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Comment by adrusi | Hacker News Reader

On the one hand I'm happy, because it will end the political controversy that has resulted in a blow against Mozilla, but on the other, I feel kind of bad. I mean sure, the guy is a massive prick for donating to support Prop 8, but that honestly is no where near as relevant to his position as CEO of a nonprofit software company as it was made to be. The guy has contributed a lot to his field, and based on my impressions, has been very valuable to Mozilla as an employee in the past. I fully believe that he would have been capable of moving Mozilla in the right direction had it not been for this scandal. With his resignation, Mozilla could end up with a CEO who hinders them instead.

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Why does being against gay marriage make you a "massive prick". If people for gay marriage wasnt a minority it would be legal already, are you saying that the majority of the population are massive pricks, and should be ostracized from their jobs?

EDIT: here comes the leftist downvote brigade, the sad thing is I support gay marriage, you people should really grow a backbone.

FYI, the radical American left's approach to public policy is that you should wage total warfare on everyone who disagrees with you, and attempt to punish them in any way possible. Deny them business, deny any notion that they are intelligent or decent human beings, et cetera. There is no room for pluralism, and intellectual honesty is of secondary importance at best.

In this case, Brendan Eich is a bad person. Clearly his donation means that he is incapable of interacting with anyone who is gay or any of his political enemies in a civil manner, and will go out of his way to marginalize their contributions to Mozilla. Therefore we should attempt to punish him by kicking him out of his job.

Postscript. No representations are herein made about the non-radical American left, other lefts, the American right, other rights, the existence or nonexistence of a radical center, the merits of any policy proposal of any group including the left (radical or otherwise), et cetera.

Post-postscript: See also this comment, wherein a HN user argues that we should start boycotting any company who employs anyone who voted for Prop 8. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7470443

I've been on the receiving end of this due to who my father is. When I was a kid, he was in charge of PR at a Bay Area oil refinery.

- Activists attacking him during city council meetings and pushing for his termination

- An orthodontist refused to take my brother and I on as patients because he disagreed with my father's job

- Various, err, packages left on our doorstep

- Unprofessionalism amongst some teachers, except when they needed a donation from the refinery. More than one snide comment.

Ironically, one of my best friends was the daughter of a lead activist in town. That led to some awkward moments getting dropped off to hang out.

- An orthodontist refused to take my brother and I on as patients because he disagreed with my father's job

Sounds a lot like things some in the religious right do that the left objects to.

Sounds a lot like the "open season" policy Scientology uses against anyone who is against Scientology.

There is a difference between not supporting gay marriage, and choosing to spend $1000 to actively support its prohibition with no personal return besides an increased probability of not seeing same sex couples married in the future. I find it sad that the opponents of gay marriage make a majority in the US, and I am happy to live in a state where they do not.

There isn't. If I spend any resources opposing something then I spent money however small doing so. If I drove my car to go vote against gay marriage then I spent resources directly and gave up alternative uses of my time to do so. I don't like that the political process is even involved in this but if it must be then debating issues has to be OK and retaliation against folks who disagreed with you in the past seems unhealthy if you want a free exchange of ideas.

I'd wager that the average anti-gay marriage voter in the US does not go to the poll for the purpose of voting to oppose gay marriage. They go to vote for an elected office, or because they were told that it's their duty to vote, and then they see a proposition on the ballot and tick whichever box is against gay marriage. They do this without much thought and based primarily on the views of the community they are immersed in. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

"There is a difference between not supporting gay marriage, and choosing to spend $1000 to actively support its prohibition."

Care to elaborate on what that difference is?

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