# Beware of Bigotry

Source: https://www.yegor256.com/2018/11/13/bigotry.html

[Bobby Fischer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer),
the eleventh World Chess Champion, was one of the best chess players
of the last century. Did you know that,
along with [anti-Semitic statements](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer),
[he also said](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/22/sportandleisure.features)
that women chess players "aren't creative and are all fish"?
Did you also know that he publicly described the
[9/11 events](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks) as "wonderful news"?


{% jb_picture_body %}

[Henry Ford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford),
the founder of the
[Ford Motor Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company),
was one of the greatest American entrepreneurs. Did you know that he
[said](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Ford#Quotes) in 1919
that "the Jew is the threat" and wrote an anti-Semitic set of booklets called
[The International Jew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_Jew)?

[Thomas Jefferson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson)
was the third president of the United States. Did you know that he believed
that blacks lacked basic human emotions and
[claimed](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/opinion/the-real-thomas-jefferson.html)
he had "never seen an elementary trait of painting or sculpture"
or poetry among blacks and argued that blacks' ability to "reason" was
"much inferior" to whites', while
"in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous?"

Did you know that [Garry Kasparov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov),
one of greatest chess players of all time and a world chess champion,
[said](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/02/garry-kasparov-wrong-women-playing-chess/)
in a 1989 interview with Playboy magazine that "there is real chess and women's chess."

I could go on and on with similar examples.

Do you agree with these guys?
Most probably, just like me, you don't. Most probably you have your own
views. Political, social, racial, and what have you.
The question is---what do you do with them? And what do you do with those you
disagree with? Do you stop listening to them? Do you call them stupid,
despite their obvious achievements in their trades? Do you ostracize them
in order to stay only with those who share your views?

Here comes an example.

I was on my way to the airport just a week ago, planning to attend
a conference as a speaker. My talk was about DevOps practices. I was planning
to present our practical results in the area of multi-server deployment
without a single central point of failure. While in the taxi, I checked my inbox
and found this:

```text
Hi Yegor,
It has come to our attention that some of your views
on women in tech published as posts on your blog and
twitter conflict with our aims of promoting an inclusive
and diverse conference. In this light, we have decided
to cancel your talk.  You are of course still welcome
to attend the event as an attendee, assuming you accept
the terms of our code of conduct. Apologies for the late
notice on this.
```

I never asked, but I bet they are referring to
"this blog post" and
[this recent tweet](https://twitter.com/yegor256/status/1056447293535281154)
published one day before the cancellation email.

My social views conflict with their aims and that's why they decided to not let me
speak about DevOps!

I wonder, what would they have done if they had found out
that I was, for example, a Muslim and believed [that](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Islam)
"a woman's sphere of operation is the home, and a man's corresponding sphere is the outside world."
What if they had find out that I was a [Mormon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_women) and believed
that "women have qualities of faithfulness, benevolence, and charity that balance
the more aggressive and competitive nature of man"?
What if they had found out that I was a member of the KKK, or a communist,
or an [MRM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_rights_movement) activist?
What if I was a supporter of Trump, Putin, or
[Kim Jong-un](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-un)?

According to the logic in their email, they would also cancel my talk. They would
cancel all talks coming from Muslims, Mormons, communists, Orthodox Christians,
and many others, who are not quiet and tolerant liberals,
preferably without any social or political views.
They would also never play chess with Kasparov, drive Ford cars, or live
in the United States, which made the mistake of having a racist president.
Is it really inclusiveness they care so much about?

As Sam Altman, a co-founder of Y-Combinator,
said in his [blog post](http://blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove),
"It seems easier to accidentally speak
heresies in San Francisco every year. Debating a controversial idea, even
if you 95% agree with the consensus side, seems ill-advised."

Doesn't it remind you of the time of the Soviet Union and the Third Reich? Over half a century
ago Nazis and commies were fighting with those who were thinking differently.
What are we doing today? Aren't we fighting with those who think differently
about women, Jews, people of color, homosexuals, and many other controversial topics?
Einstein's ideas in physics were attacked because he was a
[Jewish pacifistic internationalist](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-2-pro-nazi-nobelists-attacked-einstein-s-jewish-science-excerpt1/).
Now it's time to [attack programmers](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo)
who seem to be sexist. Just a change of terms, but the principle is the same.

The new flag for repression is _political correctness_, which,
[according to Doris Lessing](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing),
a Nobel Prize winner, is the "heritage of communism" used by a "self-appointed group of vigilantes
to impose their views on others."

Did we really learn any lessons from the last century or are we still the same
good old bigots, looking for a reason to hunt down those who we disagree with?

<hr/>

You want to know the name of the conference?
It was [DevOpsDays Oslo](https://www.devopsdays.org/events/2018-oslo/welcome/).
They are not alone. There were a few others also who canceled my talks.
Here is a non-complete list of them (I will keep updating the list, if and when
I know for sure what the reason for rejection was):

  * [DevOpsDays Oslo](https://www.devopsdays.org/events/2018-oslo/welcome/) by Anders Bruvik.
  * [vJUG](https://virtualjug.com/) by [Simon Maple](https://www.yegor256.com/2017/07/04/sexism.html#comment-3403001068).
  * [JPoint 2020](https://jpoint.ru/en/)

I will not hide their names. Just like Nazi criminals these guys should be known,
visible, and prosecuted, as soon as possible.

PS. Let me build a list of other victims (if you know more, please add in comments, I will
extend the list):

  * [Anti-Gay and Sexist Posts Cost Sergei Polunin a Role in Paris](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/arts/dance/sergei-polunin-putin-trump-paris-opera-ballet.html)
  * [James Watson, Co-Discoverer of DNA Structure, Stripped of Honors Over Racist Statements](https://www.livescience.com/64492-james-watson-stripped-of-honors.html)
  * [Cybersecurity conference cancels GOP lawmaker's speech because of his pro-life views](https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/rep-will-hurd-conservative-cybersecurity-black-hat-conference)