Comment by shrimp_emoji
1 year ago
Dawg, it's a "plural system".
If pointing out blatant mental illness is "bigotry" and nothing else to you, you're brainwashed.
1 year ago
Dawg, it's a "plural system".
If pointing out blatant mental illness is "bigotry" and nothing else to you, you're brainwashed.
Pointing out mental illness in place of actually evaluating and criticizing an argument or behavior on its own terms is prejudicial, ad hominem, etc. Sometimes, it might even be bigoted.
mentally ill ≠ incapable of reason
mentally ill ≠ unworthy of consideration
mentally ill ≠ wrong
Regardless of all that, singling out one person associated with a document you don't like and pointing at their microblogging bio is a lazy, crappy way to argue. And it's likely to direct harassment at that person.
All of this is true.
But we love laziness; it saves energy when there's too much information to process. :p That's a bad heuristic in theory but often excellent in practice.
If someone is stirring up woke drama to get smart people canceled out of a tech project, I won't listen (because it already screams "misaligned priorities and energy" -- my brain concluded this in its experience over the last 15 years of online culture war). If I learn they're a "plural system", I'll even bother declaring how it's not worth listening in the comments here.
I would bet a lot of money that my time and attention is steered well following this lazy heuristic every single time.
One person's stirring up woke drama is another person's holding people accountable for bad behavior.
Look. It's 2024. Leadership in the hacker community doesn't look like RMS or ESR anymore. The culture is queer, trans, furry, neurodiverse. The smarter and more talented the hacker, the more likely they are to be one or more of the above, especially in the millennial and younger demographics. Which means the most talented among us are also the most vulnerable. This is why we have less tolerance for abuse or harassment than we used to, and why we implement codes of conduct to deal with such abuse or harassment. That, and it's the right thing to do.
I suggest you modify your attitude. Or you will find yourself unable to participate in programming communities. Or the internet at large, if some plural system with root on a hop between you and the backbone decides the world would be better off with your packets null-routed.
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