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It was very odd to me that she never actually says what the views or beliefs are that has gotten her into trouble with so many people. But after digging a little more, it seems she is (was? still is?) a techno-fascist in the vein of Curtis Yarvin, and, among other things, earnestly believes that the USA's form of "government" should be corporate despotism, having petitioned the White House to retire all government employees, make Eric Schmidt the "CEO of America", and turn control over administering the US to the tech industry[0]. In a way, I feel duped reading this all the way through. Throughout the post, she dances around the topic of what people found objectionable about her, and then brings up transphobia in a way that makes it seem like gender-identity discrimination is what's going on. But wow, what a dishonest way to present all this. Classic way to build feelings of sympathy when it's not deserved. Maybe her first order of business should be actually addressing the techno-fascist stuff. If she doesn't still hold those views, she needs to say so, and tell us why she believes she was misguided. If she still does hold those views then, well... nothing has really changed, and IMO the reason some people are uncomfortable working with her is entirely valid, regardless of how impressive her technical achievements are. Oh, and being one of the top 300 GitHub users doesn't put you in the 99.9997th percentile of open source developers, or that you're "uniquely able to convert your money into the largest amount of value for society". I'm fine with people accurately describing their achievements and capabilities and a no-nonsense manner, but this just smacks of delusions of grandeur. [0] https://thebaffler.com/latest/mouthbreathing-machiavellis |
I think what makes fascism appealing to some people is that it seemingly offers an explanation and solution for why their immense talent, real or perceived, has been overlooked. Justine Tunney probably has more actual talent than the vast majority of the fascists of this type but she shares the same core of grievance.
I think it’s telling too that she doesn’t really mention that many open source maintainers, if they’re paid at all, don’t get paid enough. I’m not saying every pitch for open source funding has to include this but to omit that and also to brag about being in the 99.9997th percentile certainly makes it seem like she’s indifferent to the many talented open source maintainers who are in the same boat, most of whom do not have her destructive, nihilistic, and bigoted politics.