THE CONFORMISM OF COOL: As an example of the groupthink of the cutting edge of new media, consider an exception that proves the rule:
Mozilla CEO Resists Calls to Resign Amid Furor Over Anti-Gay Marriage Donation
The "anti-gay marriage donation" was $1,000 that Brendan Eich gave to California's Proposition 8, which in November 2008 was approved by the same electorate that voted for President Obama and which banned same-sex marriage in the state - until the Supreme Court ruled that the voice of the people on this matter was "unconstitutional". A five-year-old one-grand donation to a losing cause is apparently enough to render Mr Eich unfit for office at an American technology company. Because what matters in this brave new world is that everybody think alike - or at least pretend to. Invited to eat gay crow, Mozilla's CEO is for the moment holding his own:
In a blog post last week, Eich expressed "sorrow at having caused pain" but stopped short of saying his beliefs on gay marriage have changed... Eich says it remains to be seen whether pressure from the community forces his ouster. But given another chance to offer support of gay marriage, he wouldn't take it. Asked whether he would support Prop. 8 today, Eich responded, "I hadn't thought about that. It seems that's a dead issue. I don't want to answer hypotheticals."
I would doubt Mr Eich's views have changed. He appears to hold the same definition of marriage that 99.99 per cent of the civilized world held until the day before yesterday, and which even today half of America still quaintly believes in. But the author of this piece, "senior reporter" Casey Newton, seems to think it entirely normal that in order to keep his job a man should be bullied into a false public recantation of his personal beliefs. Mr Newton's publication covers all the cool stuff - "the intersection of technology, science, art, and culture" - but the assumptions underpinning the story are as thuggish and totalitarian as any state commissar prescribing re-education camp for ideological deviancy. And nobody young and hip seems to find that in the least bit weird.