Reply to post: Re: Not very accurate

Debian devs decide best response to Richard Stallman controversy is … nothing

alain williams Silver badge

Re: Not very accurate

We are in an era where some memes receive a lot of vocal support and it can become damaging to speak out against them. If questioned: not supporting the meme can be held against you - this is why the likes of RedHat pulled away from the FSF.

You see related actions all over: no platforming of speakers, prominent groups (not just political ones) claiming that they are more disadvantaged than others (things are not 0% or 100%), blaming others for events that happened centuries ago, denigration of those who bear resemblance to those who are seen as oppressors,...

The evidence supporting the memes does not need to be good, indeed there can be large cracks or evidence against it - this does not matter, they will be ignored as long as the meme aligns with other popular memes.

This is not to say that some things do not need to change, but there is often an all or nothing attitude that is very harmful: you are either for us or against us. More nuance is needed; more listening less shouting.

Note: I said some memes, not all. I have avoided mentioning which memes as unthinking supporters of some of the more egregious memes would just down-vote my comment.

There used to be a time when contentious issues could be discussed, but now ...

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