THOSE DIRTY IMMIGRANTS wITH LOW IQ lol
Why surround yourself with these racists..hm..
Let me say something here. My own views are the polar opposite of what I see espoused by Nick Lim (in the Gab posts above) with regard to race, immigration, and other topics. Since I have never participated in Gab, I'm seeing this for the first time now.
Rob hired Nick initially for a short-term contract to write code. Specifically, to develop an alternative method for domains to continue resolving web content even after the domain is suspended or deleted. This was intended as a backup in case of online censorship. And this backup feature also provided additional assurance for a product Epik had been offering for many years: Forever Domains.
I believe Rob met Nick through Gab. Although those of us who don't participate in Gab tend to think of Gab primarily for the racism it contains, it is evidently true that Gab members have other interests in common – in particular, fear of censorship. That is hardly surprising, since Gab was indisputably the target of an extralegal campaign of censorship. So are other right-wing websites. (I can attest to that personally because just yesterday I answered someone who demanded that Epik take down another website.) Right-wing politics in the USA has long been tinged with a sense of embattled persecution. Even Fox News discusses the mainstream media as though it were a plot to stifle conservative views.
So I believe the common ground Rob found with Nick was primarily this anti-censorship focus. Any white-supremacist views that Nick espouses would be "baggage". Those views may be a consequence of where Rob found Nick, but this doesn't necessarily imply that Rob admired or agreed with those views. Rob may have hired Nick in spite of (not because of) his opinions.
It is understandable that Rob would find people who share his concerns about online censorship inside Gab. As I've described previously, Rob became active on Gab following the scandal that arose when Epik accepted the domain transfer for Gab.com, defending the registration against a public pressure campaign to de-platform and eliminate the website. While the press caricatured Rob as an antisemite, apparently the Gab members rallied behind Rob. Therefore it is not surprising that Rob, who has always engaged personally with everybody, and whose own politics is somewhere on the political right, became involved in Gab discussions, leading Rob to meet Nick, who is a young serial tech entrepreneur.
When I met Nick at NamesCon, he was simply a programmer hired by Rob for a short-term contract. Beyond that, however, I saw a promising young man (Nick is 20 or 21) who still has a lot to learn about life and the domain industry. Rob obviously wished to mentor Nick. Also, Rob told me often how impressed he was by Nick's speed, initiative, and vision for completing software projects. So I was not very shocked when Rob acqui-hired Nick Lim together with his company BitMitigate, for which Rob is very ambitious.
I personally have never discussed anything but technical topics with Nick. We have had very little opportunity to collaborate, frankly, because Nick's projects (like BitMitigate) have been quite separate from the registrar / marketplace business at Epik (which I oversaw). Nick has been at Epik barely a month, and during most of that time he has been traveling to conferences. So I had no idea Nick held views like these until today.
Do I really need to say that I find white supremacist views like these abhorrent and objectionable? Factually, Nick is wrong about racial superiority / inferiority. And such erroneous opinions are not harmless by any stretch of the imagination. Honestly, it's beyond disappointing that I have to go out of my way to say that views like these are wrong.
At the same time, I would emphasize that Nick is very young. Youth doesn't excuse stupid / offensive / harmful opinions. But people need a chance to change. And Nick is young enough to change. I don't know his life story, but I gather he was forced to grow up early and to teach himself how to succeed without as much guidance or perhaps as much exposure to moderate or diverse viewpoints as you or I might have been lucky to receive. So I would condemn the white supremacist views and statements, but I would not condemn Nick.
It's also true that white supremacist views have become increasingly and alarmingly mainstream in the past few years. From my perspective, the Trump presidency itself is a symptom of this. More moderate people on the right, who support Trump, will take issue with my saying that, of course. But I think it's demonstrably true that the number of people in the USA and elsewhere that publicly espouse views similar to Nick's is larger than the rest of us would like to see – and growing. My hunch is that "alt-right" opinions in general are more prevalent among young white males who spend a lot of time in online forums. Nick being a young programmer and having spent a lot of time online over the years, he belongs to the demographic that is most at risk of believing this white-supremacist garbage. If you believe, as I do, that this is a widespread social problem, then curing it begins with some willingness to tolerate the person, to understand why they have been misled, and to find a way to persuade them to change their views.
My interactions with Nick have been minimal. But I have interacted with Rob daily for the past 2 years. And I have never heard Rob say what Nick is quoted as saying. So, in my experience, Rob doesn't seem to share Nick's white supremacist views. Distinctions between Rob's right-wing views and Nick's quite extreme views may be difficult for progressives to understand. But those distinctions matter a great deal. To some extent, Rob probably has viewed Nick's views (to whatever extent he knew of them) as extreme opinions that could be rendered more tolerant. Previously, I have explained that Rob – as a christian – has a strong impulse to evangelize, to preach to the sinners and save them. Rob tolerates people that others will condemn, but it doesn't necessarily mean Rob shares their most extreme views.
I don't wish to minimize the corrosive influence of white supremacist views. But we can't round up the racists and put them in a fenced-in camp. They are among us. We can't get rid of them unless we respect them enough to persuade them not to be racists.
It is exasperating to be explaining Nick's views or Rob's views or the differences between them – especially since I disagree sharply with the private opinions of both. And it is exhausting to explain – even though it is true – that private views of Nick or Rob are not a reflection of Epik, the domain registrar. In large part, this is why I resigned 10 days ago. Nevertheless, because of my vantage point at Epik, I do have some responsibility to clarify the situation. Explanation isn't exoneration. I cannot excuse Nick's statements and would never dream of doing so. But, well, welcome to life in 2019, folks. The alt right is part of our society, like it or not.