Bonum Certa Men Certa

Drew DeVault Has Lost the Plot

Summary: Generalisations are the foremost weapon of fascism; Drew DeVault embraces the ideology of those whom he claims to be against

I've long attempted to refrain from commenting on Drew DeVault, whose mental struggles he habitually writes about himself in his own blog. But it's getting harder to avoid responding as he has just made some wild and wide-ranging accusations, generalising and stigmatising Free software communities. First there's this:

Germany story: Then I went to GPN, a hacker event in Germany, at the start of June. It was a welcome relief from the stress I’ve faced this year, a chance to celebrate hacker culture and a warm reminder of the beauty of our community. It was wonderful. Then, on the last night, a friend took me aside and confided in me that they are a pedophile, and told me it was okay because they respected the age of consent in Germany – which is 14. What began as a wonderful reminder of what the hacker community can be became a PTSD episode and a reminder that rape culture is fucking everywhere.

Read: I met a pedophile in a hackers' conference, so all hackers are pedophiles



And this is in the footnote:

RMS rant: And fuck Richard Stallman and his enablers, his supporters, and the Free Software Foundation’s leadership as a whole. Shame on you. Shame on you.
He makes it sound like Richard Stallman (RMS) committed a crime and people who don't reject RMS are thus "enablers"



My personal interpretation of this (since June when he tried to "reform" the message) is that he's just jealous and frustrated that his anti-FSF thing did not take off. Trying to 'pull an OSI' 25 years later (after failing to be elected at the OSI) was a losing proposition.

I first noticed him in Mastodon several years ago; then he closed his instance (which was used by other people too!) with barely any prior notice and he then -- perhaps just months later -- spoke about depression issues, drugs, among other things...

"My personal interpretation of this (since June when he tried to "reform" the message) is that he's just jealous and frustrated that his anti-FSF thing did not take off."He is both extremely UNPREDICTABLE and unstable, even if he writes excellent software and has very good insights on the technology sector (this new one from yesterday is spot on).

I can only ask politely that he should reconsider stigma and generalisation. Those do not bear the message of inclusiveness or tolerance. He's in effect rejecting very large groups because of a single person here and there. Inductions and deductions have taken the Netherlands (where he's now based) into the abyss 80 years ago. Don't lead us back to that in the name of "diversity". As for the Code of Conduct, in practice it is censorship for and by corporations. It's not meant to protect vulnerable groups. Don't be the monopolists' "useful idiot".

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