In the news: Eric S. Raymond shifts to Ubuntu (ad hominem attacks have nothing to do with FLOSS anymore)

[Eric Dunbar]

On 23/02/07, Joel Bryan Juliano <joelbryan.juliano at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/23/07, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
> > Joel Bryan Juliano wrote:
> >
> > >> Ubuntu. "An African word meaning Humanity to others"
> > >>
> > >> .... even for the person who just said African-Americans are
> responsible
> > >> for 50% of the crimes in the US because they have mostly low IQ ....
> > >>
> > >
> > > If he's really smart, he would not say something like that.
> > >
> > > No matter what, it is never ethical to say something like that because
> the
> > > fact that people are helplessly born with that race.
> >
> > "ethical"?  It would be unethical to say something that one knows to be
> > untrue.  The statement is misleading, and unkind, perhaps racist, but
> > probably not provably untrue.
> >
> > Most convicted criminals have low IQ - whether it's true of criminals in
> > general is also unprovable,  as the smart ones would obviously not get
> > caught as often.  Poor people tend to have low _measurable_ IQs for any
> > number of reasons - they really are damaged by malnutrition, they were
> > hungry at the time they were tested, or they're just too angry with the
> > system to want to do well on the tests.  A higher percentage of poor
> > Americans are black rather than white.  So the numbers will bear him out.
> > --
> > derek
>
> It's not hard to see, just watch Jerry Springer and you'll easily judge the
> southerners. But we as a civilized people, should not say "I hate those
> southerners, they cause alot of trouble".
>
> It is a form of propaganda, a manipulative information, that can have the
> dangers to poison and paralyze the people's thought, loose their
> discernment, and be conditioned or to make those individuals to be acted as
> en masse.
>
> like what Adolf Hitler said, "By clever and persevering use of propaganda
> even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and conversely the
> most wretched life as paradise."
>
> Should you believe everything you hear?

Can we please drop this and just distinguish between FLOSS and cage
rattling (and, then I go ahead and continue writing ;-).

A few pieces have been written which appear to amount to nothing more
than "ad hominum" attacks on ESR, (perhaps intentionally) to discredit
his stance on FLOSS which is quite sane compared to some of the rather
one-sided characters that sometimes populate the FLOSS world (and, the
ones that give me shivers and make me wonder if MS isn't quite so evil
after all ;-).

His other writings are controversial, but not because of what they
say, but because of what they're based on and the context in which
they're made. They're ill-considered and poorly constructed given that
there's so much dis/mis-information regarding IQ, statistics, "race",
correlation and causation -- they do not a racist make (and, they
probably stem from a penchant for challenging people).

The reality of the situation around the statistics and biology of "IQ"
and of "race" [2] is that the popular and apparently even professional
understanding of IQ appears to have more in common with religious
belief than with rational, evidence-based thought and science --
they're both so ill defined that you can say pretty much anything
about them and get away with it (whether pro or con). The only
rational and reasonable response is to step outside the whole
"controversy" and reject and discuss it in a more appropriate
framework recognising what is belief and what is defensible or
falsifiable.

Either way, that is neither here nor there on a list nominally devoted
to issues related to a FLOSS project. Perhaps it's time to find
another forum where such issues are more appropriately discussed (and,
so I don't feel the temptation to dive in and get my feet wet)?

[2] Neither IQ nor race are well defined (or definable) concepts, so,
a short post on a blog would do nothing much to add to the subject.