bro says "I just want to discuss technology"
It's a common sentiment on hacker news/lobste.rs and it's worth spelling out what's wrong with it.
1. technology does not exist in isolation, but interacts more and more with our world
Ok but still, aren't there enough places to discuss the ethics of technology? This leads to point 2.
2. When they say "just technology" they mean "just tech and implicit political positions that aligns with my views".
bro says "I just want to discuss technology"
To illustrate 2. with some examples:
- discussing Google products that rely on datamining: just tech
- discussing privacy/the con side of datamining: politics
- discussing Palantir's cool software automation: just tech
- discussing software challenges in a global world with differing laws and human rights standards: ew politics
- discussing RMS's political views on software: just tech
- discussing gender problems in tech: politics
bro says "I just want to discuss technology"
@szbalint Yuuuup.
Techbros would do well to accept that everything is political. Getting out ahead of that is how you future-proof your mental codebase.
bro says "I just want to discuss technology"
I suggest people to acknowledge the political responsibility of software development by stating the political goals of a project explicitly, in a POLITICS.txt file alongside the README.txt.
