The culture of shut up
Monday, April 7th, 2014I’ve been trying to find good words to say about the McCarthyist botch of political correctness run amok at Mozilla this past week. I think this pretty much takes care of what needs saying.
Can hardly believe it’s from a former Obama speech writer.
(H/T JG)
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April 8th, 2014
Good one. Thanks.
April 8th, 2014
Is that anything like the McCarthyite bunch of political correctness at Guns & Ammo? ;)
April 8th, 2014
Tam — Um, why would a Mozilla guy’s private opinions, unrelated to his work, be anything like an editorial written by a supposed gun writer, in a gun magazine, that showed shocking ignorance of the Second Amendment?
April 8th, 2014
When you’re the CEO, I would argue that there isn’t much about you that isn’t related to your work.
Anyhow, I’m probably not going to change any minds on this, and so I’m willing to concede.
April 8th, 2014
‘And Ted says, “Check your privilege.”’
Sounds like he’s paraphrasing Rand’s “Check your premises.” If so, Lovett is more broadly (and tolerantly) read than I would have figured.
April 8th, 2014
Of course in actual reality, McCarthy’s warnings, rather than being hysterical witch-hunts, were actually quite accurate. In this case, it’s simple: The lavender lobby has claimed another corporate scalp. But instead of wailing and gnashing their teeth, Republicans and libertarians should be glad that they are now free to fire people for political cause.
April 8th, 2014
“When you’re the CEO, I would argue that there isn’t much about you that isn’t related to your work.”
Especially stuff that happened 6 years before you ever become CEO, and which was already mooted by multiple court decisions, and which no one on either side of the d/e/b/a/t/e/ pseudorandom oral frothing claims you ever allowed to impact your work. Stuff which had never been an issue during the years you were CTO for that same outfit.
April 8th, 2014
Eh, I gave up reading half way through. The guy is complaining because there is social pressure. Good luck getting rid of that! :-)
What bother me is not that people whack others for being “insensitive”, but that those whacked apologize for it, rather then telling the whackers to take a hike. The correct way to handle PC is to do like the Duck Dynasty guy did.
By the way, I whacked Jim Zumbo when he did his dumb-ass thing. And so did many others, and he lost a lot of monetary support from his readers.
Bottom line, there is the virtual world of memes and the real, physical world. In both worlds you have to watch your step. Crying about it won’t make it go away.
April 8th, 2014
“Jon Lovett… served for three years as a speechwriter to President Obama in the White House.”
“…our first foreign-born president, Barack Obama….” – Jon Lovett
So where was this guy when anyone who dared to question Obama’s qualifications was told to shut up? Apparently writing the very speeches which told them to shut up—all the while knowing that his employer was in clear violation of the Constitution? Will no one (say, the editors of The Atlantic) call him on this?
I’m sorry, but this is just another liberal feelgood piece that expends a river of words while actually saying nothing of consequence. I say this as a former liberal; I recognize the rhetoric. And rhetoric is all it is, no substance. “Why can’t we all just get along? (Except those who are really beyond the pale—by my definition, of course. They should just shut up.)” Feelgood sells, yeah; he should know. But that doesn’t mean it has any value; if you’re trying to get to the truth, feelgood as a priority is far more likely to hinder than to help. You can have only one first priority.
April 8th, 2014
@Philalethes: I wondered if anyone else had caught that little pearl. I found that little sentence to be the most interesting bit of the article.
“Anyway, I was thinking about the First Amendment and the freedom of speech, and what lessons I could draw on my time in politics, working for then-Senator Hillary Clinton and our first foreign-born president, Barack Obama,”
April 8th, 2014
Given the overall joking tone of many of the author’s comments, I’m pretty sure “foreign-born” was meant sarcastically.
April 8th, 2014
First off I can’t let this go. The only way the Eich and Metcalf situations could be close to the same is if Eich had told everyone to use IE browser. Other than that there are certain similarities. They both presumably have eyes and penises… maybe.
Although gay marriage is most certainly not a right, the idea that gays should be punished like straights has great appeal to me (let ‘em eat wedding cake). And I’m am not against Mozilla firing Eich. That should be a Libertarian “hallelujah” moment. We can now fire for cause anyone we want, including supporters of gay marriage (reap and sew, reap and sew, it’s the human condition). I want no law or government interference of any kind involved in Mozilla’s silly business decisions. However, I uninstalled both my Firefox Browser and Thunderbird mail. May Mozilla choke and continue to let the Gaystapo search out any employee of Mozilla who opposed gay marriage. Let the power pendulum swing… but I’m done with Mozilla and in part it’s because their browser has been $#!t for a long time… and I’d rather be sodomized by evil spirits than deal with Google. While brooding over my less than appealing browser options a techie named Markku said he had gone over to Pale Moon and it was working better than FF. I immediately changed over to Pale Moon and everything’s better. Best decision I’ve made in quite some time. However, I suspect it’s not much of a protest if you change over to something that’s better than FF… meaning I would have done it eventually anyways.
April 9th, 2014
[meaning I would have done it eventually anyways.]
Yeah, but timing is everything.
Lots of people like the Opera browser.
[Although gay marriage is most certainly not a right]
Rights are a fantasy:
http://strike-the-root.com/i-dont-have-rights-nor-do-i-want-any
It’s funny how much people will get wrapped up, in arguing about imaginary things. “My meme is better than your meme.” :-)