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Did Linus protect the Linux Foundation from the Social Justice Warriors?

Posted by jimlynch on · 10 comments
Jim Lynch; By Jim Lynch
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The recent news that the Linux Foundation had changed its policy on community representation caught many people by surprise. Most of the first reactions seemed assume that it was done to somehow promote corporate interests over community interests.

But is that really why the policy was changed? Or was it done to avoid an influx of Social Justice Warriors?

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Comments (10)

dotmatrix ·
To stir the pot, here's the other side's view of Sandler's Women's Outreach program:

https://www.linuxvoice.com/inside-the-gnome-foundation/
albinard ·
I'll repeat here the comment I made on your belligerent blog post:

Social justice warriors? You mean people who defend the rights of others who have been mistreated and abused? Those who do not conform to the autocratic rule of those in power? Those who fight against prejudice and injustice?

“Social justice warriors” created this nation – we called their movement The American Revolution.

Think about that.

And think about this, too: when yoju post a gun image, it means something to someone like myself who is a Korean War veteran and knows something about what guns do. Be careful with those images.
jdixon ·
> Social justice warriors? You mean people who defend the rights of others who have been mistreated and abused?

No, he means the holy than thou twits who demand everyone kowtow to their every demand because of some perceived injustice on the part of someone, somewhere, sometime int he past. And demands that anyone who disagrees with them must be cast out and silenced (preferably losing their employment and ability to provide for their families in the process), claiming that there is "no place in society" for those who hold any counter viewpoint.

Those are who he means.

> “Social justice warriors” created this nation – we called their movement The American Revolution.

So the tea party members (the modern incarnation of those who hold the principles this country was founded on) are all social justice warriors now? Somehow I don't think those who claim the SJW mantle would agree

Of course, that makes the following doubly hypocritical, given how it demands limits on free speech:

> And think about this, too: when yoju post a gun image, it means something to someone like myself who is a Korean War veteran and knows something about what guns do. Be careful with those images.

My family has owned guns for generations. We've always had them in our homes. We used them to put food on the table. I'm quite aware of what they do. I'll use gun images as I see fit.

For those interested: http://www.amazon.com/SJWs-Always-Lie-Taking-Thought-ebook/d...

And since this will now devolve into a political discussion, I expect this will be my last comment on the thread.
Read the whole comment
dotmatrix ·
@albinard:

I had to make sure you weren't directing your anger at me... I may be belligerent, but not on this particular thread.

Then I found your comment on Jim's page:

http://jimlynch.com/linux-articles/did-linus-protect-the-linux-foundation-from-the-social-justice-warriors/#comment-55893

I have enjoyed his recent blog posts --- although, I think he misses the target - let alone the point on this one. It's highly unlikely that Linus would care at all what anyone thinks. To him, it seems, everything is all about good code - and it really doesn't matter from whom or whence it comes. His infamous middle finger at NVidia was not about FOSS or even OSS, it was about working well with Linux kernel proprietary binary and all.

Torvalds wrote:I'm not a nice person, and I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the kernel—that's what's important to me...

...the most important part of open source is that people are allowed to do what they are good at" and "all that [diversity] stuff is just details and not really important.


http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/linus-torvalds-on-why-he-isnt-nice-i-dont-care-about-you/
gus3 ·
Linus Torvalds is just as toxic to FOSS culture as the SJW's.

And vice versa.

(Get ready for it....)

And the Mozilla Foundation was still right to jettison Brendan Eich. Supporting some freedoms (FOSS), while opposing others ("one man, one woman"), is not supporting freedom at all, SJW outrage notwithstanding. Therefore, Brendan Eich is not welcome in my household.
jdixon ·
> Supporting some freedoms (FOSS), while opposing others ("one man, one woman"), is not supporting freedom at all,

What "freedoms" did Eich oppose? The freedom to redefine a centuries old word to someone's liking?
thenixedreport ·
To be fair, there was too much blind rage at Eich in the first place. To their credit, FOSS Force didn't jump on that train and reserved judgement. To imply that somebody doesn't support freedom at all because they disagree with a point of view is to not fully understand freedom in the first place. Freedom is the ability to choose and convey a point of view, and to even disagree with other points of view. He was an individual who shared the same concerns as many regarding NSA wiretapping and other forms of unconstitutional spying. If the Linux kernel project only allowed those who agreed on a set of opinions to work on the project it wouldn't be as robust as it is today. It's as Aristotle once said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Many of us would do well to learn to agree to disagree.
JaseP ·
This thread has devolved into politics, and I ask the Admins to lock it...
jdixon ·
> This thread has devolved into politics, and I ask the Admins to lock it...

Well, duh.
JaseP ·
Read the last line of ToS Code of Conduct #6: http://lxer.com/module/pages/v/12/

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