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Brendan Eich donated to a proposal opposed to same sex marriage during a year that Barack Obama was opposed to same sex marriage. Do you believe that Barack Oba
by will4274 6y ago
Brendan Eich donated to a proposal opposed to same sex marriage during a year that Barack Obama was opposed to same sex marriage. Do you believe that Barack Obama's opposition to same sex marriage should have made him unsuitable for any executive employment (i.e. in the private sector as a CEO, or in the public sector as a Mayor, Governor, or POTUS)?
At companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple, you can work on a browser regardless of your political views. At Mozilla, you need to think a certain way first. A smaller pool of technical talent to choose from leads to worse technical leadership. Recall that Eich only became the CEO (over the opposition of a portion of the board) after months where Mozilla was searching and couldn't find anybody better. It's not that the people who have particular political views are particularly talented, it's just that some of them are talented, just like the people who disagree with them. If you can include talented people of all stripes, you can do better than if you restrict yourself to talented people from a single ideological group.
- pseudalopex 6y agoEich was Mozilla's CTO when the donation became widely known. Nothing came of it for 2 years until he was promoted to CEO. You can discriminate against LGBT people outside of work and still work on a browser at Mozilla. You just can't be in charge of everything.
- will4274 6y ago> You just can't be in charge of everything. Unless by "everything" you mean the government of the United State of America (the country where Mozilla has its headquarters), in which case, it's OK again (Obama opposed same sex marriage at the time when Eich made his donation). You can dress it up like Eich's views were some big sin that demands banishment from society, but of America's 45 presidents, 44 of them agreed with Eich, and the one who disagreed initially agreed with Eich before disagreeing with him. So, I'm pretty sure you can be in charge of everything with those views.
- cycloptic 6y agoThis is really not a productive line of discussion, please stop. If you have any friends who are same-sex couples, ask them who they would vote for if they were sent back in time to all those previous elections. That's a real way to move the conversation forward that doesn't involve speculating about why certain famous and/or powerful people acted the way they did, many of whom are now dead and can't be given the chance to explain themselves anyway.
- bronson 6y agoIf the US adhered to the Mozilla Manifesto then you might have a point. Until then, it’s fine to hold Obama and Eich to different standards.
- d3nj4l 6y ago> Do you believe that Barack Obama's opposition to same sex marriage should have made him unsuitable for any executive employment (i.e. in the private sector as a CEO, or in the public sector as a Mayor, Governor, or POTUS)? Yes.