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Fork My Dongle

forkmydongle.com

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Re: Fork My Dongle

#91

Post by derleth »

stcredzero wrote: post #87
philwelch wrote: post #45

I love this. Finally someone is treating the situation with exactly the right tone. Quoth PG, from "What You Can't Say": Best of all, probably, is humor. Zealots, whatever their cause, invariably lack a sense of humor. They can't reply in kind to jokes. They're as unhappy on the territory of humor as a mounted knight on a skating rink. Victorian prudishness, for example, seems to have been defeated mainly by treating…

There's been plenty of humor by cruel people perpetrating injustices. They thought it was genuinely funny at the time. Sometimes, a bit more time has to pass before things can be laughed off. Zealots are known for absolutist positions. An absolutist position on laughter is as much a potential big mistake as most other absolutist positions. There's no substitute to being aware of your surroundings and being open to ot…

> There's been plenty of humor by cruel people perpetrating injustices. They thought it was genuinely funny at the time.

Yes. Exactly. And there is no hard-and-fast rule to determine what kind of humor perpetrates injustices, because, frankly, it is up to every single individual who hears the joke. And that's scary, especially when people think that normal socializing behaviors can all of a sudden get them fired and nobody's told them what the new rules are. Because, as I said, there really are no new rules.

So use an old rule: Common courtesy. Giving people the benefit of the doubt. Treating other people as stupid human beings. Yes, "stupid". More offense is caused by stupidity than actual malice.

Of course, if you find that the other person really is being malicious, knock them down with a righteous wrath and tell us all about it afterwards.

Re: Fork My Dongle

#93

Post by stcredzero »

josephagoss wrote: post #71
DannoHung wrote: post #42

Fuck anyone who buys this. Adria did a real mean thing in response to some juvenile jokes, but this is the real fucking problem and if someone got shamed for this , they'd deserve it.

Get shamed for this? Sometimes I feel I live in a different world to the people in this forum. Even my feminist friends would have no problem with this stuff, its all a bit funny. What did Linus say? "I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended" I like that quote, why? Because some people get offended too easily which makes everyone's life a little harder. I think maybe Adria w…

> I like that quote, why? Because some people get offended too easily which makes everyone's life a little harder.

As a general principle, this doesn't work quite well enough. It gets one by well enough most of the time, with only a small failure rate. Those can be real doozies, though. Eventually, you will meet someone who you will offend and didn't get offended too easily. No one is perfect or knows everything, after all.

But if one is well intentioned and stays cool, it will probably work out in the end.

Re: Fork My Dongle

#94

Post by cwp »

derleth wrote: post #89
icambron wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I think it's great. One of the things that bugged me about this whole sordid business was the crazy and untrue implication that women are too dainty to handle off-color jokes, or that if you think they're funny, then you're against women in tech. I think this is an appropriate and reasonable, not to mention fun, response.

> the crazy and untrue implication that women are too dainty to handle off-color jokes Which is sexist, and I can't see how others can't see how sexist it is. It is pure, straight-up middle-class Victorian bullshit of the kind first wave feminists fought against. It's the idea that women are not naturally sexual beings until they're corrupted by the cruder, more physical men, and the related idea that women are natur…

Bravo. This is one of a very, very few enlightening comments in this whole mess.

Re: Fork My Dongle

#95

Post by derleth »

etchalon wrote: post #77
icambron wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And yes, I realize how ridiculous that is, but that's just kinda how these things work. Maybe they work that way in the common view of things, but if you think it's ridiculous, then why do you think it? You get to decide.

I think that way for the same reason most people think that way: It's OK for the oppressed to mock the powerful, but dickish when it's the other way around.

Being part of a group that is, statistically and on the whole, more powerful does not necessarily make an individual more powerful. Contrariwise, being part of a group that is, statistically and on the whole, less powerful does not make an individual less powerful. I'd say that being able to influence firing decisions with a Tweet is pretty damned powerful.

Re: Fork My Dongle

#96

Post by happywolf »

I want to say the following even if I will be down-voted to negative infinitum:

This case is just fucked up. Two guys exchanged some silly benign jokes. Is it silly? Yes. Childish? Yes. But, harmful? Detrimental to younger generation of coders? Excuse me, I am totally against sexual-harassment in any form, but I won't regard that conversation between friends as one. Having someone fired over this is way off IMHO.

Re: Fork My Dongle

#97

Post by trhtrsh »

etchalon wrote: post #77
icambron wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And yes, I realize how ridiculous that is, but that's just kinda how these things work. Maybe they work that way in the common view of things, but if you think it's ridiculous, then why do you think it? You get to decide.

I think that way for the same reason most people think that way: It's OK for the oppressed to mock the powerful, but dickish when it's the other way around.

If you stop thinking of the world as a giant game of Boys vs Girls, it might start making more sense to you.

Re: Fork My Dongle

#98

Post by mlent »

antidaily wrote: post #39
pud wrote: post #11

Considered buying it. But "fork my dongle" isn't, technically, a thing. So I'd feel kinda like a poser wearing it -- like "look, I'm a l33t haxor!" who got it wrong. Or like ones of those Chinese tattoos that doesn't actually mean anything in Chinese. Or like one of those action movies with bogus hacking scenes ("enhance!"). Or like someone wearing an Iron Maiden shirt from Urban Outfitters who's never actually heard…

Exactly. It's just a reference to an unfortunate series of events that won't be worth explaining in a month. Make it 'Fork My Repo' and I'm a buyer.

As a woman I'd probably be afraid to wear a "Fork my Repo" shirt. I think you can guess why. Just some food for thought...

Re: Fork My Dongle

#99

Post by philwelch »

stcredzero wrote: post #87
philwelch wrote: post #45

I love this. Finally someone is treating the situation with exactly the right tone. Quoth PG, from "What You Can't Say": Best of all, probably, is humor. Zealots, whatever their cause, invariably lack a sense of humor. They can't reply in kind to jokes. They're as unhappy on the territory of humor as a mounted knight on a skating rink. Victorian prudishness, for example, seems to have been defeated mainly by treating…

There's been plenty of humor by cruel people perpetrating injustices. They thought it was genuinely funny at the time. Sometimes, a bit more time has to pass before things can be laughed off. Zealots are known for absolutist positions. An absolutist position on laughter is as much a potential big mistake as most other absolutist positions. There's no substitute to being aware of your surroundings and being open to ot…

I will forever remain at a loss about how dongle jokes perpetrate injustice. All I know is that they really got under the skin of an all-too-serious, uptight prig, and the overreaction of that prig means it gets even deeper under the skin of prigs everywhere. And that is always funny.

Re: Fork My Dongle

#100

Post by etchalon »

trhtrsh wrote: post #97
etchalon wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that way for the same reason most people think that way: It's OK for the oppressed to mock the powerful, but dickish when it's the other way around.

If you stop thinking of the world as a giant game of Boys vs Girls, it might start making more sense to you.

I don't think I implied that's how I saw the world? We're talking specifically about a situation that was (very literally) girl vs boys.
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