SOMETIMES it feels like the Free (libre) software community is being 'trolled' because some recent debates distract from technical work, wind up being needlessly divisive (perhaps by intention in some cases, splitting teams), and divert attention away from injustices like bombings, internment camps and other 'business ventures' that Amazon, Microsoft, Palantir and others profit a lot from. The intricacies due to slang and nuance further complicate all this. It is a losing war. The war makers love it!

"Think carefully whether we're encouraging an open society that's inclusive (of many views) or rather the very opposite."I always carefully reread everything I write about this sensitive topic, knowing that someone might attempt to misinterpret and/or take my words out of context. I've noticed that corporate accounts or blogs composed by people who work for a company like Red Hat (IBM) or the politically-correct Debian are a lot less likely to express views like ours. And who can blame them? In this current atmosphere it's almost inevitable they'd be accused of racism, sexism or some other form of immorality/thoughtcrime... if only they dared to disagree with some orthodoxy. Look what happened to Richard Stallman 9 months ago.

A society that is unable or too fearful to express particular viewpoints (notice in the screenshot above how speech is being restricted by the administrator, in a site controlled fully by Microsoft) we can expect more censorship of Microsoft critics because corporate crimes become unspeakable (depending on which corporation/s is/are in charge), whereas in the name of protecting the vulnerable we only allow one side of the debate to have a voice. Not an ideal scenario. Think carefully whether we're encouraging an open society that's inclusive (of many views) or rather the very opposite. ⬆