[predaking]

I think "couldn't agree to stop bitching about politics on the company dime" is really minimizing the leadership vaccuum that caused this in the first place.

As someone who hires I'd have zero issue with a talented person who also felt passionately about not working with people who enable racism or toxic environments. That's part of how you build good companies.

[darkerside]

As a self considered centrist, I would have an issue if they couldn't discuss these issues in a dispassionate way at work. That might be wrong, but IMO (within reason) we are there to work and create value. We will make mistakes along the way, and some of those will be perceived as a step towards racism and toxicity. If we can't accept that it's a spectrum and not a binary, that reasonable people can have different opinions, and that once a decision is made we should move on together, I think I actually would have trouble working with such a person (and have in the past).

This sounds like I agree with what the founders did here. I don't at all. But I understand why they did it, and I don't disagree with their intentions.

[uh_uh]

Would you also have zero issue with a talented person who felt passionately about gun rights, free-speech or banning abortion?

[predaking]

I’ve worked with people who were passionate about each of those issues (maybe not all at once). None of them encouraged or participated in the dehumanizing of other people and all found that kind of behavior towards others to be abhorrent. I can tell you that if they were confronted with a list making fun of people's names in this manner said list would not have survived with any one of them being at the company, let alone all of them. =)

I would note as a follow up to this re: leadership and culture; 30 people left Basecamp today. DHH is hanging out on social media like it’s no big deal, back to talking about Apple. You know what’s consistent between the start of this incident and today’s behavior? The derisive and dismissal treatment of people that have been a part of his company for many years.

[JamesBarney]

Did they accuse others of enabling murder because they were pro choice or did they keep their politics to themselves?

[8note]

To me they sound like a fun person to be around?

People with strong opinions have strong opinions about a lot of things, and are good to bounce ideas off of

Mind you, I'm friends with people who are fans of gun rights, free speech, and ensuring abortion access

[kethinov]

From the reporting I've seen, the issue here is not that these are the kinds of people with strong opinions that are fun to bounce ideas off of, these are the kind of people with strong opinions who if you disagree with will escalate the situation to intolerable levels such as refusing to accept a perfectly sincere apology and then equating it with genocide. This isn't the fun debate crowd, it's "the conflict is abuse" crowd.

I love a good debate with someone who disagrees with me in good faith, but that other sort of person is just exhausting and counterproductive to debate anything with.

[uh_uh]

It is not my intention here to cast judgement on people belonging to either side of the political spectrum. Just wanted to make sure that no double standards are applied in OP's hiring practises.

[predaking]

Appreciated, and glad I was able to clarify things for you!

[csommers]

And what exactly is wrong with any of those? Don’t like this country, then get the fuck out.