[DanielBMarkham]

I am very sorry that some people are upset with the political opinions of other people.

Now can somebody get this political bullshit off the front page of HN? Please? Nothing productive can come from a logical and reasonable conversation with people who are, by definition, very upset. Half the posts here are "hell yeah!" and the other half are baiting arguments from others who feel impassioned by the issue. Not a good topic.

[tptacek]

This issue is uncomfortably political for HN, but I feel like I should chime in to say that HN is clearly not split down the middle about support for Eich's political position. I haven't seen a single comment defending it.

[DanielBMarkham]

I'll happily defend the man's right to hold all sorts of inappropriate and unpopular opinions. Do we want the tech community to be some kind of PC witch hunt, where people who say or do unpopular things will be banned from employment?

If that's the case, then that's wrong -- and it hurts the tech community at large for it to be that way.

This is a witch hunt. It may be a witch hunt for good reasons, and for a cause I support (which I do), but let's get it clear: people are protesting because somebody has a job that has opinions they don't like. That's not a healthy attitude for any community and any job.

I don't care if the man's a nazi. We live in a free country where diversity of opinion, problem-solving skills, and life experiences are invaluable for creative and productive team performance. This kind of thing is horrible and detestable, no matter what the man thinks in private.

If he's a criminal, fire him. If he proposes some policy that is bad for his company, fire him. If he has some personality defect that is bringing harm to Mozilla's name, fire him.

Otherwise? Leave him alone and let him do his job.

[lemming]

I don't care if the man's a nazi.

I think it's fair to say you're probably in the minority there.

[mikeash]

I believe they're protesting not his opinions, but his efforts to have his opinions turned into laws.

It's one thing to be against gay marriage. It's quite another to spend one's own money on outlawing it.

[DanielBMarkham]

So let's play this through in an imaginary scenario.

Next year I decide I like my neighbor, who's running for governor in the American Nazi party. I write him a check for $500.

So now I can't work in the tech industry? Really? And this makes sense to folks?

So you're saying thinking is okay, but acting is not. So is there some list of things I can and can't do and expect to have a job? Or is it just made up off-the-cuff by anybody with an internet search and an axe to grind?

Do you realize how chilling this is? We're going to raise an entire generation of tech leadership who are acutely tuned never to do anything publicly that might indicate they have an opinion -- and are smart enough to hold all their real feelings inside, no matter how terrible. It's bad for those folks, it's bad for the industry, and it's bad for the rest of us. It's just bad all the way around.

We all have to vote the same way, give money to the same causes, say the same things -- or face collective group punishment. And this seems sane?

[asdfologist]

Can you stop making strawman arguments? No one said he can't work in the tech industry, or anything even close.

[mikeash]

Please come up with a different scenario, because you're never going to convince me that it's wrong to try to discourage you from putting me in a concentration camp, or taking any steps to put in power someone who would.

[DanielBMarkham]

Sure, discourage me. Come out in the public square and let's have it out. You use your powers of free speech and persuasion and convince me I'm wrong. If I feel strongly about my opinions, I'll do the same to try to persuade you that you're wrong. Democracy at work.

Start poking around to find whatever job I have and then try to get me fired? Really? That counts as "discouragement" in your book?

You realize, of course, that there are some folks with really nasty opinions out there, folks who would do all the things you mention. Folks who would bring back slavery. And so on.

I must have missed the big public outrage over these folks where we try to get them fired and otherwise interfere with their personal and work lives because of their political opinions. I also missed the part where this became acceptable behavior.

[general_failure]

Best of luck getting your signal through in all this noise :-)

[DanielBMarkham]

The internet at its best: a hundred thousand people in a feel-good mob all on a joint rant about somebody who has done something rude and/or unpopular that we can all emote with one another about.

[jkelsey]

You don't have to take part in this discussion if you don't want to. You don't even have to click on the link.

If you're a public place, and some group of people that you don't otherwise know are having a conversation amongst themselves, do you go up to them and tell them, "I don't care about you are talking about." You probably don't, right? Because it would be weird.

Turns out the same thing applies for the Internet.

[vacri]

Politics in the tech world is squarely in HN's bailiwick. It's not a pure tech forum. It's a forum about tech and business.

[katowulf]

And yet here we are...