This was Greg Gopman’s first week at Twitter. Yesterday was his last day.
Image: Getty
Twitter just hired Gopman to work on the company’s virtual reality efforts. But then TechCrunch resurfaced his vile, disgusting rant about San Fransisco’s homeless population. Gopman got fired roughly 48 hours after he started his fancy new job, and about 12 hours after the TechCrunch post. The now-unemployed technology enthusiast let the world know in a Facebook status: “Anddd I’m fired. Thanks TechCrunch.”
This is Gopman’s rant from 2013:
Just got back to SF. I’ve travelled around the world and I gotta say there is nothing more grotesque than walking down market st in San Francisco. Why the heart of our city has to be overrun by crazy, homeless, drug dealers, dropouts, and trash I have no clue. Each time I pass it my love affair with SF dies a little.
The difference is in other cosmopolitan cities, the lower part of society keep to themselves. They sell small trinkets, beg coyly, stay quiet, and generally stay out of your way. They realise it’s a privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as guests. And that’s ok.
In downtown SF the degenerates gather like hyenas, spit, urinate, taunt you, sell drugs, get rowdy, they act like they own the center of the city. Like it’s their place of leisure… In actuality it’s the business district for one of the wealthiest cities in the USA. It a disgrace. I don’t even feel safe walking down the footpath without planning out my walking path.
You can preach compassion, equality, and be the biggest lover in the world, but there is an area of town for degenerates and an area of town for the working class. There is nothing positive gained from having them so close to us. It’s a burden and a liability having them so close to us. Believe me, if they added the smallest iota of value I’d consider thinking different, but the crazy toothless lady who kicks everyone that gets too close to her cardboard box hasn’t made anyone’s life better in a while.
This is hardly the first time some rich white arsehole has been horrible to people who lived in San Francisco before the iPhone came out. It probably won’t be the last, either.
This story originally appeared on Gizmodo
Comments
14 responses to “Twitter’s New Head Of VR Gets Canned After Two Days”
Can you imagine what it’s going to be like in 2025 around election time? When people are just going to be able to dredge up all the things new politicians said online in this decade before they figured out they should keep their thoughts to themselves.
I’ve gone back over my comments from only 4 years ago and there is some stuff no way I’d say today – I don’t even know what I was thinking when I said it back then.
Mark my words at some point in the future there is going to be an Internet purge where all social media history is erased because otherwise we’ll just see people trapped in an endless cycle of judging people on their past never able to fill positions that are desperately needed to be filled.
I don’t understand why we don’t have lenience for the internet TBH. Not legally binding, but something just so you know people have gone though a course saying you KNOW you should not be doing XY and Z on the internet.
Yeah I really hate this inability to let people demonstrate they CAN learn from their mistakes. People are becoming social pariahs from comments they made a long time ago, and we’re doing the opposite of what we SHOULD do in a supposedly modern society. The other thing that sucks, free speech only seems to matter to people when it aligns with their agenda. So someone makes hurtful comments, or has an incredibly backwards view about things. Yeah it sucks, but they have the right to say that in a modern, mature society. I’m not comfortable with druggies accosting me or my friends or family in Melbourne either. Do I agree with this blokes views? Not at all. But firing him over that one tweet…. That’s a bit ridiculous…
Because being offended is the new social norm and businesses do everything in their power to not incur the wrath of social justice.
Which is a bit shit really. People are going to be dicks. It doesn’t mean it’s acceptable, however I think people have skin that’s a little too thin sometimes.
More than anything it means that you can never voice a negative opinion on ANY even slightly political, social or economic. Thats before people try to twist your words (not saying that has happened here).
In a mature society, the guy would come out and say “I understand what I said was bad. I no longer hold those views, but they were unacceptable things to say” rather than “Anddd I’m fired. Thanks TechCrunch”
Im wondering if the author/editor at TechCrunch lives in a glass house, because what goes around, comes around.
PS – not supporting the comment from the guy, but like other I believe people can learn a lot from their past mistakes. Social media purge would be a good idea, for more than the above reason too
That rant. Yikes. Hopefully his view is different now three years later otherwise I hope this gives Gopman some pause over the matter.
Given that he explicitly blames TechCrunch for his firing, rather than take ownership of what he said – I doubt his opinion would have changed all that much.
Well then, besides the obvious (the obvious being Gopman just in case there was confusion), whose fault was it? If Twitter were THAT concerned about the comment, they surely would have known about it in the past and chose to ignore it when they hired him.
The fact is some website decided to dig up dirt and make it public *again* (long after it should have been dead and buried) shows there was a definite agenda on behalf of TechCrunch
its not a pretty rant, but rewind back 4 years ago and tell me you didn’t write/say/think something that 2016 you wouldn’t find offensive? Would that mean that you deserve to be fired/forced to quit from a new job that has no connection?
Yeah sure, TechCrunch are looking for dirt. I get what you’re saying too, I cringe when I think of something’s I’ve said and done in my past. I’m also not trying for high profile jobs in one of the most recognizable brands around though. If I was, I would at least attempt a little damage control to show people I am indeed a different person and have grown.
Was about to say the same thing.
Just checked his Facebook post, and that line is all he’s posted. No actual reference to, or acknowledgement of his mistake from 2013.
They may or may not have actually fired him just over that tweet. He may not have reacted well when they approached him about it either. I do agree that people shouldn’t be judged solely on what they said years ago.