The clear difference from the outset was that Coinbase merely banned discussion of politics, whereas Basecamp made a whole host of changes where the general the

The clear difference from the outset was that Coinbase merely banned discussion of politics, whereas Basecamp made a whole host of changes where the general theme was to restrict any rank-and-file involvement in decision-making and turn the company into one ruled by diktat from the top. It's why I fully expected that these changes had little to do with politics, but more about employees criticizing some aspect of internal governance.