OT: Autism in discussion groups (was: Re: Proposal: Disconnect comp.lang.python from python-list)

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 11:10 AM Michael Torrie <torriem at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/8/21 6:23 PM, Jason C. McDonald wrote:
> > Usually, I find when people dump on CoCs, they're just angry at
> > accountability. I haven't known anyone yet who was a productive
> > member of Python and opposed to the CoC, at least in principle
> > and aim.
>
> I disagree.  Many people are opposed to CoCs for a variety of reasons
> including the fact that many CoCs are political in nature.  Others
> oppose them for legal liability reasons.  On his radio show Ask Noah (a
> radio show about Linux), Noah has interviewed several people who oppose
> CoCs for political and legal reasons.  The Southeast Linux Fest in
> particular explicitly decided not to have a CoC for mostly legal reasons
> (which he described in episode 80).
>
> I do agree asking people to simply not be stupid doesn't seem to work
> these days for whatever reason.

Probably the same reason it has never worked. The only thing that's
changed is the social acceptability of vilifying those you don't like.
Once upon a time, there were those in the community who had all the
power, and those on the fringes that had none, and if someone on the
fringe misbehaved, everyone inside just shunned them and they left.
Now, if someone on the fringe misbehaves and everyone treats them
badly, there's a massive political kerfuffle and everyone gets hurt.

I'm not saying that the previous situation was GOOD, but I'm far from
sure that the current situation is any better - look at the arguments
regarding branch naming, which completely sidelined all technical
considerations in favour of one single political motivation based
heavily on the decisions of people from one specific country.

ChrisA