4 ms·

What position of privilege might that be? Choosing a life with essentially no income or luxuries so he can do what he believes is right?

stonogo 6y ago
You try living rent free on the MIT campus for a few years. Travel the world at other people's expense while you're at it. Let me know whether you're successful, them we can talk about what privilege is.
- woofie11 6y ago
  You mean live in a small, dark, windowless room for a few years, with little privacy even if I want to go to the bathroom? No thanks. I did the "travel the world at other people's expense" thing for a bit too. My experience is that an international trip every 2 months is just about as much as I can handle before my mental health starts slipping. There's a huge difference between going to conferences 1-4 times per year (which is fun!), and living on airplanes.
- salawat 6y ago
  Imagine. Being the nexus of a philosophical movement, having made an honest attempt to replace as many aspects as possible of the non-GPL'd world around you, but being considerate enough to be willing to accommodate other's use of those non-GPL'd tools is privilege, or a negative thing in general. Having earned through great personal inconvenience, and social adversity, existing in a world whilst coping with a significant degree of neuroatypicality, you might actually find some level of refuge and respite amongst other similarly minded individuals. Imagine the gall of the individual that would look at every scrap of adversity you took upon yourself for the sake of others instead of just going with the flow and letting the world be carved up between vested non-free software imterests, to call you unjustifiably privileged for the supporting shoulders you've received as a token thank you for at least living the ideal we all wish we could. Honestly, at this point, I just think that people just despise seeing other people helped by other people, or otherwise succeeding in spite of their own adversity/weirdness/atypicality. It's quite hypocritical considering that this claim of privilege seems to come with the inherent demonstration that someone else would be better served by it. Controversial ideas or no, he's done more to keep software free and accessible than just about anyone else on the planet. He's not responsible for software being "unwelcoming" to outsiders either. Outsiders being unable or unwilling to understand subculture humor more than anything else is responsible for half of that; and the entire backbone of the Hacker ethos being that one is responsible for the banishment of one's own ignorance is the other half. No one is owed inclusion or admittance. No one is owed the context that makes one off color comment or another humorous to the author. Thus the treasure that is actually learning why it was the way it was. No one gets a free pass. You make something cool, you learn, teach, or contribute something; you figure something out or generally offer something to the community that makes it a better place? Then you're in, you know it, and no one can ever take it away from you. Not that certain groups, mostly adherents of cancel culture won't try; and have found some success. Even those successes too will soon pass, as the community splinters along the new schism. The adherents of the old ways following the old ways, and the cancel culture people going on to form their own bubble.

stonogo 6y ago

You try living rent free on the MIT campus for a few years. Travel the world at other people's expense while you're at it. Let me know whether you're successful, them we can talk about what privilege is.

woofie11 6y ago
You mean live in a small, dark, windowless room for a few years, with little privacy even if I want to go to the bathroom? No thanks. I did the "travel the world at other people's expense" thing for a bit too. My experience is that an international trip every 2 months is just about as much as I can handle before my mental health starts slipping. There's a huge difference between going to conferences 1-4 times per year (which is fun!), and living on airplanes.
salawat 6y ago
Imagine. Being the nexus of a philosophical movement, having made an honest attempt to replace as many aspects as possible of the non-GPL'd world around you, but being considerate enough to be willing to accommodate other's use of those non-GPL'd tools is privilege, or a negative thing in general. Having earned through great personal inconvenience, and social adversity, existing in a world whilst coping with a significant degree of neuroatypicality, you might actually find some level of refuge and respite amongst other similarly minded individuals. Imagine the gall of the individual that would look at every scrap of adversity you took upon yourself for the sake of others instead of just going with the flow and letting the world be carved up between vested non-free software imterests, to call you unjustifiably privileged for the supporting shoulders you've received as a token thank you for at least living the ideal we all wish we could. Honestly, at this point, I just think that people just despise seeing other people helped by other people, or otherwise succeeding in spite of their own adversity/weirdness/atypicality. It's quite hypocritical considering that this claim of privilege seems to come with the inherent demonstration that someone else would be better served by it. Controversial ideas or no, he's done more to keep software free and accessible than just about anyone else on the planet. He's not responsible for software being "unwelcoming" to outsiders either. Outsiders being unable or unwilling to understand subculture humor more than anything else is responsible for half of that; and the entire backbone of the Hacker ethos being that one is responsible for the banishment of one's own ignorance is the other half. No one is owed inclusion or admittance. No one is owed the context that makes one off color comment or another humorous to the author. Thus the treasure that is actually learning why it was the way it was. No one gets a free pass. You make something cool, you learn, teach, or contribute something; you figure something out or generally offer something to the community that makes it a better place? Then you're in, you know it, and no one can ever take it away from you. Not that certain groups, mostly adherents of cancel culture won't try; and have found some success. Even those successes too will soon pass, as the community splinters along the new schism. The adherents of the old ways following the old ways, and the cancel culture people going on to form their own bubble.