Promoting something isn't the same thing as supporting or allowing it. Many mailing lists have allowed a self governing style of free speech. If you don't want to hear from someone, you add then to your banlist. The extreme and consistently offensive get marginalized by each person, rather than by a singular authority.
Your comment about never hiring someone who was said what ESR says about race, gender, or sexuality is a broad and unspecific brush. I've read the links provided, what specifically did he say, and when that would make him un-hireable forever?