On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 24, 2014 13:54 UTC (Fri) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: On the sickness of our community by tao
Parent article: On the sickness of our community

I have seen people say that anyone who supported prop 8 deserved to be permanently fired and banned from any contact with FOSS projects on top of that. You seemed to be going in that direction.

So people are only allowed to have 'approved' viewpoints if they are in some jobs, no matter how well they do those jobs or how they treat their employees and co-workers.

I despise the concept of "thought crimes" that punish people for things they think as opposed to actions that they take. (and the way someone votes, or a contribution to a political party or group should not have employment consequences)

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On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 24, 2014 16:36 UTC (Fri) by tao (subscriber, #17563) [Link] (1 responses)

Well, I haven't (nor would I have) advocated all supporters of prop 8 to be permanently banned & fired, so don't jump the gun prematurely.

But let's use a bit of hyperbole, shall we, just to poke a hole in your reasoning: let's say a Jew suddenly gets a new boss who donates money to the National Socialist Party of America (I have no idea if there's such a thing, this is all hypothetical after all). No matter how well said boss does his job, no matter how well he treats his employees I think it's pretty reasonable to accept that the Jew feels uneasy and would rather see the boss replaced by someone else.

Sometimes you have to choose whom you want to welcome -- a minority or persons make that minority feel unwelcome. Take misogynist free software developers vs female free software developers. In terms of contributions it might well be that the misogynists have/would contribute more (this is of course a case by case thing), but if I have a say in it the important thing is to make the females feel welcome, not to bend over for the misogynists, even if telling them to shut up & apologise or go away make them feel unwelcome.

Why? Because being a female isn't something wrong. Being a misogynist is. In a similar vein being a homosexual and wanting equal rights isn't something wrong. Supporting discrimination against homosexuals is.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 24, 2014 20:36 UTC (Fri) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

> let's say a Jew suddenly gets a new boss who donates money to the National Socialist Party of America (I have no idea if there's such a thing, this is all hypothetical after all). No matter how well said boss does his job, no matter how well he treats his employees I think it's pretty reasonable to accept that the Jew feels uneasy and would rather see the boss replaced by someone else.

well, if the only way the Jew learns about the donation is from someone investigating the list of doners, then I would disagree.

i also disagree with the idea that it's a natural right (or whatever term you want to use) to not have someone make you feel "uncomfortable".

Yes, there are actions that are unreasonable and would deserve to have that hypothetical boss fired, but just donating and voting the "wrong" cause should not be among them