I think the problem people have with this is that Google was (and still is) promoting themselves as a place where expressing differing opinions is welcome and e

I think the problem people have with this is that Google was (and still is) promoting themselves as a place where expressing differing opinions is welcome and encouraged, and the internal forum where he posted this was apparently used and promoted as just that. (A sort of "Google-only Reddit," as some Googlers describe it.) I think it's widely accepted that work is generally a place where discussion of politics and gender relations is not appropriate. I know I do my best to avoid arguments on those topics at work, and that's fine. But when your employer explicitly encourages carrying out this kind of discussion in specific work-only forums, and then turns around and punishes you for it when some people throw a hissy-fit, that's gonna leave a bad taste in many people's mouths. To use your example, if I insulted my CEO and got fired for it no one would be surprised. But if my CEO was soliciting honest feedback on their performance and then I got fired for pointing out some stuff they dropped the ball on, I'd be (understandably, I think) quite upset.