And he didn't get lynched; he just lost a job. Like so many gay people when they are outed. My sympathy for the guy is nearly zero.