Mozilla CEO - steps down :oO

I can hardly believe this
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/03/mozilla-ceo-steps-down/7262129/

really? Is this happening?

I can't imagine it would be voluntary. But as results go I'd call it a good one.

Bert_Fegg said:

I can't imagine it would be voluntary. But as results go I'd call it a good one.

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Ditto. Anyone in a prominent position in a non-political organisation should not use that position to promote personal opinions. It's not what they're paid for.

And why should they be so arrogant as to assume that their views matter any more than mine or yours?

I'm annoyed by the people claiming that this is just like the teacher who got fired for marrying her same-sex partner. This "you want tolerance so you have to tolerate everything everybody else does!"

Fuck that for a joke. That's like saying "well I'll tolerate your need not to be punched in the face but in return you have to tolerate my desire to punch you in the face".

But it's a good outcome.

Bramblethorn said:

I'm annoyed by the people claiming that this is just like the teacher who got fired for marrying her same-sex partner. This "you want tolerance so you have to tolerate everything everybody else does!"

Fuck that for a joke. That's like saying "well I'll tolerate your need not to be punched in the face but in return you have to tolerate my desire to punch you in the face".

But it's a good outcome.

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I might be able to accept your view if other people's aspirations might have an adverse impact - as in your case of punching someone in the face.

But can anyone tell me how gay marriage can possibly affect anyone else? There are a few reactionary Colonel Blimps, I admit, who claim that the rains that deluged the UK this winter, leaving a lot of places under water, were the result of god's wrath at us legalising gay marriage, but maybe we won't take them too seriously.

To say that Mozilla as a company is taking a stance against gay marriage may or may not be true - I would assume (hope!) that Eich was only hired for his business expertise and that his personal opinions would not be translated into company policy. However, merely by virtue of having been selected for a high corporate position he gains power and his opinions thereby acquire more weight in society at large. Even if he chooses to support an anti-gay agenda as an individual he is in a sense being legitimized indirectly by association with Mozilla. As such it seems reasonable to me to protest against Mozilla for potentially giving him, in essence, a louder voice.

There was a very good article about anti-gay CEOs in the wake of the Chick-fil-A controversy, one point of which is worth repeating here:

"This isn’t about mutual tolerance because there’s nothing mutual about it. If we agree to disagree on this issue, you walk away a full member of this society and I don’t. There is no “live and let live” on this issue because Dan Cathy is spending millions to very specifically NOT let me live. I’m not trying to do that to him."

This is what few members of the 'persecuted Christian' bloc seem to realize - while some people may object to their religion on general principles, few are trying to actively make their personal religious beliefs illegal. But when the public expression of those beliefs has the power to deprive people of rights and even endanger their lives, including by making other people's actions illegal, it needs to be opposed.

Agreed - and, in stepping down, Mozilla has gained huge kudos for listening and sends out a signal loud and clear: maybe it'll be heard in the Kremlin and elsewhere? It also solves another problem for me as I was struggling to get Opera to work on my Mac

I wasn't going to mention that I was dreading going back to IE

norfolklad said:

I might be able to accept your view if other people's aspirations might have an adverse impact - as in your case of punching someone in the face.

But can anyone tell me how gay marriage can possibly affect anyone else? There are a few reactionary Colonel Blimps, I admit, who claim that the rains that deluged the UK this winter, leaving a lot of places under water, were the result of god's wrath at us legalising gay marriage, but maybe we won't take them too seriously.

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I think you might have misread me - that's exactly the point I was making. I don't accept that "equal rights for same-sex-attracted people" and "less rights for SSA people" are equal and opposite viewpoints that deserve equal tolerance; giving SSA people the same rights as (e.g.) conservative Christians IS the middle ground.

haurni said:

To say that Mozilla as a company is taking a stance against gay marriage may or may not be true - I would assume (hope!) that Eich was only hired for his business expertise and that his personal opinions would not be translated into company policy. However, merely by virtue of having been selected for a high corporate position he gains power and his opinions thereby acquire more weight in society at large.

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He would also have been acting as leader of a company that has many gay/bi employees, and trying to build working relationships with others. That doesn't require him to be a supporter of same-sex marriage, but it does at least require them to believe he's going to treat them fairly, and his actions made that difficult. FiveThirtyEight.com did an analysis of donations for/against Proposition 8 from employees of major Silicon Valley companies; it was something like 87% against (i.e. in favour of preserving same-sex marriage) which gives some idea of how the industry leans. They also noted that Google, which has strong ties to Mozilla, ran something like 94% against P8.

BTW, worth remembering that this wasn't even a one-off thing; Eich has a long record of donating to people like Pat Buchanan (heavily racist as well as homophobic).