This is not an acceptable Hacker News comment, regardless of the positions it's for and against. Please comment civilly and substantively, or not at all.
It so perfectly fits the point topynate was making in another thread, though, that it's easy to imagine it's merely a sockpuppet! Because of attitudes like pep888's, it's easy to imagine a conference like Strange Loop banning speakers for being Zionists, especially in Europe rather than the US, and Al3x's decision has moved us a big step closer to that.
This guy sounds like he would be happy to see anti-Zionism as a litmus test for conference speakers.
Is that the kind of tech industry you want? Should speakers at technical conferences have all their political opinions pre-vetted for approval by a panel of progressives?
Aren't we already there, though? This is one of the reasons I left Silicon Valley three years ago. My personal opinions would get me called racist, sexist and homophobic by Marxist standards and I was exhausted by the political mask I had to assume just to find and keep work. Luckily, SV isn't as large a percentage of the tech industry as it likes to think. It's just over represented on tech news sites.
So, you have to be a Marxist to be offended by homophobia? Or are redefining Marxist as "someone who gets offended by non 'politically correct' speech"?
Much as I dislike entering into this sort of (highly off-topic) conversation, it needs pointing out that "Progressive Except Palestine" was coined by people who agree with you. Just search for it and see what comes up.
It is also true that you are trying to police and shame entrepreneurs who decided to listen to their customers, because you happen to be a voluntary party to (and supporter of) hate crimes and genocide.
