Re: [OT] Software politics (was Re: [Pan-users] Re: Questions about the next release)

[Steven D'Aprano]

Ron Johnson wrote:
> On 11/13/2010 11:08 AM, Duncan wrote:
> > Steve Davies posted on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:40:07 +0000 as excerpted:
> >
> > > I particularly like the Servantware references...
> >
> > FWIW, I've been thinking, on and off, that I need to figure out some
> > reasonable way to explain that such references are a reflection of my own
> > ethics and value system and that I believe just as strongly that
> > attempting to force them on other users (the servantware masters deserve
> > what they'd get, after all, they're disrespecting my rights at least as
> > much as they expect me not to disrespect their rights to assert control
> > over stuff they wrote... obviously something they don't have to
> > particularly worry about, since I'd be unlikely to run it anyway given 
> > the
> > practical issues of trying to run blackbox software I don't trust the
> > ethics of the creators of) not ready to voluntarily choose them would as
> > equally strongly betray those same values.
> >
> > It's gotta be a personal choice.
>
> Your uber-earnest Marx-like writing style (dude, that 11 line 
> "paragraph" is ONE SENTENCE!) and use of emotionally-laded words like 
> "servantware" belie your assertion that we all should make our own choices.

As opposed to *your* choice of emotionally laden terms like the 
Nazi-esque "uber" instead of good-old English "overly", and your 
completely irrelevant comparison of Duncan's writing style to that of 
Marx? If he wrote like Mother Teressa, would that make him a short 
Romanian nun with an unjustified reputation as the epitome of charity 
and piety?

If you think that the use of run-on sentences is an attack on your 
freedom of choice, your hat probably needs an extra layer of tin-foil. 
The right to make your own choice is not in contradiction to the right 
of people to use emotionally laden terms to persuade.

Besides, try reading Samuel Pepys someday. People back then could make 
sentences run on for three or four pages! Literally.


--
Steven