"A lot of IBM projects revolve around mass surveillance, albeit it's disguised as "health" and "safety" (or "security")."IBM seems to be trying to provoke or irritate by stirring up a controversy over things that weren't really issues until some corporations decided/decreed so. This has led to many unnecessary confrontations, which were expectedly divisive and helped distract from much bigger problems. Feuds and spurious disagreements emerged out of nowhere, even among people who had long gotten along. Cui bono?
This potentially harms collaborations, destabilising some projects and undermining harmony. Does that make them more welcoming? Will this help foster/nourish more contributions and increase the number of volunteers/contributors? We've seen no such evidence. A lot more could be said about this or was already said. We could go on and on. Instead, let's quote what some people have said following yesterday's articles about IBM.
"Are you interested in learning more about Emb(race) and IBM's initiative to eradicate racist IT terminology?" -IBM
So said figosdev, jokingly paraphrasing IBM.
"From eradicating the Jews to "eradicating" language isn't that much of a political shift for these guys. There was a lot of book-burning by their "clients" in those days.
"The goal isn't to help IT, but to gain control of IT. Ultimately they are gaining control of free software, so it won't be free. Controlling IT terms to enslave users -- that sounds a lot more like IBM than it sounds like fighting for social justice."
It's about gaining more and more control. This is IBM's "Septemberprogramm". IBM has a long history of monopoly abuse and endless expansion. We covered that before.
As we noted yesterday, IBM is probably more guilty than anyone.
"While common expressions like “sold down the river” and “blackmail” are clear and demeaning vestiges of our historical connection to enslavement," figosdev noted, "other common terms may not jump out as readily. But they too demand eradication. This is so fucking stupid... also their use of "eradication" is sheer hypocrisy. It readily calls up the "eradication" of races IBM themselves were involved in. This is such a troll!"
"Patent Troll: companies using stupid patent claims for things they didn't invent, trying to control (and blackmail) others [and] Copyright Troll: companies using stupid copyright claims for things they didn't create, trying to control (and blackmail) others.."
It's going to get a lot harder to speak about corporate crimes, isn't it?
"What kind of trolls do we trying to control (CON Troll) people now? PC Trolls? Great! This is the pinnacle of "civilisation" right here -- abject, rampant fucking stupidity. Slavemasters pretending they hate term "Master" and "Slave" -- not unlike the RIAA pretending to give a shit about artists, when all they do is exploit them."
In his argument (to be shown in IRC logs later today), figosdev cites Wikipedia extensively, explaining the origins of the word "blackmail" and its historical significance.
“Maybe the real reason IBM is doing this is to keep people from holding them accountable for their work in the Holocaust, the same way Gates went after Stallman to keep people away from bothering him about Epstein ties.”
--figosdev"IBM is blackmailing the entire industry," figosdev argued, "disguising control as liberation -- then painting anybody angry with the dishonesty and bullshit as liking racism, which is a pretty effective defense that compounds the dishonesty. They double down, and it works."
Tom replied: "Nice reputation you have there - I'd hate to see anything happen to it..."
This is the kind of rhetoric they use. It's rather scary to those who would otherwise express an opinion or speak out against IBM.
figosdev continued: "This isn't the first era where computer scientists and developers had to worry about being blackmailed over political nonsense. Alan Turing lived in an era where there was a real danger of people finding out you were gay, and then using that information to blackmail you -- like collecting rent on it or they would turn you in. Of course IBM helped "eradicate" gays as well, it's so bizarre to see Nazis make themselves into the PC Police."
People have had a long time to think about this and not rush to instinctive judgment. People read both sides of the debate and the argument is typically won by those whose voices are gagged (the gagging is done to conceal the actual debate, which is hard to win otherwise). The consensus was long ago reached in uncensored fora like our IRC channels, where mere discussion isn't spun as provocation or racism. We've already seen, several times in fact, that the issue stretches to a lot more words that aren't related to race or even to gender (like people whom IBM helped the Nazis eradicate in "Aktion T4" because of their mental condition). It's convenient to introduce speech controls using these vehicles because self-censorship is then encouraged. There's an atmosphere of fear ("what will my employer think???"), setting aside stubborn censorship of debates, which is already prevalent in this area (in the name of "protecting" people).
"Maybe the real reason IBM is doing this is to keep people from holding them accountable for their work in the Holocaust," figosdev argued, "the same way Gates went after Stallman to keep people away from bothering him about Epstein ties." ⬆