Mozilla CEO forced to step down for having same gay-rights views as Obama in '08

[ArcadiaGP]

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/

http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2546770

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/moz...over-conservative-values#.Uz3EUx-UqFU.twitter

http://ricochet.com/liberal-mob-claims-another-scalp/

http://twitchy.com/2014/04/03/reall...tweet&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter

Fascists and thought-police win. You can now be fired from your job for your political donations.

Tolerance! Also if you disagree you should be forcibly removed.

The message: Don't donate to non-leftist causes, or you will be made to care.

Our organizational culture reflects diversity and inclusiveness

... Unless you think differently, of course.

Odd, though... John Hammink of Mozilla donated to extremist, Marxist, anti-Semite Lyndon LaRouche. Wonder if he'll keep his job.

 

[mrjarrell]

Good. They listened to their customers, websites and staff and acted as they wished them to. Don't see a problem here. If you take a stand then you should be prepared for the results, good or ill. No-one wanted him in that slot and they spoke forcefully and loud and he actually listened and did the right thing for the company. Websites were asking people to change their browsers, rather than support Mozilla and their boards choice of CEO. The system worked. He was bad for the business.

 

[sb0]

I think the point is the hypocrisy of the "tolerance" crowd.

Liberal tolerance is like liberal compromise, it's a deceptive way of saying "agree with us".

 

[BogWalker]

Your intolerance of my intolerance is intolerant.

Liberals teach tolerance of others opinions but only when they agree with those opinions.

If he had been coerced to resign for pro-gay views it would end up being a civil rights case that makes it to the supreme court.

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

mrjarrell -
Based on your note above, I did some research on my employees. I found one that is a &#$#*$&#%&^ing Obama supporter. After all, he donated to Obama's 2008 campaign. Since you approve of it so much, I just went over to him and fired his ass. He was one of the founding members of my team. But that doesn't matter - I don't like the way he voted with his money - so screw him. After all - I have a lot of conservative customers and they might not look very favorably upon my software development team if we harbored a *gasp* Obama supporter. So under the bus he went.



A) Since Indiana is a right to work state, I'm sure that I won't get sued, right?
B) Was what I did morally right? After all, we are all agreed that Obama is a no good POS that is wrecking the country, right?
C) How could I LEGALLY have found out that he donated to the Obama campaign???
D) Or should I have conducted the Spanish Inquisition and start waterboarding my employees to make sure that they are ideologically pure...

 

[caverjamie]

This is so lame. Apparently the LGBT community has been harassing Mozilla about this issue and I hadn't heard a thing about it. I use their browser, but now I'm not happy with their decision, so I guess two can play this silly game.

 

[mrjarrell]

mrjarrell -
Based on your note above, I did some research on my employees. I found one that is a &#$#*$&#%&^ing Obama supporter. After all, he donated to Obama's 2008 campaign. Since you approve of it so much, I just went over to him and fired his ass. He was one of the founding members of my team. But that doesn't matter - I don't like the way he voted with his money - so screw him. After all - I have a lot of conservative customers and they might not look very favorably upon my software development team if we harbored a *gasp* Obama supporter. So under the bus he went.



A) Since Indiana is a right to work state, I'm sure that I won't get sued, right?
B) Was what I did morally right? After all, we are all agreed that Obama is a no good POS that is wrecking the country, right?
C) How could I LEGALLY have found out that he donated to the Obama campaign???
D) Or should I have conducted the Spanish Inquisition and start waterboarding my employees to make sure that they are ideologically pure...

Your call. Indiana's an at will state so you could fire anyone for anything. I doubt you did, tho. And you wouldn't get sued, or if you did it would go nowhere. Morally right has nothing to do with it. If you had done something like this it would have been based on your political beliefs, not your moral or ethical beliefs. If you chose to waterboard your employees I'd hope someone had the means to defend themselves from your torture. Of course, as usual, you are going well out in left field.

This guy did not match up with what the companies employees or customers wanted. He was bad for business and took the right decision and stepped down. Make a stand and you might have to pay a price. That's the breaks of having a point of view.

 

[caverjamie]

This guy did not match up with what the companies employees or customers wanted. He was bad for business and took the right decision and stepped down. Make a stand and you might have to pay a price. That's the breaks of having a point of view.

Are you sure about that? I didn't know who he was, and I didn't give a rats behind what his personal beliefs were. But the fact they forced him out for his personal beliefs made me so upset that I have removed firefox and went back to IE. When I sent them a message letting them know my distaste I could see a large number of similar messages. (even saw messages from other LGBT users who don't support their decision and see it as a form of reverse-discrimination)

 

[aaron580]

Are you sure about that? I didn't know who he was, and I didn't give a rats behind what his personal beliefs were. But the fact they forced him out for his personal beliefs made me so upset that I have removed firefox and went back to IE. When I sent them a message letting them know my distaste I could see a large number of similar messages. (even saw messages from other LGBT users who don't support their decision and see it as a form of reverse-discrimination)

Don't care how much people hate mozilla….NEVER go back to IE

 

[Kutnupe14]

Good. They listened to their customers, websites and staff and acted as they wished them to. Don't see a problem here. If you take a stand then you should be prepared for the results, good or ill. No-one wanted him in that slot and they spoke forcefully and loud and he actually listened and did the right thing for the company. Websites were asking people to change their browsers, rather than support Mozilla and their boards choice of CEO. The system worked. He was bad for the business.

THIS!

 

[mrjarrell]

Are you sure about that? I didn't know who he was, and I didn't give a rats behind what his personal beliefs were. But the fact they forced him out for his personal beliefs made me so upset that I have removed firefox and went back to IE. When I sent them a message letting them know my distaste I could see a large number of similar messages. (even saw messages from other LGBT users who don't support their decision and see it as a form of reverse-discrimination)

Yep, pretty sure, since I've been following the story since he was appointed by the board. His presence cost them the participation of developers and programmers and even employees were displeased with the boards choice of him. When a persons presence starts affecting the performance of the company and costs them valuable assets then something has to be done. He chose to step down, rather than see the continuation of strife due to his presence. I commend him for that. It took courage. There are people on many sides of the issue, but what it all boils down to at the end of the day was that his presence was bad for the company. He even stated, in an interview that he knew he had hurt people whom he knew and worked with by his choice to support Prop. 8. His presence as CEO was not what the employees and developers and customers wanted. I think he chose wisely. Now the company can move on.

As for your switch to IE. Good luck with that. Firefox is a vastly superior browser. I would suggest you switch to something else, if you're going to cheat yourself out of a good browser experience. Go with Chrome or Opera or Safari.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

One to two percent of the country apparently calls the shots for the remaining 98-99%. I am the 99%, to steal a phrase from the stupid 'occupy' movement.

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Gates-How-Many-People-LGBT-Apr-2011.pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-no-idea-how-few-gay-people-there-are/257753/

http://news.discovery.com/human/about-2-of-americans-are-gay-110411.htm

 

[Shadow8088]

Don't care how much people hate mozilla….NEVER go back to IE

Google Chrome is your friend.. or hell.. even Safari or Opera is you don't like the Googs... but IE is for suckers...

And Mr.J scooped me...

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

mrjarrell - don't dodge the question.

Is it morally right for me to fire a person due to their personal beliefs? And of course I didn't fire anyone, that was for illustration - I'm a fair minded person.

And why is the example I cited above any different from what happened at Mozilla?

Why should we be celebrating this, again? No matter which side of the Prop 8 debate we might fall on??? A man was FIRED for simply contributing to a unpopular cause. One that is not politically correct.

What if they decided to fire the guy for his support of the Second Amendment? There's plenty of Euro-trash types that don't like the Second Amendment and would be GLAD to remove their browser in protest because one of the main dudes was a 2A supporter?

As for the morality of it - or lack thereof - just because you have the Right to do something, doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do.

You sir, say that Republicans only support free speech when it supports their position. And you rag all over them for it. INGO's pages are FULL of your rants on the topic. Yet in this case, since you happen to disagree with a person - you are dancing the happy dance over the fact that he was fired for his PERSONAL beliefs.

Are you not guilty of slipping on the same soap?

You, sir, are as guilty as Dana Carvey's Church Lady character of doing the "Superiority Strut"....


Oh - and isn't political donation information PRIVATE? What would you say if someone got all of the Ron Paul donation records and started "outing" all of the Wookies, and getting them fired because their beliefs were unpopular? Would you still be doing the happy dance? Believe whatever way you want on the issue - and I understand that as a CEO, he was hamstrung by this issue - and likely crippled by it. As such, he did the right thing by leaving. But I will be damned if I will celebrate it. And that has ZERO to do with what the issue at hand was. It has EVERYTHING to with the fact that mob rule won today - as opposed to personal freedom.

 

[caverjamie]

Hmmm, thanks for the advice! I'll try one of those others - I never liked IE which is why I switched in the first place.

 

[mrjarrell]

Let me say it, again. His personal beliefs were bad for business. Period. He chose to do the right thing for the company and stepped down. Freedom of speech often comes with a price, as does adopting unpopular positions. His position did not mesh with a majority of his customers, developers or employees and the company was paying the price for his stance. It's simple business. He apparently, in the end, had the best interests of the company in mind. and I commend him for his decision. Sorry you don't like the answer. Bad for business, you gotta go. That's the bottom line for any company. It's not a moral issue, as you would have it.

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

So will you dance on the grave of others who take unpopular positions when the mob shouts them down?

I sir, will not.

I tend to agree will the quote attributed to Voltaire - something about disagreeing like crazy with what someone is saying, but defending to the death their right to say it.

No one has still taken up the subject that ones personal political contributions and support ought to be off limits in terms of public scrutiny. Care to take that one up, sir? I can't remember another time when a person's personal contributions got "outed" publicly like that? Without the person bragging publicly about it (a la Bloomberg). Am I missing something?

 

[mrjarrell]

So will you dance on the grave of others who take unpopular positions when the mob shouts them down?

I sir, will not.

I tend to agree will the quote attributed to Voltaire - something about disagreeing like crazy with what someone is saying, but defending to the death their right to say it.

No one has still taken up the subject that ones personal political contributions and support ought to be off limits in terms of public scrutiny. Care to take that one up, sir? I can't remember another time when a person's personal contributions got "outed" publicly like that? Without the person bragging publicly about it (a la Bloomberg). Am I missing something?

Well, since he's still alive I won't dance on anyone's grave. I support him wholeheartedly in his ability to think and say what he wishes. He has that right. But, as I said earlier, unpopular speech and positions often come with a price. He's paying that price and it just happens to be one I agree with. Live with it.

As for political contributions, I hate to break it to you but they are a matter of public record, whether you like it or not. If you have an issue with that, I'd suggest you take it up with the government. It's been that way as long as I can remember. If you don't want people to know you support anti-equality then I'd suggest you don't contribute. Your opponents will get the list at some point and may even publish it.

 

[Fargo]

Let me say it, again. His personal beliefs were bad for business. Period. He chose to do the right thing for the company and stepped down. Freedom of speech often comes with a price, as does adopting unpopular positions. His position did not mesh with a majority of his customers, developers or employees and the company was paying the price for his stance. It's simple business. He apparently, in the end, had the best interests of the company in mind. and I commend him for his decision. Sorry you don't like the answer. Bad for business, you gotta go. That's the bottom line for any company. It's not a moral issue, as you would have it.

The data on the below link from Mozilla does not seem to support your argument. The feedback even less so...

https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/?date_start=2014-03-04&selected=30d

If his firing turns out to be bad for business, will you then defend and support his rehiring?

Use the set date option in the upper left of the screen to view the feedback from other peak unhappiness points like March 20-21. It tends to be all software complaints....

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

Can you show me an example of any other group publishing a list of private donations and outing people like this, mrj? I couldn't think of one.

But I may be wrong. I don't think it's right, as it stifles people's ability and willingness to support what they choose. Whether I happen to agree with it or not.

Again, when your leftist buddies trot you out and expose you for liking the 2A, or medical MJ, or whatever cause you support, even though it's unpopular - should we be happy , or sad? And if you should lose your job because "you're a no good hippy that wants nothing but a doobie", should we be happy? or sad?

I choose to be sad in both cases. Freedom is stifled.

It's funny - I always thought of you as loving freedom at all cost, sir. Today has changed that.