Marc Andreessen: I regret not doing more to support and defend Brendan Eich

https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/1778898760971821271

by becausepc • 2 years ago

37 47 2 years ago

ggm• 2 years ago

Did Eich use his position to advance his advocacy? That's really the only question of merit. If he applied his views to hiring or firing decisions, that's an HR and legal matter all of its own.

SuperNinKenDo5• 2 years ago

The entire thing was simply that he had donated to some Christian organisations, some of which spent some of their time advocating against gay marriage. That was it.

bjord2• 2 years ago

incorrect—eich donated to the campaign for california proposition 8, which was "a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage", and actually passed at the time, but was later overturned in court

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_California_Proposition_8

makeitdouble3• 2 years ago

There's an infinite number of arguments on how his publicly expressed (these donations were not anonymous) personal views impact his role as the head of an organization.

If for instance valuable members of the org quit on it, recruiting becomes noticeably harder, Mozilla's PR is impacted and investors aren't happy about it, I'd assume that's enough to ask him to step down.

raxxorraxor3• 2 years ago

Is that the case? Same applies to people trying to oust others on such grounds. I would never support an organization with that much lack of a spine and in my quite pragmatic views the requirements here are fairly low due to economic realities.

I trust the leadership of Mozilla a fair bit less than previously and I believe it at least now has a toxic work environment I also would probably not like to work for.

I still do support Mozilla projects, but I am far more careful of that today.

tjansen• 2 years ago

Ousting him had similar impact. I used to like Mozilla, but ever after that incident using Mozilla feels wrong. And I am not even a fan of Eich.

SuperNinKenDo5• 2 years ago

Too little, too late I'd say. This pattern is already thoroughly normalised.

MOARDONGZPLZ2• 2 years ago

Seems like he actively fought against equal rights and a level playing field. That position should be morally repugnant in a modern society. I’d say doing nothing (I.e. too little) was actually too much.

dartharva• 2 years ago

Seems like

SuperNinKenDo5• 2 years ago

You can say whatever you like. When the mob comes for you, you'll cry foul and appeal to freedom of conscience. Nobody will give a damn because that isn't a value anyone cleaves to any longer. Nobody cares that YOU think YOUR principles are a special case.

logicchains• 2 years ago

It worked out for the best; we probably wouldn't have Brave otherwise.

tibbydudeza• 2 years ago

The problem was that he was CEO of Mozilla - pretty sure they have had am outsized sample of LGBTQ people in their employ and other tech organizations which they interacted with.

How could he lead an organization when his personal biases was made clear by these donations which was to deny them what most people consider to be a basic human right - the right to life and happiness.

michaelmrose• 2 years ago

Would it be defensible if he hated blacks and Jewish people and fought against legalizing interracial marriage?

scandinavian• 2 years ago

He's also an avid anti-vaxer and covid conspiracist. Does it matter? Not sure. I will personally not touch anything he is helming (brave).

BrendanEich• 2 years ago

Unlike you and your smears, I make my positions clear and cite my sources for them.

If you mean by "anti-vaxer (sic)" my opposition to the Covid shots and mandates, then so be it. Many, including me, who have had older vaccines, especially from before the 1986 US liability shield and subsequent problems, are "anti-vax". Even though we still vaccinate our children.

"Covid conspiracist" must mean I cited lab leak possibility and reasons for considering it. Now that federal agencies agree, you should reconsider this lame smear attempt.

Your use of (misspelled) "spell words" (Roger Scruton's phrase) to curse me marks you as superstitious and thoughtless. Do better!

weberer4• 2 years ago

Its easy to say that now that the pendulum is swinging back the other way. But where were the voices of reason for the past 10 years when free expression was under attack?

0xDEADFED5• 2 years ago

Eich is free to express his opinions and free to suffer the consequences. CEO is a very political position and he made a politically bone-headed move. I don't see how it could have ended any differently.

weberer4• 2 years ago

It was obviously a targeted, coordinated attack. People were looking decades back into his donation history to try to find anything that tied him to "the right wing". A thousand dollars a decade before to a anti-gay-marriage proposition in California that most Californians agreed with him on at the time. A few thousand dollars two decades back to Ron Paul. Why do you claim he should "suffer" for that? Should half the country "suffer" as well just for voting Republican?

Meanwhile, around the same time, Bill Gates was meeting with Epstein, and that received less than 1/10th of the media coverage. He was sending emails about "staying late into the night" at Epstein's house with a woman and her underaged daughter. But that's ok, because he's on "our side".

raxxorraxor3• 2 years ago

The people doing public witch hunts should suffer the consequences of their childish behavior then and this won't be too constructive in furthering their stated goals.

This self-righteous bickering is indicative of more character flaws than Eich displayed with his opinions.

hagbard_c2• 2 years ago

CEO is a very political position and he made a politically bone-headed move

No, that is not what happened. Political activists inside companies have gained power as a result of the 'long march through the institutions [1] which they have been using to enforce their ideology in rigid fashion. This started in the lunch rooms but eventually reached all the way to the top. Eich, like many other CEO's was replaced by a political activist - in this case Mitchell Baker - who used her position to further her ideological goals while simultaneously enriching herself. She is only one of many who is guilty of this type of fiduciary breach of confidence.

The fact that these 'champagne socialists' strut their virtue while filling their coffers - in Dutch this this is called 'links lullen, rechts vullen' (talk left but hoard right) - only makes it all the more galling and clear that their ideology is only a thin veneer over a lust for greed and power [2].

[1] https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/scholarship/2020s/2022-kimba...

[2] That same ideology sees everything in the world as an eternal power game between the oppressive and the oppressed and calls for a permanent revolution against the powerful - i.e. against themselves.

mrkeen• 2 years ago

"for taking private civic action based upon his quiet Christian faith"

One can only dream of a world in which all civic actions are secular, and religious matters are private and quiet.

rsynnott• 2 years ago

Ah, yes, quietly and faithfully paying for a campaign to keep people like me second-class citizens. Ah, well, that's fine, then, as long as it's nice and polite and Christian.

(Back when equal marriage was a live political issue here, I must say I think I _preferred_ the out-and-proud homophobes to the ones who hid behind religious claims. At least they were honest in their hatred.)

EA-3167• 2 years ago

France is living this dream already and has been for over a century. It takes legal protections for secularism and the enforcement of those laws, it's simple, but it isn't easy.

vcg3rd• 2 years ago

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/04/the-anti-...

Marc Andreessen: I regret not doing more to support and defend Brendan Eich

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