[bscphil]

Both-sides-ism is not some kind of "free points" move in an argument. It's entirely consistent to believe (a) that a "tame" political statement supporting immigrants is acceptable in release notes, while also believing (b) that a cutesy poem defaming immigrants would be abhorrent and unacceptable. No one has an obligation to think that all political messages are acceptable just because they think that some political messages are sometimes acceptable.

Just to take an extreme example, imagine someone put in a note expressing empathy for the families of the victims of a natural disaster in their release notes. The following conversation takes place on Hacker News:

A: I don't really think these sorts of statements have a place in release notes. They don't ultimately accomplish anything or help anyone.

B: I think there's no problem with expressing compassion like this. It's not particularly obtrusive and isn't harming anyone.

You: How would you feel if the release notes had expressed glee at the disaster instead? You would oppose that, right? That means you must also oppose empathetic messages in release notes, to be consistent.

Or to sum up this whole thing in a dril Tweet: https://twitter.com/dril/status/473265809079693312

[moduspol]

> It's entirely consistent to believe (a) that a "tame" political statement supporting immigrants is acceptable in release notes, while also believing (b) that a cutesy poem defaming immigrants would be abhorrent and unacceptable.

The opposing cutesy poem wouldn't be defaming immigrants!

It would be acknowledging a nation can't exist without borders, sovereignty matters, and unchecked migration is not universally good.

That so many commenters here are missing a key factor here (that the opposing view is presented as a disingenuous straw-man in the release notes) is quite illustrative of why it's not being seen as an issue.

[Nullabillity]

> It would be acknowledging a nation can't exist without borders,

So the EU and US are both monolithic blocks with no internal diversity, right?

"Acknowledging" is an especially interesting choice of word here, as if presupposing that your misunderstanding of the world is inherently correct.

[twixfel]

Borders are a relatively new concept and nations existed before borders so what you're saying is trivially false.

The US was built on unchecked migration and it did pretty well out of it.

[0xFF0123]

Having a border is not the same as policing entry through it

[nothingnew2]

I think you've missed the entire point of the structure of the poem - the backward reading (ie, immigrants may share my home and food) is as "tame" as the forward reading.

>That means you must also oppose empathetic messages in release notes, to be consistent.

Yes. It will be interesting reading these cultural artifacts after 50 further years of geo-political development.