Final statement from Steering Council on politically-charged commit messages

[Richard Damon]

On 8/18/20 1:22 AM, justin walters wrote:
> I for one don't want to see politics involved in PL development. However,
> inclusivity isn't a political issue, it's a human rights issue.
>
> Do I agree with the PR, not exactly. However, I do think we as a community
> should be accommodating to people
> Whose use of the English language differs from the standard as long as the
> meaning is clear.
>
> This thread reads like a bunch of old fuddy duddies complaining about
> immigrants not speaking perfect English at a fast food restaurant.
>
> Feel free to ban me from the list if this doesn't meet your standards.
>
One comment on this. I think the focus on the words that have been used
is very much a '1st world problem'. Most of the people actually
suffering from the problems being discusses would very much LOVE to be
in a position where the discussion of what words are the right way to
say something was their biggest issue. The forces behind these issues
very much love to see our focus go to debating our speech, as opposed to
actually DOING something about the issue. This isn't an accusation that
those bringing up the speech issues are part of the dark forces behind
the problems, but maybe a call to them to think about what really is the
important issue.

This also doesn't mean that language doesn't matter. If our language
makes a Human Rights issue seem to be 'normal', that is bad, and weakens
our resolve against it. Sometimes though, the right use of a word can be
powerful, and analogies are great teachers. For example, talking (to a
techie) how in a master-slave network, the master node has very strong
control over what the slave node does, and then comparing that to a
person, asking how would it feel to be that 'slave node', maybe even
needing to wait for your 'master' to ask before you went to the
bathroom, or be considered to be 'malfunctioning'.

-- 
Richard Damon