[PantsyMcPants]

A MAGA hat is not dissimilar to a nazi symbol, albeit to a much lesser degree. You wouldn’t want Nazis around even if you knew they weren’t gonna do anything. Just having people around that devalue other human beings as lesser than them is enough.

[lliamander]

Your stunning lack of intellectual charity aside, other people's discomfort is not an unlimited license to disrupt a individual's ability to conduct their business and participate in society. I am no lawyer, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Wood (and Mr. Somnez, for that matter) has a case for something like tortuous interference.

As it happens, Charles Wood is by all accounts a very decent person, whereas the folks who complained to the Linux Foundation have a public history of abusive and bigoted behavior. That you would think so little of his character, while saying nothing of his interlocutors, is pretty ridiculous.

[PantsyMcPants]

I didn’t say anything about his character. I don’t know anything about his interlocutors. Both of those things are kind of irrelevant to my post which is about the hat.

[lliamander]

Oh, you've said plenty about his character. You've implied that he devalues other human beings, that he is lying about his (lack of) support for Trump, and suggested that he was "suspiciously" unaware of how taking a picture wearing a Trump hat would be perceived (whatever "suspiciously" is implying in this context).

Yet, if you actually look at his behavior, and the remarks of those who came to his defense, you might see that you were being presumptuous. You might then update your mental model of people who wear MAGA hats, and whether their presence would be a problem at a technology conference.

It also seems rather silly to analyze the symbolic significance and racist undertones of some guy wearing a MAGA hat once, when the people who complained about him to the Linux Foundation were openly attacking Mr. Wood on the basis of his race and sex.

[PantsyMcPants]

For what it’s worth, there’s a picture of me wearing a MAGA hat out there on the internet too. Ironically, of course, but I do sympathise with the guy. I do think it’s out of order for the Linux Foundation to ban him for this (although they claim there are other reasons).

That aside, this doesn’t mean I think he’s a good guy. From what I gather he seems like a normalish dude, maybe a little troll-ish, but I mean we all enjoy a good troll every now and then. I can’t hold that against him. But there’s no chance he wasn’t aware of the symbolism of posting that picture when he did. He pretends he doesn’t, but you’d have to be a fool to accept that.

I doubt he’s a Trump supporter or a racist, but even if he was I don’t think that’s good enough grounds to ban him unless there was good reason to think he was going to be a disruptive presence.

I decided to put all my cards on the table here because I’m a bit disturbed by the idea that you think that he was banned because he’s a white man? Banned by an organisation that is run largely by white men? Just trying to figure out how this works in your head.

Is it the white men on the board that hate him for being white? Is it the Asian men on the board that hate him for being white? Or is it the white women on the board that hate him for being white?

If you could clear that up, it’d be cool.