[dubfan]

There does seem to be a movement to purge anyone with unpopular opinions from the public sphere, regardless of the context in which they developed their beliefs and how irrelevant their beliefs are to the work for which they earned fame. That it's now largely coming from the left wing, which suffered great marginalization during the Red Scare and McCarthyism, is ironic (and depressing as someone who used to identify as a liberal)

[frontsideair]

I understand your concern, but I personally think we're not there yet. What troubles me most is the sensationalist and preaching-to-the-choir nature of all media. The reason is probably the nature of the internet and benefits of clickbait journalism. If they love you, you win. If they hate you, they'll get you traffic, you win. It's not an easy problem to solve, we'll see how it ends.

On the other hand I'm not concerned that left is becoming the new right. Not right now. People get alarmed when scales are tipped and change is afoot, but as long as there's a clear inequality -be it in skin color, gender or orientation- the complaints will sound ridiculous like 'reverse racism/sexism'. If and when there's no longer a gap in equality and people start to oppress today's oppressors; that will be the time to stop. Until then my complaints will be minor.

[jmcqk6]

There is a difference between unpopular and factually, demonstrably wrong. There is a difference between threatening violence, prison or worse and social shunning.

If you advocate for things that are actively harmful to society (like racism and misogyny), then you do deserve to be shunned.

[arrrg]

Aha. News to me, really.

That seems more like a popular right-wing conspiracy theory than anything that’s actually happening.

[sanxiyn]

I think the resignation of Brendan Eich actually happened, not a conspiracy.

[arrrg]

And? I don’t really see the connection. CEOs are public faces of their companies. As such, all their publicly expressed opinions are quite relevant, especially if they are threatening to their employees. End of story, really.

[Fomite]

This is the mildest form of "purge" imaginable.