I don't want to live in a society where people with bigoted and regressive views are merely considered as a difference of opinion. Human rights are absolute.
EDIT: So many downvotes, wow.
EDIT: So many downvotes, wow.
Everything is a balance. His contributions to Mozilla, the open web, technology, fairness and many other things outweighs his one misstep by far. And if that is not possible then we live in a black or white, totalitarian mindset state. People can be wrong and it shouldn't outweigh everything right they have done. Especially since this happens in the midst of major social change, there will be some waves.
Eich, in this wider societal context, means very little.
Bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices
None of this stuff happened until Dear Leader changed his position. Now, all of a sudden, being opposed to gay marriage is the Worst Thing Ever.
If you're naive enough to think that people only started caring about gay rights because some leader of a country where you have to prove you go to church to get elected finally started espousing reason, then you're more ridiculously naive than your posts suggest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_the_United_States#M...
Actually I'm starting to wonder about the whole idea that you can't fire someone based on their religious beliefs (at least I understand this is the law in the US).
What if I discover one of my employees donated to a political group that is trying to bring back slavery. I definitely wouldn't want someone like that working for me. But I can't let them go because their religious book says slavery is fine and their religious views are protected?
Crazy world.
Is it really surprising considering that a lot of the people here are white racist sexist homophobic males with barely any social skills who laugh at how much they can relate to the "forever alone" meme?
You know, after spending enough time reading HN comments I started thinking tech attracts the worst kind of people. Only recently I realized it's simply not true -- actually I'm kind of happy nobody compared homosexuality to bestialism or pedophillia (well, I haven't really read all the comments on this topic, but I am going to give HN the benefit of the doubt).
It's just that the world is a pretty awful place -- unless you are the "default human being" (white, hetero, male). But it is getting better (very, very slowly).
I'm just happy that there are people like you (and this whole Eich episode proved there's a lot of such people) who make being in the tech industry (and generally being around other human beings) quite bearable.