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Well, hopefully this will help clean the free software movement from all those people who think no non-neurotypical person should be in a position of power. Wh

by sildur 6y ago

Well, hopefully this will help clean the free software movement from all those people who think no non-neurotypical person should be in a position of power. Whose number may seem unusually high, but it isn't if we consider recent history. People is quick to discard all those who think different. And the holier-than-thou mentality is deeply rooted in the American mind. Hopefully all those people will leave to form their "pure" and "exclusive" community where they could endlessly discuss about how many pricks can dance in a forum's thread, or something like that, so people who really want to work can advance the movement unimpeded by drama-seeking Karens.

krapp 6y ago
>Well, hopefully this will help clean the free software movement from all those people who think no non-neurotypical person should be in a position of power. Literally no one has argued that. People have argued that Richard Stallman shouldn't hold positions of power because his behavior and his beliefs make people feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. No one has ever claimed that Richard Stallman shouldn't be in a position of power because he is non-neurotypical, assuming that he is.
- anm89 6y ago
  People are downvoting this but I've also never seen it anywhere. Can anyone cite any sources of people making this claim?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - boublepop 6y ago
    The primary driver for him stepping down seems to have been the controversy surrounding him defending someone engaged in sex with a minor provided by Epstein with arguments like “she likely presented herself as willing” and arguing that wether she was above or below the age of content made no difference.
    - anm89 6y ago
      Right, I guess like everyone else I've got my own opinions on that but it was pretty clear to me that that was the impetus for all of this. I have not heard a single person attacking him for "not being neurotypical"
      - sildur 6y ago
        Of course they don't. The people who bullied me didn't argument that either, but the end result was the same. We are attacked because we are weird. Which is sad. Software development was a safe haven for all the weird people who wouldn't fit elsewhere. But then the neurotypical arrived, and they didn't like our weirdness. So we are being bullied out of software development.
        dragonwriter 6y ago
        > Software development was a safe haven for all the weird people who wouldn't fit elsewhere. But then the neurotypical arrived, and they didn't like our weirdness. Interestingly, it being actively promoted that socially maladjusted males were ideal for the field—from, IIRC, about the 1970s—was a key part of driving women and others not fitting that constructed stereotype out of the field.
        Jon_Lowtek 6y ago
        Contrary to your claims during the 70s and 80s the number of women in computer science increased to a local maximum, after the "atomic family" of the fifties changed the gender dynamic and decreased it. It only started to decline again in the mid 90s and 2000s, which i believe is because video games were almost exclusively marketed as toys for men and boys. Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp For me it seems unsurprising that people who like to sit inside, read books, play with electronics and have used keyboards from a young age are labeled an ideal fit for the field of computer science, because they are, compared to kids that played mostly barbie or sportsball. That you call them "socially maladjusted" is related. Hint for parents: if your kid never wants to play with classmates and prefers to read, it is not a little geek, it is getting harassed at school. And now take a guess why the field is full of boys with physical disabilities or neuroatypicalness. Especially the early internet allowed these marginalized people to connect to others based on interests over vast distances, removing the need to "fit with the local group". On the net no one knows you are a dog. As such there is a resonance effect that increased fitting between weird boys and computer science. I do not need to imply any active intention by an unspecified entity to explain that.

by sildur 6y ago

krapp 6y ago

>Well, hopefully this will help clean the free software movement from all those people who think no non-neurotypical person should be in a position of power. Literally no one has argued that. People have argued that Richard Stallman shouldn't hold positions of power because his behavior and his beliefs make people feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. No one has ever claimed that Richard Stallman shouldn't be in a position of power because he is non-neurotypical, assuming that he is.

anm89 6y ago
People are downvoting this but I've also never seen it anywhere. Can anyone cite any sources of people making this claim?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- boublepop 6y ago
  The primary driver for him stepping down seems to have been the controversy surrounding him defending someone engaged in sex with a minor provided by Epstein with arguments like “she likely presented herself as willing” and arguing that wether she was above or below the age of content made no difference.
  - anm89 6y ago
    Right, I guess like everyone else I've got my own opinions on that but it was pretty clear to me that that was the impetus for all of this. I have not heard a single person attacking him for "not being neurotypical"
    - sildur 6y ago
      Of course they don't. The people who bullied me didn't argument that either, but the end result was the same. We are attacked because we are weird. Which is sad. Software development was a safe haven for all the weird people who wouldn't fit elsewhere. But then the neurotypical arrived, and they didn't like our weirdness. So we are being bullied out of software development.
      - dragonwriter 6y ago
        > Software development was a safe haven for all the weird people who wouldn't fit elsewhere. But then the neurotypical arrived, and they didn't like our weirdness. Interestingly, it being actively promoted that socially maladjusted males were ideal for the field—from, IIRC, about the 1970s—was a key part of driving women and others not fitting that constructed stereotype out of the field.
        Jon_Lowtek 6y ago
        Contrary to your claims during the 70s and 80s the number of women in computer science increased to a local maximum, after the "atomic family" of the fifties changed the gender dynamic and decreased it. It only started to decline again in the mid 90s and 2000s, which i believe is because video games were almost exclusively marketed as toys for men and boys. Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp For me it seems unsurprising that people who like to sit inside, read books, play with electronics and have used keyboards from a young age are labeled an ideal fit for the field of computer science, because they are, compared to kids that played mostly barbie or sportsball. That you call them "socially maladjusted" is related. Hint for parents: if your kid never wants to play with classmates and prefers to read, it is not a little geek, it is getting harassed at school. And now take a guess why the field is full of boys with physical disabilities or neuroatypicalness. Especially the early internet allowed these marginalized people to connect to others based on interests over vast distances, removing the need to "fit with the local group". On the net no one knows you are a dog. As such there is a resonance effect that increased fitting between weird boys and computer science. I do not need to imply any active intention by an unspecified entity to explain that.