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The majority / minority argument does not hold. Oppressed minorities are not always in the right. Arguments around gay marriage / politics / Brendan need to ste
by samelawrence 13y ago
The majority / minority argument does not hold. Oppressed minorities are not always in the right. Arguments around gay marriage / politics / Brendan need to step back and argue the issues, not the size or relative social power of the groups involved.
I happen to agree with your side of the issue, but let's talk about the issue, not make it a David and Goliath straw man debate. The term "witch hunt" may or may not apply. As an example, we might say that during the French Revolution, the proletariat (oppressed majority, wat?) went on a witch hunt against aristocracy (minority holding majority power) and members of the royal court, regardless of their fault.
- zorpner 13y agoWe can call this a witch hunt when same-sex-marriage proponents start guillotining the opposition in public squares, then ;) More to the point, the David/Goliath straw man occurs at the point that someone says "witch hunt", invoking ideas of a prosecutorial mob hunting an innocent scapegoat down. Addressing the inappropriateness of the term directly is not a strawman (and additionally, I specifically addressed the content of the OP's argument in the first part of my post).
- alexqgb 13y agoUnlike actual witch hunts - which were notoriously short on evidence - this episode has an actual smoking gun. Or more precisely, a smoking checkbook.
- chris_wot 13y agoAre you saying that Brendan Eich's personal views are that of Mozilla's as an organisation?
- alexqgb 13y agoNo you nitwit, I was talking about the absurdity of calling the campaign against him a with hunt. But now that you mention it, the organization - in overlooking this particular view - sent a clear signal that it takes the issue a good deal less seriously that a significant number of its stakeholders. That's starting to look like a major mistake.
- chris_wot 13y ago"Nitwit". I guess Hacker News discourse devolves in a slightly more civilised fashion. To really show me I'm wrong, or have asked a particularly stupid question, next time consider stronger language.