Comment by umanwizard
10 months ago
It seems obvious that that’s not what Ted intended it to mean, since it wouldn’t even make sense in this context (the debate doesn’t really seem to be about whether maintainers should be loyal to other maintainers).
A more charitable interpretation would be “we’re the only line of defense protecting something good and valuable from the outside world, so people should give significant weight to our opinions and decisions”. Which, to be clear, I would still mostly disagree with WRT the police, but it at least doesn’t explicitly endorse corruption.
The thin blue line comes from the thin red line, where a line of British redcoats held back a heavy cavalry charge in the crimean war. I've always taken it to mean that police officers consider themselves soldiers holding the last line of defence against wild enemies. Which is itself a controversial and probably unhelpful way to think about your job as a police officer.
There are many ways to state that without invoking corruption. I think Ted is telling the truth of who he is by choosing that phrase intentionally - we aren't talking about an idiot who just says stuff, he's a smart guy.
Given that "invoking corruption" is neither the plain meaning of those words, nor does it even make sense in this context, I don't think it's reasonable to claim Ted did so.
Ted Tso is an American, he was born in California, did his schooling in the US, and has worked here most (all?) of his career. As such he can be expected to know that "the thin blue line" is an idiom that carries with it a lot of connotation.
It's perfectly reasonable to assume he was aware of the implications of his words and chose to use them anyway.
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