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Mozilla fired their CEO, the founder of JS, Brendan Eich, because he made a donation 10 years before to a Christian charity. Many SV people are missing the sco

Mozilla fired their CEO, the founder of JS, Brendan Eich, because he made a donation 10 years before to a Christian charity. Many SV people are missing the scope and scale of the impact of having OSS charities engaging in the political campaign – it is renouncing all donations from the other side. It is not their role. Every year I have thousands of dollars that I try to affect to OSS charities, but I’m yet to find a single one that is tolerant of everyone, _including the supposedly dominant group_ . But tolerance is too much to ask, even from Mozilla.

johnchristopher 7y ago
I don't think you are ever going to find such a charity. The Red Cross maybe ? (then again, when donating blood, and depending on the country, you have laws in place that prevent some people to donate if they are transgender for instance).
gilrain 7y ago
He gave money to a political campaign attempting to limit the right to marry to heterosexual couples. A little different from any old "Christian charity".
- 4ad 7y ago
  It's no different in any way whatsoever.
  - treypitt 7y ago
    True Christian charities probably engage in humanitarian work, like the Red Cross. Political advocacy isn't charity work. Even if you think its effectually charitable, to claim there is no difference between charity work and political advocacy would be laughable coming from a 9th grade student
xfitm3 7y ago
Mozilla faced tremendous pressure from the media, Mitchell had no choice but to let him go. The public went on a witch hunt. It's your peers who did this, not Mozilla's chairman.
- sfink 7y ago
  That seems about right, except for Mitchell's involvement. As I remember it, it was more Brendan's call than Mitchell's. She did not ask for his resignation. At least from what I heard, he decided that the backlash was doing too much damage to Mozilla and stepped down.
  - xfitm3 7y ago
    How do you think Brendan arrived at that decision? Of course you saw the public product of their conversations, it's natural to think that.
    - sfink 7y ago
      And it's natural to assume that things match your preexisting biases, as well. All I will say is that I do have quite a bit more to go on than public announcements. I have worked for Mozilla for a long time, including during that event (but not the original uproar over prop 8 donations) and was familiar with the people involved, and am basing my opinions on body language and insider knowledge. But much of that is not mine to share, and there's no reason for people to believe a rando like me anyway, so I'd rather not get into details. It would just lead to accusations of spin or insincerity (justifiably so; you have no reason to trust me.)
gamblor956 7y ago
A donation to a Christian charity would have been fine. There are thousands of them in the US and around the world. No, Eich specifically made a donation to a political campaign for CA's Prop 8 that used blood-libel-level lies to cast homosexuals as pedophiles and sexual predators and use that as a justification to deny them the right to marry. And this was the state of the Prop 8 campaign at the time he made the donation. He knew what they were about, and he donated to them anyway. So, yeah, he had it coming to him.
- leosarev 7y ago
  Please note that Prop 8 was actually supported by voters. So if supporting Prop 8 is reason for firing, more than half of voters of California should lose their jobs. I think that's unfair, and suspect that witch hunt campaign was probably initiated because of some kind of power games inside Mozilla. Also, please make note that there is zero evidence of any LBGT Mozilla employee was discriminated by Brendan Eich or even evidences of him discussing his stance on homosexual marriages at work. He was literally bullied and fired for his private life facts: fact that he privately supported same political stance than majority of California's voters.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    Please note that Prop 8 supporters spent many tens of millions of dollars lying about gays to get people to vote for Prop 8. They also lied about what the impact of Prop 8 would be. Also note that one of the biggest such spenders, the Mormon Church, formally apologized for its role in the Prop 8 campaign after they got to be in the receiving end of the lies during Romney's first presidential campaign.
- leosarev 7y ago
  Also, I'm living in Russia, and there is common knowledge that we have a lot of problems with democratic procedures here. I don't say that someone could not be fired for his voting or donating for opposition here, it definitely can happen. But it will probably cause media scandal, not media support
- 7y ago

johnchristopher 7y ago

I don't think you are ever going to find such a charity. The Red Cross maybe ? (then again, when donating blood, and depending on the country, you have laws in place that prevent some people to donate if they are transgender for instance).

gilrain 7y ago

He gave money to a political campaign attempting to limit the right to marry to heterosexual couples. A little different from any old "Christian charity".

4ad 7y ago
It's no different in any way whatsoever.
- treypitt 7y ago
  True Christian charities probably engage in humanitarian work, like the Red Cross. Political advocacy isn't charity work. Even if you think its effectually charitable, to claim there is no difference between charity work and political advocacy would be laughable coming from a 9th grade student

xfitm3 7y ago

Mozilla faced tremendous pressure from the media, Mitchell had no choice but to let him go. The public went on a witch hunt. It's your peers who did this, not Mozilla's chairman.

sfink 7y ago
That seems about right, except for Mitchell's involvement. As I remember it, it was more Brendan's call than Mitchell's. She did not ask for his resignation. At least from what I heard, he decided that the backlash was doing too much damage to Mozilla and stepped down.
- xfitm3 7y ago
  How do you think Brendan arrived at that decision? Of course you saw the public product of their conversations, it's natural to think that.
  - sfink 7y ago
    And it's natural to assume that things match your preexisting biases, as well. All I will say is that I do have quite a bit more to go on than public announcements. I have worked for Mozilla for a long time, including during that event (but not the original uproar over prop 8 donations) and was familiar with the people involved, and am basing my opinions on body language and insider knowledge. But much of that is not mine to share, and there's no reason for people to believe a rando like me anyway, so I'd rather not get into details. It would just lead to accusations of spin or insincerity (justifiably so; you have no reason to trust me.)

gamblor956 7y ago

A donation to a Christian charity would have been fine. There are thousands of them in the US and around the world. No, Eich specifically made a donation to a political campaign for CA's Prop 8 that used blood-libel-level lies to cast homosexuals as pedophiles and sexual predators and use that as a justification to deny them the right to marry. And this was the state of the Prop 8 campaign at the time he made the donation. He knew what they were about, and he donated to them anyway. So, yeah, he had it coming to him.

leosarev 7y ago
Please note that Prop 8 was actually supported by voters. So if supporting Prop 8 is reason for firing, more than half of voters of California should lose their jobs. I think that's unfair, and suspect that witch hunt campaign was probably initiated because of some kind of power games inside Mozilla. Also, please make note that there is zero evidence of any LBGT Mozilla employee was discriminated by Brendan Eich or even evidences of him discussing his stance on homosexual marriages at work. He was literally bullied and fired for his private life facts: fact that he privately supported same political stance than majority of California's voters.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  Please note that Prop 8 supporters spent many tens of millions of dollars lying about gays to get people to vote for Prop 8. They also lied about what the impact of Prop 8 would be. Also note that one of the biggest such spenders, the Mormon Church, formally apologized for its role in the Prop 8 campaign after they got to be in the receiving end of the lies during Romney's first presidential campaign.
leosarev 7y ago
Also, I'm living in Russia, and there is common knowledge that we have a lot of problems with democratic procedures here. I don't say that someone could not be fired for his voting or donating for opposition here, it definitely can happen. But it will probably cause media scandal, not media support
7y ago