4 ms·

> We look forward to working with the FSF and others to enable the FSF to once again become an effective and trusted advocacy organization in line with its char

> We look forward to working with the FSF and others to enable the FSF to once again become an effective and trusted advocacy organization in line with its chartered non-profit mission. Translation: cave to the mob if you want our money.

mc32 6y ago
If he committed a crime then he should suffer consequences, but this kind of politicking and posturing is unproductive. You’ll end up with spineless yes people who don’t push back and also do nothing but do PR (virtue signal the latest fad).
- 542458 6y ago
  There's a lot of room between "things that are crimes" and "things that alienate to wide swaths of the population, and therefore make you a poor choice for an ambassador".
  - mc32 6y ago
    I bet IBM’s actions and decisions over the years which due to bean counting, cost cutting or managerial incompetence has resulted in poor life experiences for tons of fired employees. Do they get to call for the management to get fired? Maybe their competitors get to call them out. I mean the result of firings is measurably worse than being weirded out by an anti social guy.
    - cskinner 6y ago
      Particularly when those firings were a biased process resulting in age discrimination [0]. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-finding-of-age-discrimination-against-ibm-signals-new-requisite-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-...
      - mc32 6y ago
        The only logical conclusion is that this is cheap performance because if they really thought about caring about their own workforce and took their newfound principles to heart, they’d resign en masse.
  - zozbot234 6y ago
    There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. It's pretty much his idea in the first place, and he's been by far the most consistent in his advocacy for it, even as he has changed his mind on lots of unrelated things (including wrt. minors' autonony, minors' rights and how to best protect minors from potential harm to their rights). It's mind-boggling and hardly believable to me that people would fail to grok this point.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. I disagree. RMS is (much like Joseph Ratzinger, for a different religious movement) much better as a chief theologian, theorist of doctrine, and internal enforcer of and exhortationist to doctrinal purity within the Church than an ambassador or evangelist to those not already deeply committed.
      - DreamScatter 6y ago
        An ambassador is usually not a leader, but a subordinate to the leader.
    - krapp 6y ago
      Really? Literally no person, anywhere, regardless of background, history, technical capability, history with free software, networking or speaking ability, is capable of acting as ambassador for the Free Software movment in the same capacity? Only RMS? You realize he's a mortal human, right? Because if your premise is that no one else can ever be worthy to replace him, your conclusion must be that the movement will die with him.
      - zozbot234 6y ago
        We will build a 100% free software virtual-RMS. We have the technology.
        krapp 6y ago
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  > If he committed a crime If he committed something, and this something was actually a crime and not just something that some people don't like, then it is up to the court to decide about it, not Twitter mob.
- __blockcipher__ 6y ago
  > You’ll end up with spineless yes people who don’t push back and also do nothing but do PR (virtue signal the latest fad). Yup. And if you haven’t noticed, that is exactly who is running almost every major institution in Western society currently. The enlightenment has died not with a bang but with a whimper.
undefined1 6y ago
is Red Hat themselves caving to the mob or have they been internally compromised by totalitarian activists?
- betwixthewires 6y ago
  Probably both. This ideological cancer has been metastasizing in software development for over a decade.
- __blockcipher__ 6y ago
  Much more the latter. It’s not really “caving” because this is what top brass actively wants. The political commentator Dave Smith has a great point where he views “wokism” as essentially a corporate plot. Post-2008 we had hordes of angry people occupying wall street, and however ignorant the footsoldiers may have been of basic economics they left a real mark. Fast forward ten years later and the corporations, big banks, and the CIA et al have all embraced woke identity politics and here we are arguing over the usage of the singular they and trying to decide if Aunt Jemima is racist or not. Viewed through that lens, wokism is the perfect performative ritual with which to placate the masses. And the beauty is it works on both sides. The left focuses on being woke instead of opposing the wars (both foreign and domestic) and the national “security” apparatus, and the right is busy fighting against the woke while they’re banned from going to church (COVID) and while their gun rights are gradually whittled away. Reality is obviously not that simple but there’s a real kernel of truth there.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
    I believe there could be some truth in this. Historically the left was the leading force fighting for workers rights. These days the focus seems totally on racial and sexual identity.
lepars 6y ago
RedHat is full of SJWs, they hired too many people indiscriminately in the last decade. I wonder if IBM will clean up.

mc32 6y ago

If he committed a crime then he should suffer consequences, but this kind of politicking and posturing is unproductive. You’ll end up with spineless yes people who don’t push back and also do nothing but do PR (virtue signal the latest fad).

542458 6y ago
There's a lot of room between "things that are crimes" and "things that alienate to wide swaths of the population, and therefore make you a poor choice for an ambassador".
- mc32 6y ago
  I bet IBM’s actions and decisions over the years which due to bean counting, cost cutting or managerial incompetence has resulted in poor life experiences for tons of fired employees. Do they get to call for the management to get fired? Maybe their competitors get to call them out. I mean the result of firings is measurably worse than being weirded out by an anti social guy.
  - cskinner 6y ago
    Particularly when those firings were a biased process resulting in age discrimination [0]. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-finding-of-age-discrimination-against-ibm-signals-new-requisite-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-...
    - mc32 6y ago
      The only logical conclusion is that this is cheap performance because if they really thought about caring about their own workforce and took their newfound principles to heart, they’d resign en masse.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. It's pretty much his idea in the first place, and he's been by far the most consistent in his advocacy for it, even as he has changed his mind on lots of unrelated things (including wrt. minors' autonony, minors' rights and how to best protect minors from potential harm to their rights). It's mind-boggling and hardly believable to me that people would fail to grok this point.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. I disagree. RMS is (much like Joseph Ratzinger, for a different religious movement) much better as a chief theologian, theorist of doctrine, and internal enforcer of and exhortationist to doctrinal purity within the Church than an ambassador or evangelist to those not already deeply committed.
    - DreamScatter 6y ago
      An ambassador is usually not a leader, but a subordinate to the leader.
  - krapp 6y ago
    Really? Literally no person, anywhere, regardless of background, history, technical capability, history with free software, networking or speaking ability, is capable of acting as ambassador for the Free Software movment in the same capacity? Only RMS? You realize he's a mortal human, right? Because if your premise is that no one else can ever be worthy to replace him, your conclusion must be that the movement will die with him.
    - zozbot234 6y ago
      We will build a 100% free software virtual-RMS. We have the technology.
      - krapp 6y ago
dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
> If he committed a crime If he committed something, and this something was actually a crime and not just something that some people don't like, then it is up to the court to decide about it, not Twitter mob.
__blockcipher__ 6y ago
> You’ll end up with spineless yes people who don’t push back and also do nothing but do PR (virtue signal the latest fad). Yup. And if you haven’t noticed, that is exactly who is running almost every major institution in Western society currently. The enlightenment has died not with a bang but with a whimper.

undefined1 6y ago

is Red Hat themselves caving to the mob or have they been internally compromised by totalitarian activists?

betwixthewires 6y ago
Probably both. This ideological cancer has been metastasizing in software development for over a decade.
__blockcipher__ 6y ago
Much more the latter. It’s not really “caving” because this is what top brass actively wants. The political commentator Dave Smith has a great point where he views “wokism” as essentially a corporate plot. Post-2008 we had hordes of angry people occupying wall street, and however ignorant the footsoldiers may have been of basic economics they left a real mark. Fast forward ten years later and the corporations, big banks, and the CIA et al have all embraced woke identity politics and here we are arguing over the usage of the singular they and trying to decide if Aunt Jemima is racist or not. Viewed through that lens, wokism is the perfect performative ritual with which to placate the masses. And the beauty is it works on both sides. The left focuses on being woke instead of opposing the wars (both foreign and domestic) and the national “security” apparatus, and the right is busy fighting against the woke while they’re banned from going to church (COVID) and while their gun rights are gradually whittled away. Reality is obviously not that simple but there’s a real kernel of truth there.
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  I believe there could be some truth in this. Historically the left was the leading force fighting for workers rights. These days the focus seems totally on racial and sexual identity.

lepars 6y ago

RedHat is full of SJWs, they hired too many people indiscriminately in the last decade. I wonder if IBM will clean up.