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> To what extent can most people actually move the needle of their government's actions? I’m not unsimpathic to this argument. In wars innocent people gets hur

> To what extent can most people actually move the needle of their government's actions? I’m not unsimpathic to this argument. In wars innocent people gets hurt. Sometimes that means your name is removed from a text file, sometimes it means that your family is blown up in a missile attack. Either way the solution is the same: stop the war and take the troops home. I’m not going to adress the textbook whataboutism line by line. Generaly i’m easy to convince that a lot more negative consequences should have followed a lot of attrocities. If you think you caught me in some contradiction by selecting examples then you are wrong.

instagraham 2y ago
It matters because software projects are border-agnostic. There are people who benefit from code, and people who benefit from having people contribute to code. You drew the line on who gets to be a part of this, Geopoliticising something ostensibly unpolitical. If you want a rule of law in code, you’ll need more than a framework that only punishes Russia. Otherwise it’s no longer open source, it’s America-source. For what it’s worth I’d favour a host of military and economic measures against Russia. I think the only way this war stops is with military aid, maybe even intervention. I’m not here to defend Russia. I just don’t see what you expect Russians to do by nuking them from a Linux maintainer list. It’s a net loss for all of us to keep their coders out of open source. If we’re gonna do that with a logic that somehow spares America but punishes everyone else, then we just create a precedent that makes the whole ecosystem worse for a lot of people with nothing to do with this.
- krisoft 2y ago
  > I just don’t see what you expect Russians to do by nuking them from a Linux maintainer list. Finding alternative employment with a non-sactioned company would be a start.
  - instagraham 2y ago
    i agree that's not an unreasonable ask. but if code is to serve geopolitics, then we'll get a lot more (and tougher) situations like this to grapple with. perhaps it's just that I wish code was left neutral.
  - mardifoufs 2y ago
    I think you're under the false impression that the removals were aimed at specific contributors from specific corporations. Which isn't the case by the way.

instagraham 2y ago

It matters because software projects are border-agnostic. There are people who benefit from code, and people who benefit from having people contribute to code. You drew the line on who gets to be a part of this, Geopoliticising something ostensibly unpolitical. If you want a rule of law in code, you’ll need more than a framework that only punishes Russia. Otherwise it’s no longer open source, it’s America-source. For what it’s worth I’d favour a host of military and economic measures against Russia. I think the only way this war stops is with military aid, maybe even intervention. I’m not here to defend Russia. I just don’t see what you expect Russians to do by nuking them from a Linux maintainer list. It’s a net loss for all of us to keep their coders out of open source. If we’re gonna do that with a logic that somehow spares America but punishes everyone else, then we just create a precedent that makes the whole ecosystem worse for a lot of people with nothing to do with this.

krisoft 2y ago
> I just don’t see what you expect Russians to do by nuking them from a Linux maintainer list. Finding alternative employment with a non-sactioned company would be a start.
- instagraham 2y ago
  i agree that's not an unreasonable ask. but if code is to serve geopolitics, then we'll get a lot more (and tougher) situations like this to grapple with. perhaps it's just that I wish code was left neutral.
- mardifoufs 2y ago
  I think you're under the false impression that the removals were aimed at specific contributors from specific corporations. Which isn't the case by the way.