Bug of feature? [LWN.net]

Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 15:28 UTC (Wed) by evgeny (subscriber, #774)
In reply to: Bug of feature? by rra
Parent article: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

> Suppose that the software just ran "rm -rf ~" unconditionally regardless of the locale. This clearly is not discriminatory in any way whatsoever. So it's okay, then?

No, it isn't, but for a different reason. Just as punching an average passerby in the face because you're drunk or consciously choosing for that purpose a representative of a specific race/gender/etc are different criminal offenses, with quite different legal consequences under most jurisdictions.

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Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 18:36 UTC (Wed) by rra (subscriber, #99804) [Link] (1 responses)

Thinking that one's motive in punching someone in the face should result in an entirely different criminal offense is certainly a political position that you could hold. It's one I generally disagree with, so I'm not going to take any actions based on that belief because I think that belief is wrong. If you insist that I am required to agree with you on that point, I'm likely to be unwilling to collaborate with you even on unrelated things, and may simply block all your messages.

Now, do you want to turn the whole discussion into arguing about that, or do you want to instead focus on our point of agreement, which is that people shouldn't be punched in the face?

Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 19:14 UTC (Wed) by evgeny (subscriber, #774) [Link]

> Thinking that one's motive in punching someone in the face should result in an entirely different criminal offense is certainly a political position that you could hold.

My political position is rather irrelevant. Hate crime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime) is a concept recognized in the jurisprudence of many countries.

> Now, do you want to turn the whole discussion into arguing about that, or do you want to instead focus on our point of agreement, which is that people shouldn't be punched in the face?

Yes, people shouldn't be punched in the face. We agree on that. I further firmly believe that when certain people are punched in the face only because their face has special ethnic traits (and the rest of the population doesn't see it as a problem), the society is seriously sick.

Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 18:49 UTC (Wed) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link] (2 responses)

Just to come back to the original disagreement here.

Your point is that in the current situation with an agressor doing an unprovoked and illegal attack. Somebody is doing a non-violent protest against this. And this non-violent protest is immoral because somebody in the aggressor nation might do violence to other people also in the agressor nation?
Do I have this right? Am I missing something?

Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 20:08 UTC (Wed) by evgeny (subscriber, #774) [Link] (1 responses)

Yep, that's a correct description. FYI, it's called collective punishment.

Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 20:54 UTC (Wed) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link]

Closer to the practice of "human shields" where a combatant deliberately places civilians near military targets(or moves the targets to where the civilans are) with the goal that the other side will be to humanitarian to drop any bombs. Not an exact match though. The equivalent would be for somebody to attack their own people in order to deter the enemy from attacking. Can't think of any instance where this has actually been tried...