Brendan Eich Javascript creator to Mozilla foundation

[woodsmoke]

Any comments by the folks who know about this kind of stuff?

Mozilla Appoints JavaScript Creator Brendan Eich As Its New CEO

woodsmoke

[claydoh]

I am leery of commenting, for numerous reasons. The main one being that this thing may be being overblown.

Not that there is anything even slightly nefarious behind things, but I think that there is something else behind the scenes here. The board selected him as CEO, he was with the Mozilla Corp since its founding. His Prop 8 donation has been public since 2012. This smacks of politics of internal sort.

[Qqmike]

This related? ;-) -->

Today, Mozilla’s Board of Directors and CEO Brendan Eich announced that Eich has decided to step down from the role of chief executive officer, effective immediately. The decision to step down comes after a week of intense backlash against Mozilla over Eich’s past support for efforts to deny equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
This is an important moment for the Mozilla community and a critical development in our ongoing fight for equality and the open web. As someone who signed the petition to Mozilla, you made a difference in this fight.
From Mozilla’s official statement:

“Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community. 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.”

No doubt Mozilla will be viciously attacked by the rightwing for taking this courageous stand.
You can show your support for Mozilla in several ways:

1) If you are on Twitter, show your public support by including the hashtags #standwithmozilla and #switchtofirefox

Here are some suggested tweets:

.@Mozilla stands up for equality! CEO steps down. #standwithmozilla #p2 #lgbt

CEO of @Mozilla steps down. #standwithmozilla by switching to @Firefox #p2 #lgbt

Victory for equality. #standwithmozilla #switchtofirefox #p2 #lgbt

2) Share this image in support on Facebook (just click the image): etc etc

3) If you’re not already using Firefox, consider switching to the only browser that supports equality for all under the law, net neutrality and an end to mass warrantless spying by the NSA.

It’s important to remember that Mozilla is not a company, it’s a movement supported by tens of thousands of volunteers around the world. Mozilla is a non-profit organization fighting to keep the web open and free for all of us. They put people above profit, and fight for user choice and privacy. Their mission is vitally important to every grassroots movement, including the work that we do here at CREDO.
Read below today’s statement by Mozilla:

Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves.

We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better.

Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community.

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.

While painful, the events of the last week show exactly why we need the web. So all of us can engage freely in the tough conversations we need to make the world better.

We need to put our focus back on protecting that Web. And doing so in a way that will make you proud to support Mozilla.

What’s next for Mozilla’s leadership is still being discussed. We want to be open about where we are in deciding the future of the organization and will have more information next week. However, our mission will always be to make the Web more open so that humanity is stronger, more inclusive and more just: that’s what it means to protect the open Web.

We will emerge from this with a renewed understanding and humility — our large, global, and diverse community is what makes Mozilla special, and what will help us fulfill our mission. We are stronger with you involved.

Thank you for sticking with us.

Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman

Thank you for standing with the Mozilla community against the rightwing attacks that are sure to come in response to their courageous statement today.
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets

[Qqmike]

note this: The decision to step down comes after a week of intense backlash against Mozilla over Eich’s past support for efforts to deny equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.

[whatthefunk]

So I guess people in top positions arent allowed to have opinions anymore. I think this is ridiculous. If you only bought/used products from companies whose CEO's personal views you agreed with, you would probably wouldnt own anything and would starve to death in a week.

[Qqmike]

It's probably true that consumers might be shocked to know the personal opinions and political views of many CEOs. I do think CEOs should be socially responsible, though; especially those in socially-conscious, health-promoting businesses. Whole Foods CEO is another one in hot water for his comments about worker rights and health care.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-wy..._b_259716.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/arti...icle_19053.cfm
And I can imagine how the liberal artists I know would be shocked to know of one of their supplier's CEOs stand on Christian-contraception issues (and purported hypocrisy re same), Hobby Lobby.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...ef=mostpopular

[whatthefunk]

It's probably true that consumers might be shocked to know the personal opinions and political views of many CEOs. I do think CEOs should be socially responsible, though; especially those in socially-conscious, health-promoting businesses. Whole Foods CEO is another one in hot water for his comments about worker rights and health care.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-wy..._b_259716.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/arti...icle_19053.cfm
And I can imagine how the liberal artists I know would be shocked to know of one of their supplier's CEOs stand on Christian-contraception issues (and purported hypocrisy re same), Hobby Lobby.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...ef=mostpopular

Yes, I definitely agree that corporations and the people that run them should be socially responsible. The fact that so few of them are is, in my opinion. the single biggest problem our world faces today. But if somebody has differing views about gay marriage than I do, I really dont care.

[Qqmike]

" ... if somebody has differing views about gay marriage than I do, I really don't care"

Yes, but some people may care, including some who are not gay; but certainly some who are gay.

Partly, it's a rational-cognitive thing. Partly, it's a feeling thing. Now, when I check out at Whole Foods and converse with my friendly clerk, I do not like the thought of how her CEO views workers and their welfare (especially at some of the high W-F prices of their goods). Is that cognitive dissonance? I have to look it up from Psych 101. No, it's not. But the CEO should have cognitive dissonance!

[oshunluvr]

Just claiming freedom of speech doesn't work in a commercialised world.

My only comment here is "Freedom of Speech" does not imply freedom from consequences resulting from what you say or do.

[Qqmike]

ABC television Morning News just devoted a lengthy spot on the Mozilla story.

[dibl]

My only comment here is "Freedom of Speech" does not imply freedom from consequences resulting from what you say or do.

+1


To which I would add this corollary: A person who is being paid to lead, had better have a pack of followers who support his leadership, if he wants to keep the job.

[smeghead]

So tolerance means that you have to think like everyone else or else you will be punished?

that doesn't sound like tolerance.

Firefox introduced me to open source, which lead me to kubuntu. Time to go see if chrome is in the repository...

#UninstallingFirefox

[Goeroeboeroe]

I think people are entitled to have their own opinion. Even CEO's. But.
Eich did not only have an opinion, he supported people who want to enforce their opinion on others. If you are against gay marriage, you shouldn't marry a gay, but why forbid other people to marry a gay?
A CEO is more or less the 'face' of a company. If you want to have such strong opinions about gay/lesbian rights, you can't be the CEO of a company like Mozilla. Mozilla is supposed to be in favor of things like freedom. If Russia (or any other country) starts to censor gay sites, how can I trust Mozilla (Firefox) will help to remove that censorship, when the CEO is so strong against equal rights for gay/lesbian people?
As some technical director, his former function, he's not the face of the company. As CEO he is.
If I support freedom of hunting deers in my 'personal time', in my profession I can't be CEO of some animal protection organization.

[perspectoff]

I park in front of the new Firefox building at Embarcadero and Harrison on the waterfront under the Bay Bridge in San Francisco some evenings. On a billboard a few doors away is a gay couple. There is no question of the gay influence in San Francisco.

The gay community in San Francisco, however, is often among the most militantly fascist and intolerant community (meaning anti-free speech and anti-freedom of thought) on earth, considering their orientation. Theirs is far from the "live and let-live" philosophy enjoyed in much of mainstream California. They strongly believe in imposing their minority views as "normal" for everyone else and "you will be punished" if you think differently from them. (Kind of how Microsoft treated Firefox in the beginning, lol).

The guy was not outspoken and, in fact, made a very small donation to a cause that won a public vote (by a pretty wide margin) on a democratic referendum. Minority opinions often want to "punish" someone for their opinion, even when that opinion happens to be the majority one at the time. That is very much against the democratic process in America.

Were Firefox located anywhere else, this may not have been such an issue, but being in downtown San Francisco, it is.

Don't think I'm anti-gay -- I lived with a gay couple for many months (but not in SF) and they are dear friends. They are not the intolerant, fascist types that pervade much of San Francisco, however.

[whatthefunk]

I think people are entitled to have their own opinion. Even CEO's. But.
Eich did not only have an opinion, he supported people who want to enforce their opinion on others. If you are against gay marriage, you shouldn't marry a gay, but why forbid other people to marry a gay?
A CEO is more or less the 'face' of a company. If you want to have such strong opinions about gay/lesbian rights, you can't be the CEO of a company like Mozilla. Mozilla is supposed to be in favor of things like freedom. If Russia (or any other country) starts to censor gay sites, how can I trust Mozilla (Firefox) will help to remove that censorship, when the CEO is so strong against equal rights for gay/lesbian people?
As some technical director, his former function, he's not the face of the company. As CEO he is.
If I support freedom of hunting deers in my 'personal time', in my profession I can't be CEO of some animal protection organization.

Having an opinion often means that you are against other opinions and try to make your opinion law. If all laws that forced opinion on others were erased from the law, there would be no laws. Laws are basically restrictions on freedoms. America is unusual in that they complain th most about freedoms but also have more laws than just about anywhere. So if someone has an opinion and fights for that opinion, isnt this normal? If nobody fought for their opinions what kind of world would we live in?