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 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

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.

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.

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.

It's extremely rare to see someone like Paul Bigger whose morals are not for sale

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.

Actions have consequences, and that's ok.

That is, sincerely, such a hugely refreshing statement in any current affair. I don't mean to distract from his more specific points, but that key insight really shows integrity in a way that I wish didn't seem so rare.

Between the recent breach and the clear sentiment behind their staff, I really don't know why anyone chooses CircleCI over GitHub / GitLab Actions.

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.

It is sickening the double standards we have. And all because of money and powerful lobbies.

Fuck CircleCI

Such a powerful article! Standing up for what's right, I would always invest in such a person if I had any say in it.

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.

Genuine question: What's this have to do with open source?

Don't give CircleCI my money, got it

What I don't understand is him getting sacked. While he did name a few people and cut ties, I don't see the people named couldn't stand up with him after being named. It seems as if they really support the war crimes in Gaza.

I don't mean to undermine anything when I ask this. The article was very good, thank you sharing. I wanted to ask if circleCI made any floss software, or if paul biggar was a contributor to particular open source projects.

What an article. I have no words, but that's always the case when thinking about Gaza