His original post , titled I can’t sleep, is some brilliant writing. When we talk about the chilling effect that criticism of Israel creates in industries everywhere (including ours) this is what that looks like.
When you read about the Holocaust and the Nazis, you like to imagine you’d be the good guy. You’d fight the Nazis, you’d free the concentration camps. But apparently I wouldn’t. Apparently I would have just sat there paralyzed, incapable of doing anything about the genocide I see every day. Unable to think of any way to help. All I can do is retweet and protest and write a stupid blog post. I feel so stupid…
I wasn’t ready to see that my friends are Brownshirts [34]. That they actively cheer on the genocide…I wasn’t ready for my friends being [concentration] camp guards, party officials, propagandists.
Fuck, such an accurate picture
I wasn’t ready to see that my friends are Brownshirts [34]. That they actively cheer on the genocide…I wasn’t ready for my friends being [concentration] camp guards, party officials, propagandists.
Yeah that’d do it
Paul is a chad. He also got kicked out of ycombinator for outing the founders skipping vaccine lines and encouraging others to do the same.
I don’t know what to do, but I know these are not my people. Who can work with people whitewashing genocide. Are we supposed to pretend it’s business as usual as we send our friends’ intros, frolic at conferences, discuss monetization strategy.
To Ed Sim, Erica Brescia, Michael Dearing, and especially Matt Ocko, we’re done [47]. I’ll never pitch you again, never ask for help, never send intros or recommend you. I’m done with Boldstart, and DCVC, and Harrison Metal, and Redpoint. (I’m also done with Bessemer [48] and Sequoia [49] and First Round [50].)
Damn, the balls on this guy. Very inspiring
Nothing short of heroic - too many people in a similar situation find themselves saying that it’s awful what’s happening, but there’s nothing they can do about it.
Well, it turns out there is. Inspiring as hell.
When there is a war, there are war crimes - it’s not surprising, it’s not new and it’s not special. Every single time, regardless of nationality, race, creed, invader or defender. Every single time. You give a lot of people guns, teach them to de-humanise the enemy and then put them through unimaginable stresses, it’s inevitable that some will do bad things. Those who orchestrate such actions and trigger events like this know, accept and want these atrocoties to achieve their own ends.
I respect Paul Biggar for having an opinion and writing a well researched and unimpeachable personal blog about it. Why should any of us who hold feelings have to suppress them?
It’s sad that he’s become yet another victim of this unwinnable war, it’s even sadder that he won’t be the last.
This is why I hate startup culture. When you give off your equity to capitalist fat cats, you make yourself a bootlickers of mainstream discourse, even if that discourse is calling for genocide.
Fuck CircleCI
He should probably leave the US and go to Europe (where his Irish passport entitles him to work). He’s certainly not going to work at a Fortune 500 company any time soon, and any firm that hires him is likely to find itself reciprocally blacklisted.
Ireland is generally supportive of Palestinian freedom, given their history. This extends back well before the recent horrific Hamas terrorist attacks. Israel and Ireland have a rocky relationship, including Israel using fake irish passports for agents. Ireland is not antisemitic, but Israel obviously tries to paint them that way.
Paul, you are clearly a man who would have refused to take part, even when those you held dear cast aside their humanity. Keep the fight up, your people are out there making the same sacrifices in their life.
I’m not him, just someone sharing his story.
I know.
I am also not Paul
It’s extremely rare to see someone like Paul Bigger whose morals are not for sale
Does someone know if anyone maintains a list of companies or organizations where this kind of bullshit has gone down, with link to sources? Could be useful to keep track.
I can’t believe how quickly we went from pretending we thought murdering civilians was a bad thing to concluding it’s merely a matter of killing the right civilians.
Did we used to conduct war in a way that was safe for civilians? I’m not aware of that history. The war in Gaza looks like war to me. The same way we have been practicing it since we picked up our first sticks in anger. Murdering civilians is a consequence of war. The “good guys” fire bombed Dresden and nuked Japan.
I would give more examples but being honest I am straining to think of other wars in human history that were worth fighting. I am drawing a blank. All of it is pointless slaughter. At least in Gaza you can understand that the Israelis were provoked to war. Can’t say the same for the US in most of our wars.
The circumstances of Gaza seem to warrant them attacking their captors. I don’t support any attacks on civillians, but Israel being attacked seems to be a result of a failure on their part to make peaceful change possible.
I will preface this by saying that there are risks to being openly involved.
There are people work to avoid taking actions that may benefit Israel:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions
Definitely doesn’t help that most of the damn US has some form of Anti-BDS laws. Because everybody knows Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism right guys?
Anti-Zionism and antisemitism are not the same thing, but neither are they mutually exclusive.
Anti-fascism and anti-semitims are also not mutually exclusive. Anti-communism and anti-consumerism are not mutually exclusive. Anti-war and anti-liberalism are not mutually exclusive. Anti-abortion and anti-gay rights are not mutually exclusive.
Hell, few things are mutually exclusive. You had a handful of god-damn Jewish Nazis and one fucking honorary aryan during the war. So not even Semitism and anti-Semitism are mutually fucking exclusive.
Things not being mutually exclusive is a pretty fucking moot argument.
Things not being mutually exclusive is a pretty fucking moot argument.
It’s not an argument.
So what is it?
9 days after writing a completely one-sided article about a complicated, almost century long war, declaring his own weakening mental state a person is deemed no longer fit to be called “director”. Seems fine to me. I got a similar reaction to when Russia attacked Ukraine, and I wouldn’t have been fit to lead anyone during that few first months either. I barely got even the simplest things done.
I’m sure there’s plenty of things for him to do in this world below that position, and perhaps he can try a high position again later.
It should be noted that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is still going on, and is in a huge risk of ending badly, and the Gaza crisis is diverting attention from that much larger conflict. It’s not unreasonable to say that the Gaza war is an offshoot of that war: Iran, Russia and Hamas saw an opportunity and took it and now this is happening.
Not supporting the Nazis had financial impact on people. Some American compagnies in fact gladly did business with the Nazis and made bank from it . But after a while they still managed to scrape some morals from the bottom of the barrel and say “hey this Genocide thing is maybe not okay”.
Paul can stand proud for standing up for his morals. Sadly seems like many western companies and even the entirety US congress loves to sell their souls for genocidal Nazi stuff these days. Modern day America would have been a dream come true for Hitler.
Pretty common at the workplace.
I miss the days where the worst thing anybody did at work was tell too many fart jokes and maybe got a coaching from HR because Karen from accounting is a stuck up bitch and told.
Now, everybody has to be some political or social justice hero. I’m there to do my job and go home. If I worried about every single bad thing that happens in the world, I’d be a nervous unproductive wreck.
It’s funny that people really think they’re different than those in Germany, 1942
Yeah because standing up against genocide is such a political social justice hero thing to do.
Think before you speak next time.
This random guy “stood up” by writing a passionate blog post. I’m sure that’s going to solve everything.
If he really truly believes what he believes and wants to do something meaningful, then he should go there and fight for them personally.
Look I’m a coward too. But let’s not try to rationalise away our inaction on top of it
I don’t give a shit if Israel or Hamas wins. I’m against all killing. War is horrible. Killing is bad. Both sides are at fault here.
I remember a time when people could just talk about games and tech without involving elite warmonger war plans.
This is what happens when you support terrorists
What terrorists did he support and how? Please elaborate and be more particular.
