True, it's good to be forward-thinking; still, radical love is more needed than radical hate. I don't think you're advocating outright bigotry, but you're advocating what the status quo is -- non-radical -- that is, the unchecked allowance for privileged groups to espouse their views regardless of the impact on others.
On 05/11/2013 04:44 AM, Tristan Van Berkom wrote: > On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 5:47 AM, Michael Hill <mdhil...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 2:50 PM, Tristan Van Berkom <t...@gnome.org> wrote: >> >>> People have common sense, they know that since we are at the zoo, >>> there actually are monkeys to go see. >> Tristan, your analogy should have been based on a word whose >> legitimate use did *not* precede its use as an epithet. If the >> original authors of the software knew the meaning of the word and >> chose it anyway, who am I to excuse the name as anything better than >> an unfortunate choice? >> >> I agree with you about not getting carried away. However, in light of >> the fact that the target group of the slur is one of the target groups >> for GNOME, your defense seems misplaced. > Alright, I suppose I can afford to write one last email. > > Many may look at my arguments and think that I am somehow > promoting bigotry (although I doubt that most of you do see it > this way)... this seems to always be the case whenever someone > stands up for freedom of expression. > > So let me explain just a little, I did not jump into this debate to > defend the term "GIMPNet" itself, but rather in an attempt to > defend our position regarding freedom of expression, a defence > which is always risky and racy, and an argument that is too > seldom made. > > What the people who make up the GNOME community have in > common is a beautiful thing, Free Software. > > Whether we do it for the freedom of users, or whether it be for the > sake of writing software in public, sharing knowledge and > consequently producing better, more stable/reliable software than > software written in the confines of a lab/company, we are in this way > forward/radical thinkers. > > What I'm getting at here, is that the very thing which brings us all > together is an idea which goes against the grain. In a way, we are > all revolutionaries of sorts to be partaking in this venture. > > Over the past decade, I've seen this community grow more stiff, > more rigid and more conservative in what we deem 'acceptable' > in public. This saddens me greatly. > > It is very difficult to express radical thinking, forward thinking in > ways which are perfectly politically correct (possible, but difficult), > and what I think is so beautiful about our community is exactly > this forward radical thinking, this rebellious ideal of Free Software > which brings us all together is what makes our community so > vibrant and great. > > I just think that, in general, if we want our community to flourish > and grow and thrive, we need to be more accepting, not more > restrictive, about what we think is acceptable in public. > > Imagine how many radical/racy/forward thinking blog posts we've > missed out on, just because the author thought it might be too difficult > to express their ideas in a way that is perfectly "politically correct" ? > > Best Regards, > -Tristan > _______________________________________________ > foundation-list mailing list > foundation-list@gnome.org > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
