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The circus freaks of open source

drewdevault.com

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Re: The circus freaks of open source

#31

Post by Fizz43 »

Its not up to any of us to be able to stop or police this behavior. It doesnt come from our community even if a subset of those users overlap. I can run the most strict community where this behavior is stomped out but users can still create a KF account and partake in this behavior elsewhere. Ultimately people should not open themselves up to the internet if they are sensitive to these results. There are very cruel people who will dedicate their lives to destroying you but the target need to keep feeding them.

Most people already understand and empathize with people going through a mental health crisis and dont provoke them.

Re: The circus freaks of open source

#32

Post by InsideOutSanta »

serf wrote: post #24
bertman wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author addresses exactly this in the postscript of his article.

"I did my best" comes across as exceedingly hollow when the post itself is : 1) : 'circus freaks of open source' isn't some clever pun or double entendre; it's just a jab. and 2) : "Hey everyone , this list of folks have troubles, let's talk about them by name and make a gentleman's pact not to bother them while we analyze the meta situation of 'people with troubles' more broadly!" "Let's not bother this , internet!"…

I took the "circus freaks" line as a jab at the audience, not the performers.

Re: The circus freaks of open source

#34

Post by InsideOutSanta »

InfiniteRand wrote: post #2

This reminds me of actors or entertainers who clearly are going through a manic phase that is veering towards psychosis or a crash. Sometimes leave Britney alone means actually leave her alone.

The irony of the "leave Britney alone" guy is that he was the only person who was correct, and then himself became a target of the brutal attention and ridicule aimed at Britney Spears.

Re: The circus freaks of open source

#36

Post by illright »

boomer_joe wrote: post #29
illright wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find it appropriate to make these kinds of assumptions about the author. It's okay to disagree, but it would help the conversation if you elaborated why you didn't enjoy the article

[flagged]

It's a good thing I found his personal statement about this report before I found the report itself — https://drewdevault.com/blog/Addressing-harassment/

Having read both now, I'm willing to take him at his word and accept his apology for the heinous things he has said in the past. I encourage people to read his statement to get a perspective for both sides and make up their mind

That said, I still find the original comment I responded to inappropriate, I believe it derails a genuine conversation about how we treat problematic people with mental illnesses

Re: The circus freaks of open source

#37

Post by vidarh »

delusional wrote: post #14
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

> I wish we had just left Terry well enough alone. That would help Drew, but not Terry. Terry would remain on his own to struggle in silence, but Drew could sleep soundly without noticing him. There've been many outsider artists over the years ("Artistry of the Mentally Ill", (c) 1922) whose schizophrenia has led them to lead tragic lives. But they also created amazing art that is celebrated around the world. I do wi…

The text already responds to this concern > The press and fan attention was deeply harmful to Terry and likely exacerbated his mental illness. I don't know if that's true, if Terry would be better off, had the internet not found him entertaining. I also don't know if this is an internet phenomenon, or if we haven't always poked and prodded at the "different". What I do know is that Drew thinks Terry had it worse beca…

I don't know what attention he got on 4chan, but here he was shadow banned (rightly so; his comments were frequently full of slurs and more), and quite a few people had showdead on in part to see his comments (me included) because they occasionally let through things that were worth it. I think that was perhaps a reasonable middle ground. He wasn't on full display, and it avoided some of the worse responses he'd have gotten if his comments had been on full display to people who had not explicitly chosen to see them, but TempleOS was and is also fascinating separate from his mental illness and legitimate to post about here.

Re: The circus freaks of open source

#38

Post by LAC-Tech »

illright wrote: post #26
LAC-Tech wrote: post #23

[flagged]

I don't find it appropriate to make these kinds of assumptions about the author. It's okay to disagree, but it would help the conversation if you elaborated why you didn't enjoy the article

He called a mentally ill man who died a tragic death "a circus freak".

It's unreasonable to post an article like that then ask us to speak politely about him.

Re: The circus freaks of open source

#39

Post by LAC-Tech »

illright wrote: post #36
boomer_joe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's a good thing I found his personal statement about this report before I found the report itself — https://drewdevault.com/blog/Addressing-harassment/ Having read both now, I'm willing to take him at his word and accept his apology for the heinous things he has said in the past. I encourage people to read his statement to get a perspective for both sides and make up their mind That said, I still find the original…

[flagged]

Re: The circus freaks of open source

#40

Post by illright »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #38
illright wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find it appropriate to make these kinds of assumptions about the author. It's okay to disagree, but it would help the conversation if you elaborated why you didn't enjoy the article

He called a mentally ill man who died a tragic death "a circus freak". It's unreasonable to post an article like that then ask us to speak politely about him.

I didn't read the title of the article in that way, and I believe it to be a bad-faith reading.

I understood the title to mean "the people in FOSS whom we treat with the same morbid curiosity and provokation as the mentally ill people and other deviants who used to be displayed in circuses for other people's entertainment".

It's also clear to me from the text of the article that Drew does not hold contempt for neither of the two individuals he talks about, and the postscript demonstrates that he approaches this difficult topic with due diligence and respect for the people

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