Why I no longer want to live in America

Agreed about Eich. However I would never extend that to a whole country.

In addition to the episode bridling against my British sense of tolerance, this is I wrote on HN at the time about the boycott:

>I think the whole thing is sickening. Why? Because there are CEOs and companies that you and I use and love that are not boycotted. That are not hounded. That support the murder of people around the world. That support the exploitation of people. That pollute the environment. That invade the privacy of people's lives. That make the world a worse place. That we and our governments support. These are the targets that should be addressed.

This is silly linkbait and doesn't belong on HN.

This guy doesn't have anything new or insightful to add to the Brendon Eich case. The rest of his argument why he doesn't want to live in America is just silliness (commentary on Mustang cars and exercise routines).

If I'm to understand the author, he doesn't want to live in the US because there's no "nice short walk" option at the Grand Canyon and because Brenden Eich quit his job?

If that's all it takes, he's not going to last long in Britain or in whatever country he lands next.

The window dressing isn't right:

If you arrive at Yosemite or the Grand Canyon or whatever, there is no pleasant mile-long stroll on offer: instead you have two options — put on hiking gear and walk through bear-infested woods for three days — or else sit and look at the view from the car park.

Lots of mile long strolls at the parks. Of course at those two main sites you'd better like to be around your fellow man. And it doesn't take long to hike down the Grand Canyon and back up, just don't go all the way to the bottom.

If a homophobe being driven to quit his public position because the media is "so deferential to minorities" is your deciding issue, I hope the door doesn't hit you on the way out. The urges that I get to leave the country are due to a surplus of privileged, solipsistic upper-middle class people destroying the place in the name of saving a few bucks on their taxes, or avoiding having to send their kids to a public school, or some other minor inconvenience. Your absence will help with that.

I'm going to make an easy assumption that the author is from the exact same demographic group as Eich, so the controversy over him managed to penetrate the author's fog of not noticing the important issues that are a matter of life or death to millions with the fairly trivial matter of a short-term CEO becoming embarrassed.

edit: Eich seems like a nice guy, so when I call him a homophobe, I'm just saying something factual - not trying to attack his character. My grandmother is a homophobe and I still love her.

Seriously, though: Removing limits to political spending, shutting down the public schools, crumbling infrastructure, universal surveillance, largest prison population in the world, the situation of racial minorities and integration backsliding rapidly, massive unemployment/underemployment, college reaching unaffordable levels, the number one reason for bankruptcy being health care costs from illness, a newly-appointed CEO who donated to defeat gay marriage in California being driven to quit by people who were upset about it.

I tend not to think that this was a case of something intrinsically American. Public shaming on the internet might quickly be becoming the national pastime, but its hardly exclusive to the US.