| EDIT: Looks like whilst I was writing the below (underneath the dashes) the parent did post a couple of links (thank you!). I'll leave what I originally said unedited because I don't think it's particularly controversial. However, having read them, I do have some additional comments on the links. On the race situation, I disagree with Uncle Bob (link: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/aaoswq5bzdpptrtd7s...), and I think what he's written is ill-advised and ill-thought through. At the same time I don't see disinviting him or deplatforming him to be a worthwhile approach. Dialogue would be a better option. On the sexism situation (link: https://medium.com/@BradleyHolt/what-uncle-bob-gets-wrong-c0...), maybe I'm tired, but I couldn't quite get my head around what the piece was saying. There seems to be a paragraph quoted from Uncle Bob in there that suggests he's not being sexist. Frankly neither Uncle Bob nor the author rebutting him seem like the clearest communicators in this situation. I find the whole thing a bit unseemly but it also seems like it's not strong enough evidence to say Uncle Bob is definitively sexist. It's also worth pointing out that prejudice is not binary. People who are sexist or racist in some aspect of their psyche or attitudes don't always manifest that in the same way, to the same degree, and to the same "out groups". At the moment our response seems to be that anyone who's even a little bit prejudiced, or even appears like they might be prejudiced, about any "out-group" should be absolutely crucified without mercy. That's ridiculous and is a product of corrupted thinking. There is a clear and significant difference between the murder of George Floyd, for which the perpetrator will rightly be tried according to due process, and somebody saying something online that's naive, somewhat ignorant, and hasn't been thought through properly (and is therefore tone-deaf). At the moment our tendency seems to be to want to treat both of these extremes as the same. All that's doing is deepening the divisions, mistrust, and alienation within our societies. This is not a good outcome for any of us. -------- MY ORIGINAL COMMENT: Well this, right here, is the problem. Some weeks back I became tangentially aware that Uncle Bob had become persona non grata and I tried to find out what he'd actually said[0]. I'll grant you I didn't spend that long on it, but I did spend a good 5 minutes Googling when I arguably had better things to do, and didn't find anything. However, if you're going to make vague allegations somebody's behaviour the ABSOLUTE LEAST YOU CAN DO is cite some examples (with links) of where this person has behaved as alleged. Not second-hand accounts: what they've actually said on their blog or social media or wherever. If the content has been deleted then a credible news source that includes screenshots of the original content is fine. But what you shouldn't be doing is posting nothing to back up your allegations. [0] I've never been a close follower of Uncle Bob's because he's mostly known (as far as I'm aware) for being a huge proponent of agile and I'm... well, let's just say that like a lot of people I'm somewhat over it and have been for many years. |
