You may have heard of the kerfuffle with Mozilla CEO Brendan
Eich lately. If you haven’t, here’s a
nutshell recap.
Brendan Eich is one of the co-founders of Mozilla – the
software foundation responsible for the open-source Firefox browser, debatably
the second most popular browser in the world – and the creator of Javascript,
which is a computer language that runs pretty much throughout the
Internet. If you use a browser at all, you
have Eich to thank for it.
In 2008, Eich donated $1000 of his personal money to the
Proposition 8 movement, which supported traditional marriage in
California. It passed easily, with over
52% support from voters (in the ultra-blue lib-crazy California, no less). A long series of legal battles ensued, with
the end result being that liberal activist judges got it tossed out despite the
clear will of the people of California.
Fast forward to March of this year, when Eich was appointed the new CEO
of Mozilla. Suddenly, gay rights
activists screamed foul, and after a week of intense heat, Eich stepped down
from leading the company he founded. He
had never let his personal views interfere with his work life, and no one ever
accused him of doing so, but that didn’t matter to the witch hunters.
I think it’s particularly instructive to look at the
statement issued on the official company
blog:
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.
Let’s think about this.
The first paragraph makes no sense at all – why is equality necessary
for meaningful speech? Doesn’t the right
to free speech inherently mean that equality isn’t necessarily guaranteed? You can be in the minority on something and
still speak your mind about it, can’t you?
That’s the whole point of the right to free speech! In the second paragraph when it talks about welcoming
contributions from everyone, their actions indicate otherwise. An accurate statement would be that they
welcome contributions from everyone who doesn’t disagree with their pop culture
view of social issues. Equality for
all? Really? You mean like how Eich doesn’t have the right
to support whatever political cause he chooses with his own personal
money? That’s equality? And, might I once again point out that Eich
was in the clear majority of Californians (and Americans in general) on his
support of traditional marriage? Funny
how once again the most tolerant among us turn out to be the most intolerant of
any dissent.
And, might I also point out that this was the position of
one Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States, as well (he didn’t
switch positions until after he was re-elected in 2012). Nevertheless, he’s not the only prominent
person to hold that position:
“Have ye not read, that he which
made them at the beginning made them male and female,” Jesus told the Pharisees
[in Matthew 19], “And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother,
and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they
are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let
not man put asunder.”
Here, Jesus was reinforcing the
message of Genesis that in marriage, man and woman are “no more twain” but
rather “one flesh,” a status that eludes even the most devoted of gay
couples. This tradition dates back at
least three millennia and quite likely to the beginning of human history. Western civilization is based on this
understanding. To ask its adherents to
abandon the tradition for the sake of a fad, no matter how ruthless, is to ask
for more than one will get.
The Roman Catholic Church openly
backed Proposition 8, as did the Knights of Columbus, the Mormon Church, the
Eastern Orthodox Church, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, and Rick
Warren’s Saddleback Church. The leaders
of some of these institutions may yield under relentless social pressure, as
many of their younger adherents have already done, but at some point, there
will be no more ground to give.
A precious few on the Left understand what is really at
stake here or are willing
to be honest about it:
This state of affairs prompted Andrew
Sullivan, a gay author and columnist, to essentially accuse gay activists of
quashing Eich's First Amendment rights: "The whole episode disgusts me –
as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society,"
he wrote. "If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are
no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us."
That’s exactly right.
Hypocrisy? Hard to find a better
example. Intolerance on the part of the
supposed tolerant? No doubt. I would guess Sullivan also understands that
this viewpoint is, in fact, in the minority, and that if this is how policy and
employment questions are decided, then all it takes for such favor to vanish
like mist is for the pendulum to swing the other way.
Here’s the bottom
line (emphasis mine):
This isn’t new:
we have seen it take place on a national level with Chick-fil-A. Many of
us have seen people outed at work for their support of Prop 8. Busloads
of angry mobsters have descended on the private property of CEOs. We have
seen Tea Parties shaken down by the IRS. We know there is a Hollywood blacklist
for conservatives. It has been a slow trickle that is fast turning into a
full stream.
This is NOT about
Prop 8, gay marriage and religion. That is just the context in which this
latest abuse has come to be. It is about the freedom -- in your personal
life -- to believe as you do, support the candidates and issues you want, and
to be left in peace to do so without fear of recrimination at the place where
you make your livelihood.
If competent
individuals can be fired at work for their personal stances on issues that they
do not bring into the workplace, then we are no longer in a free and open
society, but a very tightly closed one where fear reigns and keeps us all under
control--where our beliefs must yield to pre-set political and religious dogma
we are force fed. …
All of that talk
about equality, justice, liberty, tolerance and diversity, is just talk.
It’s a one way street leading to oppression. And so frenzied are they
with their viewpoints -- so intent on crushing any opposing ideas-- that they
are blinded to their own bigotry.
So now, no longer is
it just the government that can single you out, punish and persecute you for
being a patriot or a tea partier. Now, your employer can as well.
And then, maybe your landlord. And, why not the local hospital? And
what about your kids in school? …
Knowledge is indeed
power, and when those in power can use their knowledge of what you do outside
of work to determine your professional fate, we have indeed stepped behind the
Iron Curtain.
This is simply
chilling.
When you break it all down, that’s exactly what this is:
radical liberals using any and every tactic – legally, ethically, or not – to bully
and intimidate political opponents into silence or submission. Yes, it sounds like the former Soviet
Union. It should, because it’s exactly
the same strategy, being conducted by people who believe exactly the same
things.
It will only persist if the majority of Americans who don’t
subscribe to such tactics – regardless of what they think of the actual issue
of the moment – refuse to accept it. If
such a refusal doesn’t occur, it will not stop until this country is
unrecognizable.
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