Monday, September 24th 2018
Linux Community Hit by the Blight of Social Justice Warfare, A Great Purge is Coming
Through the 1990s, Microsoft had become a super-corporation threatening to monopolize all of computing. A band of talented developers got together with lawyers that could fish out loopholes in proprietary licenses, and with some generosity from big software, Linux grew from a scrappy Unix-like OS kernel to the preeminent operating system for enterprises at first, and handheld consumer electronics later. Today it's most popular operating system on the planet. Like every big organization, the Linux Foundation is hit by employee-activism.
Employee-activism is the new unionism. Whereas trade-unions of the old fought for tangible bread-and-butter issues affecting blue-collar folk of the early Industrial era, today's employee-activist is an intellectual predator seeking to maximize their organizational footprint on the backs of other people echoing their political ideas, often through blatant insubordination and disregard for the chain of command. Survival of the fittest has changed to "survival of the loudest." From forcing Linus Torvalds to apologize for speaking his mind in public, to coming up with a new Code of Conduct document, social-justice activism within the Linux Foundation threatens to devolve the culture of meritocracy to a toxic "safe space" prioritizing inclusion of identity rather than skill, as HardOCP comments. A major blow-back from the meritocrats is taking shape.
In a major revision to the license, software developers contributing to the Linux kernel source-code will soon be able to withdraw their contribution, if they are ever cornered by the rest of the community over perceived code-of-conduct violation (i.e. not pandering to identity politics or speaking their minds like Torvalds does). This is big, as many of the older generations of contributors who have made critical contributions without with Linux cannot function, now have a legal recourse, and could reduce the amount of political activism within the community.
Since 2015, identity politicians have been trying to force the Linux Foundation to join the Contributor Covenant, a special Code-of-Conduct agreement that seeks to change the "the predominantly white, straight, and male face of programming." On September 16, the Foundation agreed to implement CC Code of Conduct. Shortly following that, groups of pro-CC developers went on a character-assassination spree of top Linux developers by amplifying and often distorting, their political views (which are irrelevant to the task of programming).
Sources:
Lulz, HardOCP
Employee-activism is the new unionism. Whereas trade-unions of the old fought for tangible bread-and-butter issues affecting blue-collar folk of the early Industrial era, today's employee-activist is an intellectual predator seeking to maximize their organizational footprint on the backs of other people echoing their political ideas, often through blatant insubordination and disregard for the chain of command. Survival of the fittest has changed to "survival of the loudest." From forcing Linus Torvalds to apologize for speaking his mind in public, to coming up with a new Code of Conduct document, social-justice activism within the Linux Foundation threatens to devolve the culture of meritocracy to a toxic "safe space" prioritizing inclusion of identity rather than skill, as HardOCP comments. A major blow-back from the meritocrats is taking shape.
In a major revision to the license, software developers contributing to the Linux kernel source-code will soon be able to withdraw their contribution, if they are ever cornered by the rest of the community over perceived code-of-conduct violation (i.e. not pandering to identity politics or speaking their minds like Torvalds does). This is big, as many of the older generations of contributors who have made critical contributions without with Linux cannot function, now have a legal recourse, and could reduce the amount of political activism within the community.
Since 2015, identity politicians have been trying to force the Linux Foundation to join the Contributor Covenant, a special Code-of-Conduct agreement that seeks to change the "the predominantly white, straight, and male face of programming." On September 16, the Foundation agreed to implement CC Code of Conduct. Shortly following that, groups of pro-CC developers went on a character-assassination spree of top Linux developers by amplifying and often distorting, their political views (which are irrelevant to the task of programming).
653 Comments on Linux Community Hit by the Blight of Social Justice Warfare, A Great Purge is Coming
We have a saying in Portuguese: "Ou 8 ou 80". This roughly translates into "from much too little to way too much". It seems whoever came up with this "Blight of Social Justice Warfare" never heard of "small steps" ...
E.g. Damore would have been banned for "offending women".
As in a story of 2 guys talking to each other, making a joke about big dongle, which offended individual of a different gender, sitting two rows away and he ended up losing his job.
You are missing the real reasons behind it: exercise control, punish for wrongthink.
Small steps should be taken @ a time and, assuming they work as intended, more steps should be taken to improve, and so on.
Most of the world does not care. Including Silvio in Italy, migrant problems, lets look in Sweden and their election results, their ghetto areas and inability to cope with that, people start to get fed and far right gains power, so it is not only Italy, old EU suffers, Trump news, someone calling a friend Nazi(Godwins law triggered). The eastern block simply wont even bat an eye for that.
Open your eyes people, this is popular media. In the end conflicts will never cease to be, one day this, another that.
I support Linus and his work, ones calling him xxx should reconsider that. Each of us uses his work in our daily life, and thank him for that. Lets use CoC also here and ban those for life maybe, eh?
This tug of War or ideological war between the right or left isn't going to lead anywhere, because the real power resides with politicians & even more than that it's concentrated where all the $ is. What will likely happen by the end of this "war" ~ it'll either be a sea change in the world, as we see it today, alternatively things will remain the same & most (if not all) of us will get back to our daily chores playing that game we never finished & all will be forgotten.
Real change only happens when all of us want it & most of us work towards bringing that (positive) change, sadly I see the latter as being the eventual outcome of this great "purge" :ohwell:Why do you think this is just about the US or Trump? I never meant it that way & no I don't believe the entire right (or left) is the problem, perhaps extreme right or left but the vast majority of us are peace loving people, at least that's what I'd like to believe.
P.S.
Linus is a dick. We all know that. Saying the truth doesn't always excuse being a dick.
Most SJW drivel didn't gain much traction because it burns itself out after a few weeks. This, however, could have lasting consequences because there's cascading legal ramifications.
Offtopic: the rise of the extreme right is a direct response (pushback) to the rise of the extreme left (which SJW falls under). The blatant disregard of precedent which defines the extreme left sows the seeds of chaos and instability. They have taken root in the Linux Foundation.
I should have known the intellectual capacity of someone who uses "to begin with" to open every news item they write up to not be exactly up to snuff, but this is completely ridiculous!
Please consider apologizing to your readers mate...
Let's not call people out for wanting equality, but also, importantly, let's not fall to the sword of any form of identity protectionism. Humans are humans, that's all there is.
The best approach IMO is to stay at the centre & support good ideas from either side.
What an absolute pile of garbage.
as much as I dislike the overly reactionary parts of the left wing (Which is a lot of them, and particularly on twitter), this editorial is just a transparent attempt to paint anyone who dislikes anything anyone else does as a control-freak or a lunatic, as if it's perfectly acceptable for people in positions of power and influence to wield that influence as a cudgel and to use it to destroy people they disagree with.
It's basically "If you're on the bottom of the pile and someone with more influence/power than you wants you to stay there, you have no business complaining about it, you best just suck it up sunshine, the world doesn't owe you a favour". As if that's not somehow not exactly the attitude that leads to authoritarianism and abuse of power.
Freedom of speech is fundamental, but freedom of speech also entails responsibility for your words. If you want to be treated with respect, try treating others with it too. If someone tells you that your way of acting or talking is hurtful, disrespectful or derogatory towards them or others, the decent thing to do is to apologize and try to understand their point of view. It might be a bit uncomfortable, but it's really not very difficult, and it makes you a better person to boot. Lack of this (and the stranglehold on institutional power attributable to groups championing this type of behavior) is the exact reason why campaigns like this happens.
On top of that, people that use the cliche SJW term to attack others lose credibility quickly. Sure there are "SJW's" around and yes they can be annoying. But far more often the term is used (whether it's valid or not) to attack a person who expresses an opinion online that someone else doesn't agree with. "I like X and you don't (or vice-versa), well you're just a SJW..." - is usually how it goes. Just replace X with any current controversial topic.
More than anything to do with all that, I view this news as more concerning for the issues this could introduce if critical code is pulled.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/jan/11/dutch-reporters-tell-us-ambassador-this-is-the-netherlands-you-have-to-answer-questions-video
Linus should do a fork. He said there like 20 active contributors really for Linux Kernel. I guess the vote will go inside there. And... empty seat usually doesn't remain like that for long.
Opinions like the authors are just as valid as everyone elses, and should be heard. A startling number of sites would NEVER allow this editorial to be published for fear of angering the wrong people.People are using outrage culture (offensive, triggered, ece) to try and control other people and force them to fall in step with their political beliefs. These people are called SJWs.
These kinds of people have immense social pressure through crafty use of language, and people in general not wanting to be screamed at, and have their social lives smeared by, lunatics. A recent change to the way linux code is added allows a creator to redact their code from the kernel. So if someone pisses off SJWs in the coding world, they can be bullied (through threats to their career and social life typically) to remove their code from linux.
Doesnt make sense? Dont worry, it isnt supposed to. Identity politics dont make any sense, thats why the left in the US and the UK are struggling to maintain voter approval.
But ok, I'll play your game for exactly one post: because this particular person is tranny.
Anyone else with such gender identity I would call, you know, "a person", because I don't give a shit about someone's gender if he acts like a human being. Not this one. This one is an asshole, and gives trans people a bad name. So in my world, it's a tranny I will mock (in my head that is).
P.S. I actually do know a person who made the real gender transition personally, and never once did I saw her/him yell SJW crap on social networks.
The only good response here is 'did you notice what you just used to describe a transsexual'?
That would invite the writer to reflect ;) And it would be cool if we could go about it that way instead of writing up silly CoCs!
From the left, Linus has touted dickish behavior in the past. Part of his persona is admitting this, and being generally OK with what is going on. His points of a meritocracy are generally measured against the people that are being turned away from development, due to a perceived toxic environment which persists because of the behavior and conduct of current developers.
From the right, Linus gets the job done. The general benefits of a meritocracy are that the job gets done, and as efficiently as possible. You might prevent some people from contributing, but at the end of the day you've got something that works. Damn those without a thick enough skin, as whatever they could offer is not valuable.
I'd like to take this moment to offer nuance. People like Torvald are tolerated because they get the job done. The old phrase is that a 90% solution on-time is better than a 100% solution delivered late and over budget. This general ability to get the job done leads to an associated ego, which makes people impossible to prove wrong until failure strikes them hard. If you want to see this in action, look no farther than Apple. Their products used to "just work," then they became expensive, and now they are overpriced tech 2-3 generations behind (and sometimes can't do the video editing that they are touted as "being the best" at).
Likewise, social justice is a plague. People are claiming intolerance and inequity in areas that they view as somehow oppressive, changing the things which once catered well to their niche, and leaving a burnt-out husk where things used to be. I could highlight Evergreen, Star Wars, or even Battlefield. What I'd like to highlight is Warhammer. A game steeped in intentional non-sense, where they openly call their universe grim-dark. Despite the obvious nature of the parody, SJWs have taken to calling it sexist, taken the Trump God Emperor meme to be...real I guess, and tried to force the introduction of female space marines because it's unfair to not have them. It's trying to take something that does not belong to you, invent umbrage, force change, then leave because you "made everything better." Failing to see that your improvements killed the thing, and left the core audience alienated. GW has avoided this, but some of the other things highlighted did not...sigh.
I say all of this because the current Linux push is to change historic naming conventions without understanding anything about the past. The inclusion of master and slave terms is a topic for debate. Heaven forbid anyone see something like a PATA drive requiring a jumper. While Linus isn't exactly a beacon of reserved and reasonable responses, the proposed conduct code is the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction. Scrubbing everything so that nobody is offended by terminology is inviting too much insanity. Next, we'll not have male and female connectors. I'd like to propose an intermediary ground where toxicity is dealt with, not one where every perceived slight is toxicity.
Hopefully Linux can make that distinction, though for my money it'll probably be a better show than it should be. Torvald is nothing if not vocal. If my baby were being altered to make someone happy, who had no history of actually doing things, I'd be livid. Perhaps less than scorched earth livid, but it'd be impossible not to see where this is coming from. Sometimes coddling those who do not intend to make the coddling worth its required effort is...understandably something to oppose. That does not excuse bullish behavior, but sometimes the effort is worth the price.