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It’s not an accident that we just went through one of the biggest cultural revolutions in the software development world. Look at how we treated people like Ric
by poszlem 1y ago
It’s not an accident that we just went through one of the biggest cultural revolutions in the software development world. Look at how we treated people like Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond, Brendan Eich, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, and even John Carmack. One by one, they were sidelined, pushed out, or publicly flogged for being insufficiently “progressive,” for holding “outdated” views, or simply for the crime of being older white men who had the misfortune of building the foundations of the field before today’s ideological climate took over.
But the important part is that we never really replaced them with anyone of similar weight. There was no next generation of cultural or intellectual heavyweights ready to step in. Instead, the online crowd splintered into political factions, with one side demanding constant ideological purity and the other reacting by withdrawing, going independent, or outright rejecting the institutions they had once built.
In the meantime, corporations managed to capture the new generation of young hackers by presenting themselves as “woke.” Put up the right rainbow flag at the right time, make the right statements, and suddenly the deep distrust people had toward big tech in the 90s and 2000s started to fade.
- einpoklum 1y agoI know about how Stallman was attacked; there's this website describing things: https://stallmansupport.org/#intro https://stallmansupport.org/#intro and a bunch of HN pages: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26535224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26535224 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3417033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3417033 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20989696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20989696 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21103133 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21103133 but can you perhaps post links to text about the other figures?
- hollerith 1y agoWhen Eric Raymond, who is no longer officially involved in the Open Source Initiative (which he cofounded in 1998 or 1999 or so) addressed a forum of its members, OSI officials or forum officials banned him from the forum and invited anyone who felt traumatized by Eric's words or merely by his appearance on the forum to come forward.
- einpoklum 1y agoWhat did he address that forum about, that caused this reaction? What was the claim against him?
- hollerith 1y agoI forget what he addressed the forum about. This happened about 7 y ago. ESR writes a blog where he extolls libertarianism and is often skeptical of political progressivism.