[coldtea]

Why should he regret his actions? It's his personal opinion and he backed it with his own money, and at his own leisure time. He has a right to believer whatever he likes in his personal life, and push politically for whetever outcome he prefers -- as long as he is not abusing the law.

Apologising for how you vote, or what you believe, or what policies you root for is not democracy. And, yes, in a democracy you can also vote to restrict what other people can do. In fact, almost all laws are created for this very reason: to restrict certain actions.

He didn't do anything in his professional capacity that he should be apologising for.

[lern_too_spel]

Democracy has nothing to do with this. Democracy is a system of government.

This is about decency. What kind of person goes out of his way to oppress other people? Is that the kind of person I want heading an organization I'm affiliated with? No. Will it affect the Mozilla organization because others feel the way I do? It appears so. Given that, is Eich a good choice for CEO? Probably not.

[coldtea]

>Democracy has nothing to do with this. Democracy is a system of government.

It's a system of government that says you are entitled to your opinion and your vote. It's not just about how you put politicians in office.

>This is about decency. What kind of person goes out of his way to oppress other people?

The same kind of person who thinks that people who are against X or pro Y, should lose job opportunities because of opinions unrelated to their work behavior.

[lern_too_spel]

Opinions? This guy actively worked to deny rights from people. Would you feel the same if he had actively worked to deny rights to other minorities?

Nobody's denying Mozilla's right to hire him as CEO, just as nobody denied other companies' right to prop up apartheid South Africa. The fact is that actions have consequences, and those companies must weigh the benefits of their actions against the possibility (very real as we've seen in this case) that others will justifiably not want to associate with the business as a result.

[hapless]

Not apologizing is an option, perhaps the option he should have taken. In my book, offering no apology is better than offering a crass non-apology.

If you don't regret your actions, don't torture language to issue a false apology.