Bonum Certa Men Certa

Diversity in Worldviews is Quite Likely More Important Than Diversity on Shallow and Superficial Lines/Criteria

When blind conformity is not desirable

Masked kids cartoon: we wear masks because it's smart, not because of race or gender or political party



Summary: Using the veneer of "diversity" and "tolerance" the Debian Project (to give just one example) is fully engaged in a cull of people who are simply an obstruction in the face of corporate takeover (power-imposed conformism)

Tragically, if not rather outrageously, we're seeing large corporations exploiting/leveraging the very issues that they themselves are the biggest participants/abusers/culprits in. For many generations corporations and their founding oligarchs have attacked people with their racist and sexist policies (ranging from unfair/discriminatory payments to classic slavery, sometimes even genocide) and now they're trying to oust people who are critical of corporate power using political lines, either real or perceived.



Examples aren't absent (short order); there are many of them out there and 'cancel culture' accelerated the pace of this agenda. Yesterday, somebody who had worked on Debian published the following E-mail, which basically shows Debian leadership trying to 'cancel' both a programmer/activist and a journalist (chilling effect) who wrote about the programmer:

 Subject: On coverage of Abbelbaum being "banned" from Debian
 Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2016 09:34:50 +0200
 From: Enrico Zini <enrico@enricozini.org>
 To: andrew.matler@itwire.com


Dear Editor in Chief of iTWire,

you may want to do something about this article by Sam Varghese on Debian revoking membership of Jacop Appelbaum: http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/73441-appelbaum-banned-from-debian-events-after-sexual-misconduct-charges.html

While the first part is factually correct in its DPL quote, the article ends with baseless hints of Debian and Tor having fallen victims to manipulations by GCHQ psyops.

I consider that to be psycological [sic] violence[1] against the various well known people who came out to report abuse, and I wish that news coverage about this situation could rather contribute to creating a community that encourages victims of abuse to speak up.

Quoting the DPL again, "In reaching their decision, the Debian Account Managers took into account the public disclosures from members of the Tor project and others, and first-hand accounts from members of the Debian community."

We are not talking about vague rumors spread by a couple of infiltrators, we are talking about first-person accounts provided by well known and respected members of both communities, with a track record of contributions of many years.

These people who had the guts to speak up deserve credit and respect, and the article published on your site gives them none.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

Regards,

Enrico

-- GPG key: 4096R/634F4BD1E7AD5568 2009-05-08 Enrico Zini


As Daniel Pocock put it: "The message that caught my eye was a message from Zini to the editor of ITWire. Zini is disrespectful to the journalist, Sam Varghese and he is lobbying the editor to try and change an existing news report. Zini uses exactly the same fake victims as part of the justification and he even asserts the DPL quote is correct..."

Further, he then noted: "Many newspaper editors would be keen to remove such statements and publish retractions but Zini has pursued a competing goal, lobbying them to make their reporting more adverse to Appelbaum, as the email to ITWire demonstrates."

A separate post said: "The explosive emails reveal that Zini was secretly sending out messages to the media lobbying them to change their reporting to reflect the position preferred by accusers. [...] rogue elements of the Debian community have hijacked the cause of diversity to justify a culture of blackmail."

Quebec Tim Hortons Mask: Did you rape? Did you? I... you're under arrest
The right of defence is as important as the right to accuse



I don't know Appelbaum well enough to comment on the allegations (I know that like many others he's deeply inspired by Richard Stallman (RMS) and he linked to Techrights on numerous occasions over the years). One indisputable fact: his activism certainly helped a lot of activists and whistleblowers, i.e. it helped expose crimes and hold people accountable. His supervisor at the university, who examined the evidence, supports Appelbaum. Maybe the allegations 'canceled' Appelbaum as far as the public eye is concerned. But those allegations did not convince scholars. Shades of RMS being 'canceled'... right?

The above E-mail from Zini is very malicious. If Zini had sent me such a mail, I'd blast Zini. This is a sort of censorship-type bullying, which extends from the target to anything or anyone sympathetic towards the target, like those Salesforce cranks who said everyone who supports RMS should also be ousted.

Let's translate this, shall we?

 Subject: On coverage of Abbelbaum being banned 
 [based on hearsay] from Debian


Dear boss of Sam Varghese,

you may want to sanction/punish/sack Sam Varghese for writing his personal assessment of Debian revoking membership of Jacob Appelbaum:

http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/73441-appelbaum-banned-from-debian-events-after-sexual-misconduct-charges.html

The article is correct, but to actually go beyond the official Debian "script" is not permitted in journalism.

Journalism is violence against the anonymous sources of hearsay, and I wish that news coverage about me would make me look fantastic.

Quoting the DPL again, "In reaching their decision, the Debian Account Managers took into account the public disclosures from members of the Tor project and others, and first-hand accounts from members of the Debian community." [this is a lie by the way]

I am lying to you about first-person accounts because we already made this decisions and we're going to look foolish if we admit to have examined low-quality evidence.

Anonymous voices who had the guts to speak up deserve credit and respect, and your articles should be based on anonymous sources whom you never even spoke to, nor have I.

Regards,

Enrico

-- GPG key: 4096R/634F4BD1E7AD5568 2009-05-08 Enrico Zini




To be clear, I don't know what happened with Appelbaum and I argued endlessly with some EFF bully, who respects neither Free software nor free speech, basing the opinion of Appelbaum only on hearsay. Never any first-hand account.

At the moment we're seeing a purge of various people whose voices are being eliminated and names tarnished because they're inconvenient to state/corporate interests (overlapping). Appelbaum is a target for the same reason Julian Assange is (and it's always being framed as a crime against women; as a side note, Assange too was a Debian developer) and Pocock -- from what I can gather -- spoke about exploitation of women by corporations (especially Google) and bribes from companies like Google and Microsoft.

"Appelbaum is a target for the same reason Julian Assange is (and it's always being framed as a crime against women) and Pocock -- from what I can gather -- spoke about exploitation of women by corporations (especially Google) and bribes from companies like Google and Microsoft. "If Debian wants to be honest and if it wishes to attract female coders (not women whom it leverages as "political props"), it'll have to quit using these identity politics. There have been other examples where senior and productive members of the Debian Project were threatened and/or 'canceled' simply because of some vaguely-worded allegations pertaining to race and/or gender. We gave an example of it some days ago. One of the most disgusting element of it (to me at least) is the way one's expression of an opinion is spun as an act of violence. As if to deviate from some boring narrative is the moral equivalent of assault (the chief of the Linux Foundation compared condemnation of criminals to... kicking puppies).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
 
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: What Was Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
We hope to finish this whole lot within a week, then move on to election, lobbying etc.
Links 05/04/2025: Tariffs Backfiring, YouTuber Arrested, X/Twitter Set to be Fined
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Offline is For Everyone, Copyright Colonialism, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day