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Comment by awwducks | Hacker News Reader

I think the concern centers more around the perceived double standard on seemingly arbitrary issues. For instance, if Eich was a strong supporter of gay marriage, I have a hard time seeing him forced to step down.

I get that gay marriage is not an "arbitrary issue" for many people, but I think the definition of what is arbitrary and what are violations of fundamental civil rights can get tricky.

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Look at it this way. If he'd been funding a campaign to make a constitutional amendment to ban interracial marriage, do you think he'd have been able to keep the job?

Like it or not, in the West, gay people are increasingly in the category of people who most people assume should have equal rights.

Of course not, but that's exactly the point. We should be able to have unpopular opinions and still be accepted in a community that emphasizes being a meritocracy, etc.

Whether being forced to resign as Mozilla's CEO counts as the community rejecting him is an interesting argument.

Well, I mean, the broader community does accept him, in that he's not going to be arrested for his opinions or anything. Mozilla didn't accept him, and isn't required to.

He was accepted - at the CTO level - with his unpopular opinions - even after they became public in 2012 - for years.

But there's a big difference (to me, at least) between being the CTO and the CEO. It's that step people are unhappy with.

great point!!

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