From ff7a3c7765f2e05e919c7efa21351197875ab880 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jeff Epler Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2019 17:29:23 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Migrate aether post from 01449097963 --- ...d-why-I-try-to-listen-when-SJWs-speak.html | 248 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 248 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2015-12-02-Free-Software-Meritocracy-and-why-I-try-to-listen-when-SJWs-speak.html diff --git a/_posts/2015-12-02-Free-Software-Meritocracy-and-why-I-try-to-listen-when-SJWs-speak.html b/_posts/2015-12-02-Free-Software-Meritocracy-and-why-I-try-to-listen-when-SJWs-speak.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99402cd --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2015-12-02-Free-Software-Meritocracy-and-why-I-try-to-listen-when-SJWs-speak.html @@ -0,0 +1,248 @@ +--- +layout: default +title: 'Free Software, Meritocracy, and why I try to listen when 'SJWs' speak' +redirect_from: + - /01449097963 +--- + + + +Free Software, Meritocracy, and why I try to listen when 'SJWs' speak + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Three quarters of a lifetime ago, I was a bullied fat kid in elementary school. +Picked last for sports teams, if I bothered to even try playing with the other +kids. Unaware of the rules while everyone else seemed to know innately how +to play baseball, or soccer, or football, or whatever the game of the day was. + +

From their point of view, those athletic youths were probaby practicing a +meritocracy: why would you pick the asthmatic fatty who couldn't even remember +to dribble when playing basketball? I hadn't earned it. Those team captains +knew the rules like they knew how to breathe. Me, I can go learn the rules on +my own and lose a few pounds and then maybe I'll get picked to play. + +

In my teens, through BBSes and later the Internet I found communities where I +was more accepted and where my computer skills gave me a measure of status. +Many years later it's easy to imagine that I learned those skills effortlessly. +Some of that may be an inherent aptitude, but the reality is probably that I +learned much more from those around me than I realized. + +

Oh and did I mention that all along I was growing up in a dysfunctional +household with a dad who was prone to angry verbal outbursts, something that +I learned to imitate and have still not entirely managed to outgrow over twenty +years after I cut him out of my life? + +

So anyway from the mid nineties through the present, I became a part of Hacker +culture, Free Software culture, and specifically a part of the LinuxCNC +project. During this time, we patted ourselves on the back because we were +doing Important Work, because we were Revolutionary Thinkers who had seen the +flaw in commercial software and closed development methods. I guess that only +by the narrowest of margins did I avoid reading Ayn Rand and styling myself a +libertarian and an objectivist. + +

What did I learn from my idols, people like Linus Torvalds and Eric Raymond? +I learned that some people are such bad software developers that it would be +better if they were run over by a bus than that they ever offer a contribution +to Free Software again. And that as a result, it was their right (and mine) to +verbally abuse those contributors until they stopped wasting our time. + +

What did I bring to LinuxCNC? An echo of childhood bullying, a habit of +verbally abusing the people around me, and the idea that I was essentially born +an elite hacker. + +

I'd like to think that I've never written anything truly vile and insulting on +a Free Software mailing list or chat group, but in reality I'm sure I've +crossed lines that I shouldn't have. More recently, my unmanaged irritation at +"noobs" cuased me to largely shut down as a participant in the LinuxCNC +community since if I took insults off the table the only course of action +I knew was to remain silent and withdrawn. + +

And now, at age 40, I'm seriously reflecting on this for the first time. And +what I see is that way into my adulthood, I'm more or less repeating playground +bullying techniques against people who don't instictively configure their text +editor to insert 4 spaces when they press tab, who don't know they have to +"sign off" their commits or write documentation or a test or whatever road +block I want to put up when they have a contribution to offer. I got to the +top of something, and I haven't used that position to bring other people up +with me, but to finally exercise a little power over people who are beneath me +and less than me. + +

In short, I've been a bully and an abuser. + +

Why am I finally figuring this out now? I am sure it's a confluence of many +things, but one of those things is how the so-called "Social Justice Warriors" +(SJWs) have started to make their voices heard in our communities. Ironically, +their voices have become louder for me the more that is said against them. + +

They say, build an inclusive community. Build everyone up, even first-timers +who don't know all the scret handshakes. Don't accept that you're playing a +zero-sum game where you have to tear everyone else down. + +

They say, show this by your conduct. Recognize that there are groups who are +traditionally excluded from your community. Act in a way that not only avoids +treating them unfairly, but which avoids even the appearance of treating them +unfairly. Don't set up impossible barriers and pretend you would have been +able to surmount them yourself. + +

I want to practice these ideals. I will fail a lot before I succeed, if I ever +do succeed. But so many voices are now being raised, fellow people who want to +succeed at this project and who will do so by lifting me up and who I have a +duty to lift up in turn. Social Justice Warriors, thank you for your +constructive criticism of the way I've been participating in Free Software +development and generally as a person. I'm working on an updated and improved +version that incorporates your feedback. Let me know what you think. +

Entry first conceived on 2 December 2015, 23:12 UTC, last modified on 29 February 2016, 22:04 UTC + + \ No newline at end of file