Posts by mike@firebreathingduck.io
(DIR) Post #9nIdxpU3cKxdBrVsC8 by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-09-26T01:57:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@sir If I told my bosses I refused to use slow X over fast Y, they would replace me with someone more pliable.We can't fix this as individuals, we would need an industry-wide revolution. That's probably the right solution, but it's not trivial.
(DIR) Post #9nO9Q7Gl9ZJopS3qC0 by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-09-28T17:43:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey But in the particular case that Stallman was defending, the participant was under age. So even if victim presented herself as willing to Minsky, he's still a pedophile.And Minsky was 73 at the time. Even if he thought the victim was 20, what 20 year old person of *any* sexual identity or orientation wants to have sex with a 73 year old? 1/2
(DIR) Post #9nOAqsVaF3xkp0Jso4 by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-09-28T17:46:56Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey And this isn't an isolated case. Stallman has argued that pedophilia is not harmful to children (it's on his own website). And there are credible accusations that he blocked conferences from enforcing their own codes of conduct when friends of his sexually harassed attendees.I understand and agree with your general point. But I don't think it applies here.
(DIR) Post #9nOBSs1EVhZyJ8Euau by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-09-28T18:06:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey I am open to the possibility that Minsky is innocent.But Stallman's defense of the scenario as presented is unconscionable. "I don't think it happened" is completely separate from "If it did happen, Minsky didn't do anything wrong" and Stallman made both arguments.
(DIR) Post #9nSCgpZBcT1yqsjwCu by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-09-30T16:39:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey I've lost the order of the discussion a bit. Thanks for providing a link to Stallman's recant of his earlier position on pedophilia.With respect to 'credible accusations', the overwhelming majority of cases involving sexual misconduct are hearsay only. We have to preserve 'innocent until proven guilty' but testimony alone without other forms of proof must still be accepted as valuable evidence.This provides more context: https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-appendix-a-a7e41e784f88
(DIR) Post #9nSDCfplLBCrvvg36W by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-09-30T16:45:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey I'm not attempting to move the goal posts here - and call me on it if I do.I don't think my question about a fifty year age gap is absurd or ageist. It's exactly on point - they were at the Virgin Islands, a young adult would have thousands of potential sexual partners. Unless the woman did a convincing job pretending to have an incredible fascination for Minsky's AI research and other academic work, he *had* to know there was prostitution involved.
(DIR) Post #9nSZ8sZMFMHFGTbFOC by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-09-30T16:49:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey And I'm not opposed to sex work, but if you're paying a sex worker you have a base responsibility to attempt to understand the circumstances."Are you of age and here of your own free will?" and so forth. And if she lied, then Minsky is in the clear - but as far as I know that was not part of the testimony. If he had, Minsky could have sworn to that while he was still alive.
(DIR) Post #9nSrBAE3N0HjmMsF9c by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-01T00:12:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @bob All you have to do is read other comments and actions by Stallman over the years. Pedophile apologist until last year. Sexist.Most of the condemnation of Stallman's most recent statements were not, "This lone despicable assertion must not stand!", they were "This is the last straw, and we should have acted years ago."This is from women and men in the GNU project and MIT.
(DIR) Post #9nU9NdXmjJryRfmCJ6 by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-01T15:11:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @bob What kind of argument is that? So a slave owner born in the 1750s is guiltless?I wrote that there are multiple people testifying of unacceptable behavior by Stallman for decades, and the information is freely available with a web search. You twist that to mean they've been gunning for him for years.
(DIR) Post #9nUA5tD5qPkrm7CQ1A by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-01T15:19:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @yojimbo @lightweight I am aware of overzealous policing of communities. I asked why trans women often want breasts when many cis women have chests shaped no differently than men, and got savaged for just asking.But we are still in an era where the bigger problem is in the other direction - Trump supporters act enraged when they're called racists, even though they voted for someone who keeps implementing racist policies. And this is still the case with sexism in tech. We haven't hit baseline yet, let alone some atmosphere where the evil SJW police are falsely accusing innocents.Stallman's age is a "boys will be boys" argument. Just because he grew up around that kind of atmosphere doesn't mean it's acceptable for him to continue.
(DIR) Post #9noy4dEMXctSxrZQgK by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-11T14:16:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Ferretsyndicate A lot of capitalist apologists are consistent, though. I point out that the factory makes nothing without workers so the workers deserve all of the profits, and they still argue that the owner and employer takes all of the risks. They think if the factory folds the workers get other jobs but the owner loses lots of money.I see that kind of argument all of the time.And of course, it's still based on a bunch of faulty premises.
(DIR) Post #9oE0foDv8qus1i2qLA by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-23T18:08:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wohali I've come to believe that open source / free software can't win in a capitalist society. The contributors are almost all working in their spare time on top of a 40+ hour job that takes most of their energy and has to take priority. That's against massive profit engines built on proprietary code.It's an uphill fight. An up-cliff fight, really.I believe software freedom won't be widespread until and unless we have a successful anti-capitalist revolution.
(DIR) Post #9oE16wsV4Yn6gdy06y by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-23T18:14:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@xj9 @wohali Get a majority of users voluntarily on completely free software platforms.
(DIR) Post #9oE1ciKEiLvGor5SD2 by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-23T18:16:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@xj9 @wohali Did you have another one in mind? (That's a question asked out of curiosity, not a challenge issued against any other standard.)
(DIR) Post #9oE5aFGMCH3lv9Lo92 by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-23T18:24:16Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@xj9 @wohali I would love to be wrong, but I don't see that as practical within a capitalist society. Again, this separate and independent society has to accumulate contributors and resources in the shadow of having to hold a day job and often use or even build proprietary software tools in the day job, banking, and so forth.
(DIR) Post #9oFgJDFGKuRYCbXYFE by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-24T13:31:42Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@kaniini @wohali @lain @xj9 But to repeat for the hundredth time, I think the core problem is that the maintainers lack the resources. I'd love to solve a thousand bugs and add a thousand accessibility features, but I have an unrelated day job that takes most of my time and the overwhelming majority of my energy.
(DIR) Post #9oFgWL7yLCHCPiODtQ by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-24T13:32:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lain @wohali @xj9 That's awesome. What percent of the population has the education, expertise, and resources to do the same? 0.01?
(DIR) Post #9oFh3GCpeztGhpMQKW by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-24T13:35:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@shmibs @wohali If the UBI was high enough, agreed. In the US presidential Yang's proposed $1,000/citizen/month is woefully inadequate, especially since he's backed off on universal health care and his website quotes Milton Friedman's proposal to replace other social welfare programs with UBI. That makes his proposal a joke.
(DIR) Post #9oFhQciS8PYnBDI7eK by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-24T13:41:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@shmibs @wohali But housing is the biggest cost. It doesn't matter if bread prices stay low if my rent goes up $2k.
(DIR) Post #9oIAdLt1ItZ7jeZkLg by mike@firebreathingduck.io
2019-10-25T18:21:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@kragen @wohali I want to phrase this carefully - I don't want to downplay the problems, the negative impact, and the unacceptable immorality of abusive behavior and enabling abusive behavior. Those are horrific things that hurt the free software movement and more importantly hurt a lot of people.But even if that problem was completely solved, free software will still lose in the capitalist market.