I agree with about half of what you say. I think that plenty of social justice rhetoric is about real problems, and it's uncomfortable because it's true. But

I agree with about half of what you say. I think that plenty of social justice rhetoric is about real problems, and it's uncomfortable because it's true. But you're right that not every use of this rhetoric is valid, and some people who use it seem to be trolling. But for the love of me, I cannot comprehend why one would have such a vendetta against something as benevolent as FOSS. Something that is meant to strengthen community, to encourage freedom of information and empowerment. To everyone. Not just white males. This, I 100% agree with. That's how I see it too, and I think the same applies to many of the values of the hacker community. We have built a community that works well for the people in it, and there is no inherent reason why that community should not be open to more people irrespective of demographics. What I was trying to say at the end of my earlier comment is that there's no benefit in trying to attack the entire community when most (I assume, based on my social circle) of us are very much in favour of as many people as possible joining and participating in the community. You know what I think is misogynistic? Assuming that women are weak, fragile and whenever someone makes joke in poor taste (such as Titstare), that we should immediately go up in arms and do something about all the poor oppressed women that were offended by this. OK, I see your point and yes, there have been overreactions to specific incidents that have made people rightly suspicious of claims of offence, but the majority of complaints are genuine and correctly describe behaviour that should be considered offensive by most people. Whilst women can be strong and ignore things that they find offensive, that does not mean that they should have to keep doing this. Let me put it another way: as a nerdy kid who wore glasses, there was always someone who thought they could be funny by insulting me about this. It clearly did not destroy me as a person, and I now consider it to be a valuable part of my identity, but that's very different from arguing that it's OK for people to be bullied for their personality or physical characteristics, or that they should just get over it and not try to stop it happening to others. It's bad, and if we have the chance to stop it, we should. I think if we're clear about what is and is not tolerable behaviour, it will actually become easier to dismiss the silly mistakes or accidental misunderstandings that occasionally get blown up. Back in the day, if someone tried to flirt with a woman on the subway, she would brush it off and move on with her life. Today, she would go back to her home, open up her $1,200 MacBook Pro and write a blog article about how all of womankind is being systematically oppressed by privileged white men daily. So, this I don't agree with. The woman in your example is entitled to her opinion, entitled to state it freely and can make her own conclusions about the social forces at play. If enough people agree with her, social change will occur. For my part, I tend to find being hassled in the street annoying, so I'd probably be in agreement with her. I do take the point that simply blaming "men" is wrong, and the suggestion that we're all involved in some kind of straight white male conspiracy does not make sense, but I don't think many people really argue that.