
Joel Spolsky: Time to take a stand - nmjohn
http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/342440/time-to-take-a-stand
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moxious
So...how are we taking a stand? What's recommended, internet postings? I think
we've got those covered.

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FLGMwt
It's much more on the personal impact scale, but I built
[http://offsettrump.com](http://offsettrump.com) for trying to get people to
make things the tiniest bit better.

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clouddrover
So maybe Trump really will make America great again. It's just that he'll do
it by being the counterexample which spurs people to action.

~~~
FLGMwt
Something something entropy

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blacksqr
The time to take a stand was, of course, election day.

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sytelus
Future historians would be stunned that Trump received 42% of women vote and
more Hispanic vote than Romney did. People voted fully knowing what would
happen considering Trump had spelled out his actions as president almost on
daily basis. Sometime I just don't now if I'm living in a bubble here where
everyone around me in tech industry is in protest mode. Could it be the case
that people in South/mid-west are rejoicing with all these executive orders?
Could it be the case that people protesting are only in slight (3% ?) majority
with people who are supporting Trump's actions? It would be great to know what
is going on with outside the bubble.

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Ajedi32
I think it's pretty funny how the question got locked "due to the high amount
of off-topic comments generated", given how off-topic the question itself was
(in the context of Stack Overflow, of course).

Also, wow that question got closed as off-topic a lot! There's almost three
pages of closures and subsequent re-opens in the edit history:
[https://meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/342440/revisions](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/342440/revisions)

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Anthony-G
I found Kasra Rahjerdi’s “answer” to be more affecting. While I thought Joel’s
“question” well-written, I found myself agreeing with those saying that it
would perhaps have been more appropriate as a blog post. However, the post
works well to open the discussion and to provide a platform for Kasra, an
Iranian developer working for Stack Overflow to express his thoughts and
feelings on how recent developments have effected him personally.

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tu7001
Great idea open world, communities, et cetera, but how to deal with terrorism?
Look at the Europe, how uncontrolled immigration ends.

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starik36
Does literally every non-political website needs to talk about Trump? I go to
SO for answers, not stands.

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thomasjoulin
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not
a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was
not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_..](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_..).

~~~
mixedCase
If only more american "liberals" had spoken out against their president waging
war in Iraq, Syria and Libya; as fiercely as many of them are speaking out
against their new president simply banning those countries' citizens from
entering the US...

Who knows... I guess we can only now imagine what could've been.

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FLGMwt
The action we take now is so we don't have to say "if only"

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mixedCase
That's one way to downplay the tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the
rebels the Obama administration armed, which, by the way, caused both Brexit
to win and secured Trump's seat.

Good thing the Internet really went to town talking about how the left needs
to be more introspective after Trump's win, it seems we all learned from that.

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rdtsc
Surely all the tech CEOs also took a stand in 2011 when Obama banned refugees
from Iraq. Anyone wanna check that...

[http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-kentucky-us-dozens-
te...](http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-kentucky-us-dozens-terrorists-
country-refugees/story?id=20931131)

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TimJRobinson
This is about the blanket ban on immigration from 7 countries, not refugees.
This ban includes highly skilled workers who already have visas to work in the
USA and will have a measurable impact on the economy and future of the USA.

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rdtsc
It is different, sure, but also similar. Given that there was 0 outrage then
and now it is up to 11 something doesn't sound right. For them to care so much
about immigration, I am sure they at least wrote a toned-down memo, or sent a
lobbyist to have a chat with some Congress-person about it.

Also, how many CEOs have been lobbying Obama to end the foreign interference
which created the suffering and refugee crisis over the years. I am guessing
not too many.

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TimJRobinson
It's different in that this directly affects their companies. This is hurting
their own employees many of whom now cannot return to work and restricting the
pool of workers they can hire from in the future. It may only be a little pain
now but the more the USA restricts immigration (especially with no regards to
actual skills these immigrants possess) the less competitive silicon valley
will be with the rest of the world.

