Goodbye, Firefox Marketplace(teamrarebit.com)

http://www.teamrarebit.com/blog/2014/03/24/goodbye_firefox_marketplace/

257 comments

"This is a strange one to me and can indeed be a sticky situation. I am NOT judging people who use Firefox, work at Mozilla, or even support Brendan’s right to his opinions. It’s fine that you think I shouldn’t judge his opinion. (This is getting confusing). However, this particular subject is not one that is negotiable to us. We are personally affected by his actions.

It’s not his belief that hurts us. It’s that he actively donated to a cause that directly negatively affected us, personally. It’s not abstract. It’s not a witch hunt. He’s certainly allowed to have his opinion, of course, but I’m allowed to judge his actions of supporting the cause financially.

Actions have consequences."

There you go, sums it up right there. Some past actions are hard to overlook when you're personally affected by it. However you view the news of Brendan Eich's new CEO position and people's opinions of that, you can't ignore the human element of his insignificant (financially) but significant (philosophically) prop 8 contribution and how people take it personally.

Edit: Adding onto my thought of how I view the human element in this story: we all try to be rational, but I bet you everyone of us throw that away for a gut feeling we have of someone. If you don't like someone, no amount of reason will make that go away. That feeling spreads to what they're associated with. In retrospect, we reason our gut feeling and we either turn out right or wrong. I understand hcatlin's decision in that sense since I have felt that way before.

msujaws12년 전

There are people at every large software company that donated to one of the sides of the political battle. Some of them may have received a promotion after the fact. Does that mean that you should boycott those companies too? (Google, Apple, etc.)

After all, after people get paid from their job, shouldn't it be their right that they can use their money as they please?

archgoon12년 전

> After all, after people get paid from their job, shouldn't it be their right that they can use their money as they please?

"He’s certainly allowed to have his opinion, of course, but I’m allowed to judge his actions of supporting the cause financially."

hcatlin12년 전

If they are promoted to CEO, then... yes. Hence why we were building apps for it knowing full-well that he was a homophobic CTO. CEO is a whole other level, and was our personal line.

pessimizer12년 전

>After all, after people get paid from their job, shouldn't it be their right that they can use their money as they please?

If they spent that money attacking your family, would you be willing to do business with them?

gcb012년 전

I will eat my proverbial hat if you can find one executive from a top company that never promoted taxes for the income range my family is into.

vertex-four12년 전

I assure you that marriage is an entirely different ballgame than raising some taxes. Did you read the entire post?

chris_wot12년 전

There are a number of companies who have executives who make business decisions that are morally questionable. I have often said its best not to use those companies, but often it's not possible.

Boycotts are effective: I have participated in one against Australia's Kyle Sandilands. You won't always be able to do this, however.

protomyth12년 전

I would be very surprised if in an average day you don't buy product or services from a company that has donated or has C-level executives that have donated to some cause that attacks you or your family. I know of at least one company that donates to a group because of the group's work in China that is directly attacking the families of their customers in the US.

Before this goes to my personal views: I'm not Californian so I don't vote there and I am one of those small government folks that believe the government should only do civil unions (no mention of marriage) as a matter of contract law between two or more consenting adults.

true_religion12년 전

> I would be very surprised if in an average day you don't buy product or services from a company that has donated or has C-level executives that have donated to some cause that attacks you or your family.

I'd actually be surprised if this is the case. What possible causes would they donate to that will count as an 'attack'?

pigeons12년 전

political parties

protomyth12년 전

The case I site is an environmental group, but there are actually quite a few different attacks (lawsuit based) that happen in the US.

true_religion12년 전

Is the argument then they are hurting the environment or want to ergo are attacking your family indirectly?

protomyth12년 전

It was direct lawsuits (not me, just a company I know).

tehwalrus12년 전

Gay rights is not a "moral fashion" as some people are calling it.

This is a group of people who have been systematically terrorised throughout history, and some people still want to keep that status quo that holds them down as second class citizens, with less legal rights (like the right to immigrate in order to live together.)

Screw that meta-ethical/normative moral relativism[1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_relativism

it_learnses12년 전

Good for you. I also up until now thought Mozilla was fighting for the little guy and as a developer I've been wanting to work for them. Not anymore. There's no way I want to work for a company whose CEO has publicly supported voting against two people's right to be happy.

For those that say don't mix business with politics, think about what you are saying. Politics affect our day to day lives and the way we live or die. How can we separate politics from any other sphere of our lives?

solo_12년 전

I understand where the authors are coming from. They're made that Eich supported a bill that denies their rights. However, what Eich does is his own, personal business. The writers, at least in my mind, are mixing business with their personal lives.

I support gay marriage, but I think that this isn't too much more than needless outrage. When someone boycotts Google because Google supports gay marriage, a lot of us look at them and go "Wow! What an idiot, boycotting Google because they think that Google is immoral! They're the immoral ones!" This is the exact same thing, it just happens that the authors' views align with our own. I think it's ultimately just petty. I'm glad gay couples can marry in California, where I currently live. I think it's a step in the right direction. I just think that needless outrage like this, which only isolates you from potential customers, gets us nowhere. We get it, you disagree with the CEO's personal values. I understand your outrage, and that might mean nothing to you. I just think there has to be a better way than this to actually get your point across.

wpietri12년 전

By trying to keep these guys from getting married, Eich made it personal.

As the court decisions have shown, keeping them from getting married was an unconstitutional imposition upon their civil rights. Whereas them deciding whom to do business with is totally legit. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.