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Let's flip this question around: If the project owner is a known racist, should they accept a pro-equality person into their project? Are you arguing that peo
by clocksld 11y ago
Let's flip this question around:
If the project owner is a known racist, should they accept a pro-equality person into their project?
Are you arguing that people should close off their communities to people with differing opinions, or are you arguing that people should close off their communities to people who you personally disagree with?
If it is the former, then you are short-sighted and petty, and if it is the latter, then YOU are what is wrong with the open-source world.
One of the major ideas behind the hacker ethic and the open-source collaborative ideal is that ANYONE skilled enough can contribute to projects, get their ideas heard, and improve the community effort. No amount of fascist and self-flagellating political bullying will make your walled-garden alternative a better idea than a truly all-inclusive community.
Yes, If a contributor spouts their political opinions on mailing lists or developer forums and derails discussions, then it is obvious that they are having a negative impact on the community. But kicking out a well-behaved and technically adept contributor simply because you don't like their views? By doing that, you have made your project appear FAR worse to potential contributors than accepting contributions from a "known racist" ever could.
The REAL "toxic people" in a community are those who try to get skilled and reasonable contributors thrown out because of childish political quibbles.