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Paul Biggar removed from CircleCI board for pro-Palestine blog post

97 points by dmazin 3y ago

chmod775 3y ago
I assume this is the post in question: https://blog.paulbiggar.com/i-cant-sleep/ https://blog.paulbiggar.com/i-cant-sleep/ HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38645523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38645523 [flagged] - 124 points, 81 comments It reads like he knew what he was getting into. He chose to have a clear conscience and damn the consequences. That shows strength of character, which is a commendable quality.
- falserum 3y ago
  Thanks. I wonder whether this line was 50% of the reason for dismissal (and Palestine things being the other half): > Secondly, don’t make money for investors who whitewash genocide, namely partners at Boldstart, DCVC, Harrison Metal, Redpoint, Bessemer, Sequoia, or First Round. (I.e. call for boycott. Very uncapitalist)
  - krapp 3y ago
    Boycotting is simply choosing to vote against a company's principles or actions with your wallet, which is the essence of capitalism.
- evanelias 3y ago
  In that HN discussion, one of his suggested solutions was for Israel to "pull back 50 miles from Gaza for a number of years" [1] East-to-west, Israel is only 71 miles at its widest point [2] and is mostly much narrower than that. Meanwhile the Gaza Strip is only 7.5 miles wide at its widest point. [3] Yet he's calling for a 50-mile pullback to bring about peace, among many other things. Is he ignorant about the region's basic geography? Or is he fully aware of this and is nonetheless seriously calling for Israel to abandon a sizeable chunk of the country? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38654221 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38654221 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Israel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Israel [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip#Geography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip#Geography
dojitza1 3y ago
I always thought about the public discourse regarding wars in general Let's say the majority of the population is simply 'anti war' and focus on these people. Is it not sufficient to support this message? Does not with with us = against us actually apply to wars (or maybe this particular war) Wonder what your thoughts on this are.
- zaktoo2 3y ago
  Firstly, this is not a war, it is a genocide against unarmed civilians. Anyone saying anything else is absolutely evil. Secondly, if anti-war is a synonym for anti-violence, which I believe it is in this case, then the cold reality is that Palestinians have tried peaceful protest before, and they were simply gunned down by laughing IDF monsters. Some regimes will only be defeated by violence. This Zionist regime seems to be one such. Lastly, silence in the face of such atrocities is violence, as the cliche has it.
ericfrazier 3y ago
[flagged]
- dwb 3y ago
  What is anti-Semitic about his post? He criticised the actions of the IDF and Israeli government, which as we should all agree must not be conflated with Judaism.
  - rho138 3y ago
    The inability for the general population to decouple the religion & people from the state are wild to me.
- konart 3y ago
  It is not. And even if it was - moves like this one should be considered as one of the reasons. PS: at least read his post.
gmerc 3y ago
The headline pushes the myth that losing sleep over the death of civilians is pro-Palestine and not anti-genocide and pro-human.
chmod775 3y ago
This doesn't seem to be welcome, since this submission at 1 hours old, 37 points and 7 comments just completely disappeared from the first 10 pages of HN without even having flagged status. While that's fair, since this likely to devolve into an emotional political debate, in the context of this story it leaves a bad aftertaste. Edit: And now it's [flagged] too.
- isthatafact 3y ago
  Instead of simply flagging, I wish people would suggest an appropriate place to discuss these topics -- zombie twitter, reddit, facebook etc. or their clones are not at all usable for me, and I would guess not very pleasant for the majority of people interested in genuine discussion. Besides that, why are tech leaders "cancelling" anyone who speaks out against mass killing of humans? I genuinely do not understand what is happening.
  - smoothjazz 3y ago
    What I found surprising was how militant and extreme so many in the venture capital community were about Israel. The vast majority of people I know are very pro-Palestinan and see Israel as an oppressive cold war relic that needs to go the way of South Africa. On October 7th we woke up to an industry where the financiers were very much at odds with the market, staff, world population... and it seems like they've done nothing but double down since then. It's really upsetting, especially since we've seen 20k civilians killed and vcs are still cheering on Israel.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - hdlothia 3y ago
    Do these topics even get discussed? Even here, a place that is calmer than most, people are already calling people that disagree with them horrible names.
rowanseymour 3y ago
Frustrating to see this story flagged already. Can we not even talk about censorship of pro-Palestinian voices in the tech world? Is this story not news worthy?
- lostmsu 3y ago
  It is. But angry evil people tend to equalize discussion of should talking about their decisions be allowed with actually supporting the opposite decision.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] More here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38741160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38741160
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ngcc_hk 3y ago
Any further details? Hard to extract info from dialogue.
x1ph0z 3y ago
[flagged]
thrillgore 3y ago
Just because you flagged this story doesn't mean it didn't happen.
esafwan 3y ago
Few remaining tall people in tech.

97 points by dmazin 3y ago

I assume this is the post in question: https://blog.paulbiggar.com/i-cant-sleep/ https://blog.paulbiggar.com/i-cant-sleep/ HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38645523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38645523 [flagged] - 124 points, 81 comments It reads like he knew what he was getting into. He chose to have a clear conscience and damn the consequences. That shows strength of character, which is a commendable quality.

falserum 3y ago
Thanks. I wonder whether this line was 50% of the reason for dismissal (and Palestine things being the other half): > Secondly, don’t make money for investors who whitewash genocide, namely partners at Boldstart, DCVC, Harrison Metal, Redpoint, Bessemer, Sequoia, or First Round. (I.e. call for boycott. Very uncapitalist)
- krapp 3y ago
  Boycotting is simply choosing to vote against a company's principles or actions with your wallet, which is the essence of capitalism.
evanelias 3y ago
In that HN discussion, one of his suggested solutions was for Israel to "pull back 50 miles from Gaza for a number of years" [1] East-to-west, Israel is only 71 miles at its widest point [2] and is mostly much narrower than that. Meanwhile the Gaza Strip is only 7.5 miles wide at its widest point. [3] Yet he's calling for a 50-mile pullback to bring about peace, among many other things. Is he ignorant about the region's basic geography? Or is he fully aware of this and is nonetheless seriously calling for Israel to abandon a sizeable chunk of the country? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38654221 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38654221 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Israel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Israel [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip#Geography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip#Geography

dojitza1 3y ago

I always thought about the public discourse regarding wars in general Let's say the majority of the population is simply 'anti war' and focus on these people. Is it not sufficient to support this message? Does not with with us = against us actually apply to wars (or maybe this particular war) Wonder what your thoughts on this are.

zaktoo2 3y ago
Firstly, this is not a war, it is a genocide against unarmed civilians. Anyone saying anything else is absolutely evil. Secondly, if anti-war is a synonym for anti-violence, which I believe it is in this case, then the cold reality is that Palestinians have tried peaceful protest before, and they were simply gunned down by laughing IDF monsters. Some regimes will only be defeated by violence. This Zionist regime seems to be one such. Lastly, silence in the face of such atrocities is violence, as the cliche has it.

ericfrazier 3y ago

[flagged]

dwb 3y ago
What is anti-Semitic about his post? He criticised the actions of the IDF and Israeli government, which as we should all agree must not be conflated with Judaism.
- rho138 3y ago
  The inability for the general population to decouple the religion & people from the state are wild to me.
konart 3y ago
It is not. And even if it was - moves like this one should be considered as one of the reasons. PS: at least read his post.

gmerc 3y ago

The headline pushes the myth that losing sleep over the death of civilians is pro-Palestine and not anti-genocide and pro-human.

chmod775 3y ago

This doesn't seem to be welcome, since this submission at 1 hours old, 37 points and 7 comments just completely disappeared from the first 10 pages of HN without even having flagged status. While that's fair, since this likely to devolve into an emotional political debate, in the context of this story it leaves a bad aftertaste. Edit: And now it's [flagged] too.

isthatafact 3y ago
Instead of simply flagging, I wish people would suggest an appropriate place to discuss these topics -- zombie twitter, reddit, facebook etc. or their clones are not at all usable for me, and I would guess not very pleasant for the majority of people interested in genuine discussion. Besides that, why are tech leaders "cancelling" anyone who speaks out against mass killing of humans? I genuinely do not understand what is happening.
- smoothjazz 3y ago
  What I found surprising was how militant and extreme so many in the venture capital community were about Israel. The vast majority of people I know are very pro-Palestinan and see Israel as an oppressive cold war relic that needs to go the way of South Africa. On October 7th we woke up to an industry where the financiers were very much at odds with the market, staff, world population... and it seems like they've done nothing but double down since then. It's really upsetting, especially since we've seen 20k civilians killed and vcs are still cheering on Israel.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- hdlothia 3y ago
  Do these topics even get discussed? Even here, a place that is calmer than most, people are already calling people that disagree with them horrible names.

rowanseymour 3y ago

Frustrating to see this story flagged already. Can we not even talk about censorship of pro-Palestinian voices in the tech world? Is this story not news worthy?

lostmsu 3y ago
It is. But angry evil people tend to equalize discussion of should talking about their decisions be allowed with actually supporting the opposite decision.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] More here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38741160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38741160

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

ngcc_hk 3y ago

Any further details? Hard to extract info from dialogue.

x1ph0z 3y ago

[flagged]

thrillgore 3y ago

Just because you flagged this story doesn't mean it didn't happen.

esafwan 3y ago

Few remaining tall people in tech.