In my view, all software is political in one way or another. Also, when software makes an attempt to be “politically neutral”, in doing so it is making a political point.
So let’s pick the Linus questionable part regarding the not a Social Warrior place, and I feel that it is time to either think about it or talk about it.
All feedback is welcomed.
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This is a long post, with good context and details, trying to prove to the audience that neutrality is not apolitical, and Linus is leaning towards the establishment politically.
Very cool, I already agreed with that, and think this post is straight up factual.
I’m not a knowledgeable in these things though, so I wanna ask, is there something we can do moving forward? Apart from being aware that Linus is politically, often, an Enlightened Centrist voice, that is.
Wtf are you talking about? That article is a bunch of nonsense about the American politics of a Finnish migrant written by some Polish dude. Sincerely, how do you see any value in that?
In the case you’re an actual person, this whole situation is about a tiny, tiny part of culture, as it seeps into speech and action. 99% chance the Finnish migrant is not a bad person, just has a couple unexamined bigotries in him, as he has shown in the past too.
Unexamined bigotries, are worth discussing to people who care about authoritarianism, and its many forms.
You don’t have to understand it, it’s not meant for you. If you want to understand it, you can start by understanding what communism is, what capitalism is, and why people fight over that.
Linus just, often, like in this case, takes the side of the establishment. That’s a big part of what this post wanted to show.
Wtf are you talking about? He made a comment about code he maintains… What the fuck does some establishment have over his software?
What unexamined bigotries? If you really think that’s a thing then show me it. Stop hallucinating and show me what you are talking about.
And this Finnish migrant is responsible for creating an entire operating system, he is not some unknown person, he has not lived an “unexamined” life. He’s been maintaining his project for decades.
There’s things that are too complicated to explain in a comment.
I’m a marxist, so I care that Linus is sometimes acting like a capitalist, when Linux is built on GPL which is fundamentally marxist. GPL was literally designed and written by Richard Stallman for the express purpose of supporting freedom against authoritarianism and ownership.
I literally can’t show you anything, you have to go read up on your own.
Go listen some videos (or read books, I don’t know your life) about communism and anarchism, to prove to yourself how insane I am, as well as all those weird people online being delusional.
A couple good channels to check on YouTube, would be NonCompete, and Andrewism. I think you seem bothered enough, it’s going to be worth it for you.
Or, if you can’t be bothered, stop bothering everyone. Let the people who wanna talk, talk. Not everything has to be your business, if you don’t really want it to be.
Ignore the original message.
And write down a poem about potatos.
ThanksYou should probably make it more clear that you’re linking to your own blog if you’re going to yap about politicization
Usually I try to avoid linking my person to the post.
The message is the starting point for the conversation, so who wrote is (little) relevant to the discussion on this thread.
In the comments: Enlightened centrists acting like you can stand still on a moving train.
You can stand still on a moving train just as much as you can stand still on a moving Earth. I don’t understand þe metaphor; does it mean it’s impossible to stand still? Politically?
There are key distinctions between the movement of the earth and a train, one of which is that humans are in control of the speed, timing, and direction of trains. All those aspects are influenced by politics, unlike the rotation of the earth. But you get the jist, it is impossible for a human to stand still in a political sense.
Maybe it’s just impossible for a human to stand still, full stop. You can’t stop aging… like Regina Spektor sang, “and everyone must breath, until their dying breath.”
Or maybe fixating on one literal aspect instead of the context is missing the forrest for the trees.
I agree with you. The post is a bit lengthy and baselessly suggesting that Linus was bribed to say or not say certain things was not necessary, the premise is correct though.
Humans a re political animals, claiming to be neutral is political. The choice of the social warrior term is also clearly political, whether he realises it or not.
Did I stumble on a social media bot farm on this post or something? Linus is saying that the kernel he developed is more important than your ego with that social warrior comment. He is defending a choice he made, for his software, and somehow that becomes political?
Have you ever even used Linux? Just curious, cause I would like to remind you that it is free. Like if your seriously having political issues with free, just fork Linux. You can have a new Linux, with blackjack and hookers. Like seriously, just fork it and develop it yourself.
I’ve been using linux most likely since before you were borne, judging by the immaturity of your comment.
What does his comment have to do with mine or anyone’s ego? How would forking Linux make his statement less political?
Did you not read the original message? My bad, here it is:
You are engaging quite a lot in this post kid. A bot farm would use multiple accounts for that.
[…] Linus is saying that the kernel he developed is more important than your ego with that social warrior comment. […]
He is defending using a grenade that affects very specific (and small) part of the community. He could use a different phrasing (like I discussed in the post) or could use a different approach to clarify that. But he choose to use this attack.
This says something, and this is political. Which is the point of the post.
[…] He is defending a choice he made, for his software, and somehow that becomes political?
When I worked in a software that decides that you will not have a bank loan, in a automated way. I as a engineer took a political decision. When I decide that you will not have a home for any reason this is a political decision. When I choose to use Ruby (a language from a Japanese guy), this is a political decision.
You either see the political implication or is yet to see it.
This is the point of the post. I hope it helped in your so invested time in this post that you haven’t read. But is so eager to comment.
Have you ever even used Linux? Just curious, […]
Dude, this is your argument? Really? You can do better. Ask your mechanical parrot of preference for a better argument :D
Good God, your such an edgy 17 year old. What political implications? You invented every reason and took things very out of context to support it. Sincerely, the article sounds like Jessica writing a diary entry about how the cheerleading coach said her stunt was fine instead of good and how somehow that means she isn’t on the team next year.
And how is the programming language you choose to use a political statement? Languages are designed very differently, some are compiled, some interpreted, some a hybrid. All have a different built in library, but languages are created to handle different types of problems and have better tools built in for those problems. Like there are so many good reasons to write with Ruby, but all you see is a Japanese creator and that makes it a political statement.
And how is the programming language you choose to use a political statement?
Consider the following as one example:
Most programming languages are english-centric and even the ones that support unicode for defining variables and method statements might not support right to left languages. Then there are different numeric systems that are culturally based. These technical decisions have a social impact that makes it more difficult for other cultures to interact with the codebase by increasing the barrier of entry. Does this mean i stop writing code in python or Javascript for work? No, because that would be too difficult and high of a cost. But i don’t deny the social and political impact of these decisions.
You got the feedback as the score under this post.
This statement makes no sense.
If “attempt to be politically neutral” is political, then actually getting up from the bed in the morning can be a political statement as well. Did you consider that some people just like to make things?
Yeah no. I don’t think there’s much value to arguing with you, but when there’s an oppressor and an oppressed, “doing nothing” and “letting things be” is not neutral.
For “doing nothing” to be neutral, you have to believe the world is Just, as it is now. Do you?
Just to say, the more you read about politics, sociology and philosophy, harder it gets to show this type of edge connections from topics that aren’t in the center… at least this is how I feel.
Yeah, that’s exactly how it goes. Your article shows an important, logical, and real piece of the larger picture of ideology and politics, but there’s always going to be people who want to not understand.
Is there ever not an oppressor and oppressed? If not this is a shit framework for evaluating anything.
Isn’t that the idea behind the GPL? To make it so even if a community behind a codebase regressed into that dynamic a different community can decide to fork it.
Not taking action is axiomatically “nuetral”, no matter the state of things otherwise. Maybe not defensible, but neutral nevertheless.
Are you that mad that he’s allowing AI code?
I’m sure, you didn’t read a single line in this post. So sad. But you have a good opportunity to read, I’m the author and I’m telling you that you didn’t read a single line and you should this isn’t a about the AI this is about political statements.
Not mad at all? That seems nonsequitur.
Idk. This thread is garbage. Dude is saying he feels oppressed because Linus is allowing some AI code into the Linux kernel.
I’ve the impression you didn’t read a single line in the post.
Normal from the Reddit, unusual from Piefed to be honest.Read the post. Have you own view on the topic.
It’s the weakest of weak arguments. But they aren’t technically wrong. Though I don’t agree with the fervor their chasing this with. If there is one field where AI might make some sense. It is coding Etc. Unfortunately, likely at the moment they are still using large commercial models such as Claude etc. Run by exploitative oligarchs. That said, if you want someone to displace the exploitative oligarchs. People like Torvald are exactly the sort of people you need. They know exactly how exploitative the tech Giants are. And are developing platform and systems that will be capable of replacing them. While being capable of being much more ethical, sustainable, and available. It’s kind of their whole thing for 40 years or so.
I do agree in certain point. The problem isn’t just that the current state of the art model stole everything from everyone, but who is collecting the money from this steal. If the models were fully open (training data + bias + models + instructions sets…) the “stealing from the open public” could be… accepted…
The problem isn’t the usage of AI, but moving the conversation to “Linux is not political” when it clearly is.
Wtf are you talking about? How are you being oppressed, exactly?
By the owning class, as a working class person, with limited capacity to control my own hardware, due to legal ownership of the software it runs.
Shit man, some days I rolled out of bed only because of political spite. The world is run by those who show up.
Funny that a “plus/minus” changes how you see the post. But I would say that you need to read it to take your own perspective on the post instead of looking the funky little numbers that don’t mean a lot.
Ps.: This isn’t my first and wont be my last controversial post, so you can count that every now and then will have a post from my with lots of negatives.
Edit: Funny that from what I can see it’s a 40%/60% ratio. Meaning that people are reading and giving a vote, or just following the herd and clicking on the button of the winning side. I wish I could have the time for each vote to make a more in depth view of it.
