[P2P-F] If the ?Tea Party Join Together, We Can End the Malignant Partnership Between Big Government | ZeroHedge

Fri Nov 25 12:40:47 CET 2011

Michel Bauwens wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 9:31 PM, Christian Siefkes <christian at siefkes.net>wrote:
>> > Would you work with the Ku Klux Klan if it could help foster your goals?
>> > Where do you draw the line?
> 
> good question, I would draw the line with explicitely 'anti-p2p' forces
> such as racism, genderism, etc ..

Yes, that sounds reasonable. Peer production requires treating others as
your peers, as equals, and anybody with racist, homophobic, sexist,
anti-semitic views won't be able to do that, hence their participation is
likely do to more bad than good.

Anti-abortion is about denying women's right over their own bodies (while,
of course, men's rights over their bodies are never put in doubt), hence it
is equally 'anti-p2p'.

> a question for you: if you are working on a piece of free software, and you
> discover your co-developer is KKK, would you stop working with her?
> 
> these are by no means easy questions, FLOSS is full of libertarians, whose
> values I object to ...

I know. Eric Raymond's pro-gun standpoint and some of his possible
more-or-less racists sayings haven't stopped me from quoting his insights
about free software. Some time ago I discovered that the author of a little
piece of free software I'm using has shockingly right-wing views:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/enemies/ . That didn't stop me from using
his software, nor from contributing a little patch back to him, of course.

So I don't think people having personal views contrary to my own is a
problem as long as it doesn't hinder cooperation in a project. But on the
other hand I would think it very wrong to invite people with such
standpoints precisely *because of* their standpoints -- which is what
anybody who talks about "building an alliance with the Tea Party" is
proposing to do.

And, of course, if (say) an openly racist person's participation in a
project would cause black people to leave to product, or discourage them
from joining it, since they could feel no longer welcome, then it would be
the racist who would have to leave so as to correct the situation. I hope we
agree on that?

> what do you think of nader's alliance with ron paul, around the 3
> priorities of ending the war, ending the war on drugs and 3 ??

"and 3"? Ending wars, and ending the war on drugs are fine goals, and it
seems to me that Ron Paul is by far not the worst of the Tea Party--near
candidates currently running. Nevertheless I suppose that such alliances
will ultimately do more bad than good, since they will increase acceptance
for causes that are anti-emancipatory and 'anti-p2p'.

Best regards
	Christian

-- 
|------- Dr. Christian Siefkes ------- christian at siefkes.net -------
| Homepage: http://www.siefkes.net/ | Blog: http://www.keimform.de/
|    Peer Production Everywhere:       http://peerconomy.org/wiki/
|---------------------------------- OpenPGP Key ID: 0x346452D8 --
It is only the identification of a Them that makes it possible for us to
live with the epidemic of Aids in Africa or the death of thousands of
children each day from curable diseases. The existence of capitalism is
conceivable only on the basis of the dulling of our feelings ... that
enables us to erect private morality into a wall to keep out the pain of
the world.... Communism is the movement of intensity against the dulling of
feeling that makes the horrors of capitalism possible.
        -- John Holloway, Change the World Without Taking Power

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