”We’re left with the Scala FP communities, which yield awesome libraries and are awesome people, but the ecosystem is essentially a microcosm of the US political landscape. I’m guessing all programming communities are turning to this nowadays.”
It's also a very US-centric kind of political battle that I'm sure a lot of European Scala programmers feel is strange and doesn't apply to them, but has nonetheless taken their ecosystem by hostage.
Actually, it wasn't the "committee" that allowed it, it was a subset of speakers from under represented groups in tech (women, minorities, PoC etc whatever term you prefer) that voted to let him speak as long as he kept to his topic.
I have no stake in the process here. As I said, it was clearly well thought-out. But the outcome is regrettable.