Topic: Liberal Fascism
The nerve of Brendan Eich! Back in 2008 he contributed $1,000 to Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative to amend the state constitution with a definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. What could he have been thinking? Perhaps that “gay marriage” is an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp”?
Well, anyhow, fast forward to 2014. Eich was hired as the new CEO of Mozilla, a company that describes itself in these soaring terms: “[W]e’re a global community of technologists, thinkers and builders working together to keep the Internet alive and accessible, so people worldwide can be informed contributors and creators of the Web. We believe this act of human collaboration across an open platform is essential to individual growth and our collective future.” Heaven forbid, though, that the dauntless defenders of the “open platform” would allow into their ranks a man who has expressed a doubt about the sanctity of same-sex marriage! When his Proposition 8 contribution came to light, Eich was hounded out of his new job by a raving mob of sensitive, inclusive, progressive thinkers. And this was done in the name of inclusiveness, tolerance, and free expression!
On the Mozilla blog Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker announced Eich’s “decision to resign” in a statement that bids fair to take the all-time prize for intellectual dishonesty and sheer effrontery:
Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard.
Our organizational culture reflects diversity and inclusiveness. We welcome contributions from everyone regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender-identity, language, race, sexual orientation, geographical location and religious views. Mozilla supports equality for all.
We have employees with a wide diversity of views. Our culture of openness extends to encouraging staff and community to share their beliefs and opinions in public. This is meant to distinguish Mozilla from most organizations and hold us to a higher standard. But this time we failed to listen, to engage, and to be guided by our community.
This from a woman who permitted one of those employees to be hounded out of his job for…diversity of viewpoint!
What is very obvious is that despite the high-flown corporate rhetoric with which Mozilla robes itself, the management of this company believes in neither freedom of speech nor equality. Nor does it welcome contributions from everyone. Nor does it foster a culture of openness. Mozilla is a little Oceania, complete with doublethink, Newspeak and the Two Minutes Hate.
