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CALIBAN – OPINION AND RIGHTEOUS ANGER

Kicking against the pricks, which number so many.
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RICHARD STALLMAN’S OSTENSIBLE TRANSPHOBIA

Posted on Saturday, 27th March, 2021 by ianmacd

To those who write about #Stallman‘s alleged transphobia, I offer this response.

Stallman is demonstrably not transphobic. If you believe otherwise, I wonder
whether you have actually read Stallman’s own writings on his use of pronouns,
or merely formed an opinion from what secondary sources have reported.
Stallman’s stance on the subject is freely available from his own site.

Regardless of Stallman’s position on this issue, a transgender person’s
perceived right to be addressed using the pronouns of his or her choice does not
compel another person to act in accordance with that perception. In most Western
liberal democracies, most people enjoy a very real, i.e. legally protected,
right to free speech; certainly to the extent that the speaker’s choice of
pronouns is concerned.

As such, rigid adherence to certain constructs of language can, at worst, be
ascribed to self-interest, namely the assertion that the existent right to free
speech trumps another’s perceived right to be addressed in a particular way.
That’s a wholly reasonable attitude to take on principle alone, and garners more
weight as one examines the pressure currently being placed on this central tenet
of liberal society by regressive elements and their proclivity for cancel
culture.

The suppression of free speech has far-reaching consequences for the whole of
humanity; the inflexible use of pronouns affects a much smaller subset.

Posted in Politics, Technology | Tagged cancel culture, free speech, pronouns,
rms, transphobia | Leave a comment


FREE SPEECH

Posted on Saturday, 27th March, 2021 by ianmacd

xkcd 1357 presents a cogent, yet naively simplistic and ultimately one-sided
view of free speech. Indeed, things go awry in the very first frame, in which it
is claimed that free speech amounts to no more than one’s ability to speak
without fear of arrest by the government. However, many people, myself included,
would contend that the right to free speech is a philosophical concept that far
transcends this narrow American legal definition.

The waters suddenly become much murkier when one examines the fact that large
corporations with (socio-)political agendas have, in recent years, become more
powerful and influential than even national governments and heads of state. This
is an alarming and undesirable development, since said corporations are not
subject to any third-party oversight or regulation, and there is no independent
process of appeal against their summary judgements or the imposition of punitive
measures.

This grave situation has steadily worsened over the last decade as the reach of
these companies has expanded and gone largely unchecked by governments who
either cannot see the danger rising before them, or find themselves without any
existing legal recourse to combat it. The unfettered growth of this influence
has emboldened these corporations to reach increasingly harsh and arbitrary
judgements against selected users, whilst making proportionately diminishing
efforts to justify their actions.

In many cases, governments have been not merely ineffective at curtailing this
rise in influence, but instrumental in it, by misguidedly conferring on these
corporations an editorial responsibility for the utterings of their users that
no mere carrier or publisher should either want or be forced to bear.
Historically, we have not demanded of the postal service that it take
responsibility for the missives it conveys, nor of telecommunications carriers
that they intervene if controversial and challenging ideas are sent over their
cables and airwaves. Corporations like #Facebook and #Twitter are essentially no
different, and should enjoy and be bounded by the same status, because to confer
more is to endow them with a power that they can abuse, have abused, and will
continue to abuse.

The rise of these corporations’ influence has seen the town square, where we are
free to gather and engage in public debate, controversial or otherwise, slowly
undergo a paradigm shift from the physical world to the virtual realm; the
crucial and essential difference being that access to the virtual town square is
not without encumberment. It is not a public forum, and access to it is granted,
tolerated and revoked at the pleasure of said corporations.

This grim development has been further catalysed by the spread of the Covid-19
pandemic, which, in many parts of the world, has resulted in the actual
revocation of the right to public assembly in a physical space. In much of the
world, including the so-called free world, the actual town square no longer
exists as a hub for the free and unhampered exchange of ideas. The ability to
express one’s thoughts is now largely confined to the virtual realm, and the
freedom to wield one’s voice in that expression is now, in no small part, at the
whim of corporations run by megalomaniacal billionaire ideologues.

When the arena in which public debate takes place shifts to new ground,
discourse in that new territory needs to be afforded the same privileges and
protections it enjoys elsewhere. This is not currently the case, and our right
to free speech is under extreme duress as a result.

Never a day passes now without new cases documented of “hateful” people having
the right to voice their “problematic” thoughts and opinions suppressed. And
with “hateful” and “problematic” being such subjective concepts, this is an
extremely slippery slope on which society now finds itself.

You may have cause to celebrate the downfall of your particular chosen foe
today, but when the tables turn tomorrow and it is now you or those you advocate
in the sights of these corporations’ guns, who will you turn to then?







Posted in Life, Politics, Technology | Tagged cancel culture, free speech,
political correctness | Leave a comment


ON RICHARD STALLMAN

Posted on Saturday, 27th March, 2021 by ianmacd

Richard #Stallman a.k.a. #RMS is the founder of the Free Software Foundation
(#FSF), author of the original versions of gcc and Emacs, and perhaps best known
for his creation of the GNU Public Licence a.k.a. #GPL.

Thanks to the pioneering work of Richard Stallman, Android has a freely
available kernel that can boot it, and companies like Samsung are forced to
release their augmented kernel source code to us every month, so that we can
build — using Stallman’s compiler — a working custom recovery like TWRP.

Richard Stallman is currently under coordinated attack by the cancel culture
mob. They have him firmly in their sights and have set their hearts on trying to
get him removed from the board of the organisation he founded in 1985, and which
has been his life’s work.

The reason for the attack is that Stallman is alleged to hold views that are
“problematic” in the eyes of his detractors.

My own stance is that to even engage in debate of Stallman’s views would be to
lend credence to the notion that they are somehow germane to the work that
Stallman does in support of free software. I contend that they are not, which is
not to imply that the accusations leveled at Stallman would otherwise require
intellectual or moral contortion to refute. They would not. Stallman’s views,
even if they were relevant, have been grossly misrepresented.

The attempted silencing of free speech is always painful to behold, but this
ill-conceived attack on Stallman is particularly stomach-turning, given how much
of his life he has devoted to the freedom of others, including those who accuse
him now.

His contributions to free software and his consistent, uncompromising commitment
to his beliefs regarding software freedom have made millionaires of others,
including many among his accusers now, while Stallman himself continues to lead
a life of subsistence.

#Android would not exist if it hadn’t been for Stallman.

Without Stallman, we would not have the assurance that important software like
#Magisk will continue to exist long after the project’s creator has moved on.

Without Stallman, #TWRP would not now exist.

Were it not for Richard Stallman, most of the cheap electronic appliances and
gadgets in your home would simply not exist.

Without Richard Stallman’s groundbreaking work, the world would be a different
and much worse place.

Now you can do something in return. Richard Stallman needs your support.

Please consider signing this petition.


If you need more background before signing, please take the time to do your own
research and reach your own conclusions.

Posted in Politics, Technology | Tagged cancel culture, fsf, rms, stallman |
Leave a comment


VOOR PATRICIA PAAY IS HET BEHOORLIJK ZUUR (OF ZOUT)

Posted on Wednesday, 15th February, 2017 by ianmacd

Patricia Paay was gisteravond bij Eva Jinek te gast. Eerstgenoemde is naar eigen
zeggen “kapot en leeft in een nachtmerrie”, omdat op internet een filmpje is
verschenen waarin te zien is hoe zij zich in de mond laat plassen door haar
ex-vriend. Een op zich al onderdanige zo niet vernederende daad, waarvan de
beschamende kracht natuurlijk verhonderdvoudigt als die met het grote, veelal
van plasseks kokhalzende meute wordt gedeeld. Voor je het weet, raast het als
een tsunami over de sociale media, staan de weekendblaadjes er bol van, en heeft
naar het schijnt heel Nederland zijn oordeel klaar. Ja, je krijgt ook nogal wat
na over je heen.

Paay leeft sinds de onthulling met de gordijnen dicht en durft zich naar eigen
zeggen niet meer over straat te begeven. Zo gênant is het nou eenmaal; iets wat
we ons allemaal, denk ik, kunnen voorstellen. Maar hoe zit het dan met de
beslissing om gisteravond bij Jinek aan te schuiven? De desbetreffende
uitzending van het populaire praatprogramma schijnt goed te zijn geweest voor
maar liefst 1,4 miljoen kijkers, oftewel 41% van alle kijkers tussen elf en
twaalf (het tijdstip wel te verstaan, niet de leeftijd; alhoewel…). Blijkbaar is
Paay er desalniettemin toe in staat haar diepgaande schaamte opzij te zetten
voor het goede doel: het grote publiek bereiken. Zo veel is er dan ook weer niet
veranderd, zou je cynisch kunnen opmerken.

Als daarvoor nog twijfelachtig was hoeveel mensen zich daadwerkelijk
interesseren voor de onbezonnen uitspattingen van een BN’er van weleer, wier
bekendheid en portemonnee enkel nog gestut worden door het ongegeneerd veilen
van het eigen privéleven, dan staat nu toch wel buiten kijf dat het onder een
groot publiek er werkelijk nog altijd toe doet. En ja, ook schrijver dezes heeft
onbewogen meegekeken, uit sociologisch wetenschappelijk oogpunt natuurlijk.

Bijgestaan door haar advocaat, Johan Langelaar, en tot adviseur benoemde Peter
R. de Vries — waarom heb je een adviseur nodig als je al een raadsman hebt? —
doet Paay verhaal. Nee, zulke filmpjes maakt ze niet vaker; dit was de eerste
keer. De Vries vraagt Jinek of het überhaupt een interessante vraag is.
Natuurlijk wel; anders had ze die niet gesteld. Men wil weten of de verfilming
op zichzelf staat. Beroepsazijnpisser de Vries heeft het irritant mannetje zijn
tot een soort beeldende kunst verheven en wil al te graag aantonen dat hij zijn
honorarium voor deelname dubbel en dwars waard is door zich overal in te mengen.

Wist ze dat het werd opgenomen? Ja, dat wist ze wel. Een toch overbodige vraag,
want in het filmpje wordt de camera, vermoedelijk een mobieltje, van boven recht
naar beneden gericht op de penis van Paays ex-vriend. De filmmaker, kan
eigenlijk niet anders worden geconcludeerd, is dus óf die ex-vriend zelf, óf een
hoogbegaafd en bijzonder gehoorzaam aapje dat op zijn schouder zit.

Langelaar laat gaandeweg weten dat ze de Telegraaf Media Group, eigenaar van
GeenStijl en Dumpert (waar het filmpje voor het eerst is verschenen), minimaal
een paar ton gaan proberen los te peuteren, een ongekend hoog bedrag in het nog
altijd relatief nuchtere en schoudersophalende Nederland.

Je vraagt je af wie hier nou het meest in de zeik wordt genomen, Paay zelf, de
goedgelovige kijker, of straks de rechterlijke macht. We zullen het zien.

Posted in The Netherlands | Leave a comment


IS THERE LIFE AFTER LIFE?

Posted on Sunday, 29th January, 2017 by ianmacd

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.

Is there anybody out there?

Posted in Life | 1 Comment
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