Migrate aether post from 01449097963
This commit is contained in:
parent
f67cd018ac
commit
ff7a3c7765
1 changed files with 248 additions and 0 deletions
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,248 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
layout: default
|
||||
title: 'Free Software, Meritocracy, and why I try to listen when 'SJWs' speak'
|
||||
redirect_from:
|
||||
- /01449097963
|
||||
---
|
||||
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
|
||||
<html>
|
||||
<head>
|
||||
<title>Free Software, Meritocracy, and why I try to listen when 'SJWs' speak</title>
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://media.unpythonic.net/css/bootstrap.min.css">
|
||||
<style>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
#mask {
|
||||
position: absolute;
|
||||
left: 0;
|
||||
top: 0;
|
||||
background-color: #000;
|
||||
opacity: 0.7;
|
||||
display: none;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#loading {
|
||||
position: fixed;
|
||||
left: 50%;
|
||||
top: 50%;
|
||||
width: 58px;
|
||||
height: 60px;
|
||||
background-color: black;
|
||||
background-image: url('https://media.unpythonic.net/img/loading.gif');
|
||||
opacity: 0.9;
|
||||
z-index: 20;
|
||||
display: none;
|
||||
border-radius: 4px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#bigimg {
|
||||
position: fixed;
|
||||
top: 0;
|
||||
left: 0;
|
||||
width: 100%;
|
||||
height: 100%;
|
||||
display: none;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#maskouter {
|
||||
height: 100%;
|
||||
display: table;
|
||||
margin: 0 auto;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#maskinner {
|
||||
vertical-align: middle;
|
||||
display: table-cell;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#imgleft, #imgright {
|
||||
cursor: pointer;
|
||||
position: fixed;
|
||||
top: 50%;
|
||||
width: 64px;
|
||||
height: 64px;
|
||||
border-radius: 4px;
|
||||
background-color: black;
|
||||
z-index: 22;
|
||||
opacity: 0.7;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#imgleft {
|
||||
left: 0;
|
||||
background-image: url('https://media.unpythonic.net/img/prevbtn.png');
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#imgleft.disabled, #imgright.disabled { display: none; }
|
||||
|
||||
#imgright {
|
||||
right: 0;
|
||||
background-image: url('https://media.unpythonic.net/img/nextbtn.png');
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#imgdesc {
|
||||
position: fixed;
|
||||
left: 64px;
|
||||
bottom: 0;
|
||||
background-color: #333;
|
||||
width: 100%;
|
||||
padding-top: 1em;
|
||||
padding-bottom: 1em;
|
||||
padding-left: 2em;
|
||||
border: 1px solid #555;
|
||||
border-bottom: 0;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#imgdesc .filename {
|
||||
color: #fff;
|
||||
font-weight: bold;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#imgdesc .description {
|
||||
color: #fff;
|
||||
padding-left: 1em;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
#mask { z-index: 10990; }
|
||||
#loading { z-index: 10991; }
|
||||
#bigimg { z-index: 10992; }
|
||||
|
||||
</style>
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://media.unpythonic.net/js/jquery-1.6.4.min.js"></script>
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://media.unpythonic.net/js/bootstrap-dropdown.js"></script>
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://media.unpythonic.net/js/jquery.mousewheel.js"></script>
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://media.unpythonic.net/js/jquery.ba-hashchange.min.js"></script>
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://media.unpythonic.net/js/jquery.mobile.custom.min.js"></script>
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://media.unpythonic.net/js/gallery.js"></script>
|
||||
<style><!--
|
||||
div.floatimageleft, div.floatimageright {
|
||||
border: 1px solid black;
|
||||
padding: 2px;
|
||||
margin: 1em;
|
||||
}
|
||||
div.floatimageleft { clear: left; float: left; }
|
||||
div.floatimageright { clear: right; float: right; }
|
||||
div.floatimageleft img, div.floatimageright img { border: 0px; }
|
||||
|
||||
div.floatimageleft img.zoom, div.floatimageright img.zoom {
|
||||
padding: 4px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
--></style>
|
||||
<style><!--
|
||||
div.albumouter {
|
||||
margin-right: 1ex;
|
||||
margin-top: 1ex;
|
||||
vertical-align: baseline;
|
||||
display: -moz-inline-box;
|
||||
display: inline-block;
|
||||
text-decoration: none !important;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.album { display: block; clear: both; }
|
||||
|
||||
.album a:link, .album a:hover, .album a:visited
|
||||
{ text-decoration: none; }
|
||||
.album a:hover { color: red; }
|
||||
|
||||
.albumimage {
|
||||
display: block;
|
||||
padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;
|
||||
padding-top: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px;
|
||||
background: #ececec;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.albumimage img.zoom {
|
||||
margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;
|
||||
padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; }
|
||||
.albumimage img { border: 0px;
|
||||
display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right:auto
|
||||
}
|
||||
--></style>
|
||||
|
||||
<!-- no summary found -->
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
||||
|
||||
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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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?
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>In short, I've been a bully and an abuser.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>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.
|
||||
<br><br><font size=-2>Entry first conceived on 2 December 2015, 23:12 UTC, last modified on 29 February 2016, 22:04 UTC</font>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue