Friday, April 04, 2014

It Is Time to Stand Up to the Pink Shirts UPDATED

Yesterday was a dark day for free speech in America.  Because he gave a political contribution six years ago to defend traditional marriage, namely to Proposition 8, Brendan Eich was hounded from his CEO job at Mozilla.  The Pink Shirts demanded his resignation and the board of Mozilla caved like a house of cards.

One may say I am getting worked up against an exercise of free speech.  Those who are convinced that opposition to gay “marriage” is intolerable bigotry worthy of banning from society spoke out and were listened to.  And this was not a government attack on free speech.

But using one’s free speech to say that those one disagrees with must be silenced and fired from their jobs is abusing free speech to attack free speech.  Private citizens have the legal right to act so odiously in America.  But it is still an attack on free speech and one to be called out and opposed.

And do not be too sure the Feds are not supporting the Pink Shirts.    Remember the IRS leaked the names of Proposition 8 contributors to the Gay Mafia’s Human Right Campaign, aiding Pink Shirt attacks on them.

And please do not think this is merely a gay rights issue.  The firing of Eich (Oh, yeah.  He “resigned.”  Yeah, right.) is a successful attack on free speech.  And there are gays and gay rights supporters who are appalled at this attack.  Andrew Sullivan:

The whole episode disgusts me – as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today – hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else – then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us.

Gay marriage supporter Moe Lane is urging a boycott of Mozilla’s Firefox browser.  I heartily join him in so doing.

And gays also are targets of the Pink Shirts.  One such example:

[Brandon] Ambrosino is a liberal gay male who has enraged they gay community by writing, among other things, that the gay left “routinely scour the private lives and social media accounts of our political opponents in the hopes of demonizing them as archaic, unthinking, and bigoted”

For these and other sins, Ambrosino has made himself an enemy to the very group of which he is a part.

What is perhaps most galling is that the Pink Shirts insist they are acting in the name of “tolerance” and “inclusion”.  (Sound familiar?)  This e-mail from GLAAD stands out:

Mozilla’s strong statement in favor of equality today reflects where corporate America is: inclusive, safe, and welcoming to all.

. . . Unless you disagree with GLAAD, of course.


The Pink Shirts are a different version of the bullies they so self-righteously oppose.  Like all bullies and like all who attack free speech in America, they must be stood up to and opposed.  Or they and other Leftist Brown Shirts will continue to march and trample upon our freedoms.  And free speech will more and more be mangled to mean: “You’re free to agree with the mob. You’re not free to disagree with the mob.”

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MORE:
David Fischler does a brilliant send up of the PC Doublespeak from Mozilla.  For example:

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.

We forgot that freedom of thought was not supposed to exist at Mozilla, and didn’t remember fact enough. Self-flagellation will begin immediately.

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

We built an auto da fe in the company atrium, and Brendan was gracious enough to jump right into it.



Totalitarians and their toadies are so good at lying and at removing all meaning from language to lie.

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