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Comment by indoordin0saur

7 hours ago

Those concerns have evolved away from their original mission. Not an unusual situation for organizations like this as a they shrink and lose relevance.

12 comments

indoordin0saur

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kbelder  2 hours ago

It reminds me a bit of the ACLU. If nothing else, they were always respectable in their vociferous defense of the 1st amendment and free speech. But they got caught up in other ideological battles, and transitioned to a more partisan organization... defending speech they politically agreed with, not worrying about others. Generally, becoming more small-minded.

The ACLU was always considered a leftist organization, and I'm sure that in general most of it's staff was so; but their mission was scoped to certain issues, and anybody who agreed with that mission, despite their other politics, could support them. Once partisanship takes over, though, it isolates them.

If the EFF isn't careful, it is going to be an organization not for those who support certain digital freedoms, but for Leftists who support certain digital freedoms. That'll do nothing but make it more difficult to accomplish their original goals.

I expect it'll also come with a loss of focus, similar to what happened at Mozilla.

Arubis  5 hours ago

My sibling in sin, I have an EFF tee from about 2001-2002 that reads, in boldface, “FREE SPEECH HAS A POSSE”. They have always been broadly political.

  • poisonarena  3 hours ago

    i went to an eff meeting at a hackerspace in 2006 or 2007, and it was hacker crypto nerds, mostly fat guys with ponytails that liked X files, gaming, and 2600.. some went to 2600 meetings.

    I went 10-11 years later, and half the people at the meeting were transexuals, and it was a totally different vibe.

    Something happened..

    • ecshafer  2 hours ago

      I miss when tech was mostly the former. Or many just the world when these niches could exist without political activists for the omnicause.

    • rafterydj  2 hours ago

      Usually I try to refrain from snark on this platform, but I wonder what could have happened 10 or 11 years after 2006 that would lead transgender folks to start being more concerned with civil liberties and rights...

  • zahlman  5 hours ago

    This does not address the substance of the comment you are replying to. In fact, that comment was itself replying to a comment making the same argument you are making, explicitly explaining why it is non-sequitur.