The politics of some of the contributors is questionable. But it's not illegal to have bad opinions and exercise free speech. And it's certainly not Frameworks job to morally vet every person they interact with.
I do not need to know about the political opinions of the people who grow my food, or change my tires, or build my tools. And I am getting growing tired of intersectional witch hunts, especially when we're getting to so many layers of abstraction.
I really don't think it's possible to entirely cleanly separate the art from the artist.
This is obviously true on the Right, but I've learned it's also true on the Left. People scream "1 nazi in your bar means you're a nazi" and yet Drew Devault remains an influential progressive, despite a history of lolicon/CP.
This is not it though - “Big Tent” means nothing when you’re supporting people who directly call for “Britain to be white again” and use slurs against minorities. It creates a gross space where people (like someone earlier in that thread) feel empowered to outright call for my existence to be invalidated.
This literally happened a few days ago on RetroAcheivements & they handled it well. I really hope framework come out with a response to all this.
edit: And for the record, I know nothing about either party of this fake controversy AND have no intention of learning it. It does not matter since I just want to get hardware that works for my use case.
The fact that framework leadership responded to this by effectively downplaying the issues raised in the OP shows me that they are deeply misguided. Very disappointing.
Also, depending on your own sensibility, anything can be extremist far right or extremist far left.
So yeah... Cut the framework people some slack.
It also seems like some of the criticism here reflects a very local Canadian political outlook being applied globally. That rarely works because the world’s values and politics differ widely, and enforcing one region’s standards everywhere just drives division and more polarization.
For instance, even within Canada, provinces have very different approaches to religion and immigration, and not all of them align neatly with international norms. These are complex issues, not simple moral tests. Quebec has restrictions on religious symbols in the public sector targetting muslims, prayer in public targeting muslims, and limits on legal immigration(you guessed it, targetting muslims). So it’s hard to take moral absolutism seriously when local politics themselves are complicated.
DHH's public views do overlap with Reform UK’s platform, which (if you believe polls) has substantial voter support right now. Whether one agrees or not, that makes them part of mainstream democratic debate, not fringe extremism. With the recent exodus of MPs from Conservatives to Reform, I would be shocked if they dont win.
I think Framework’s response handled this great. Focusing on open collaboration rather than ideological purity tests.
You can, and that depends on whether you want to or not. No one forces you to run a business. You're not absolved of the chore of having a look at your supply chain just because you're disinterested in it
edit: And I'm pretty sure a minutely modified distro doesn't need this amount of donations at this point. It is not having a positive effect on the ecosystem to have so many donations to the most downstream project. All I can feel about this is, at its best, its buying attention through DHH's pre-existing influence. This does not seem to be a great thing to buy at this point.
I'm referring to the far left activists who have developed a habit of coercing individuals, organizations and communities, sometimes with threats of physical escalation, for perceived connections to other political fringes.
I'm referring to those using language along the lines of "they have hitler particles in them".
I'm referring to tech journalists who do nothing except whine about left wing politics, however benign.
It's mind melting.
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Edit: To add colour to the final reference, the same journalist who attacked Framework for issuing Pride stickers is now coming to their defence. It's predictable, it's unproductive, and it should be filtered by anyone who values their time.
Just make sure your favorite employer's IT department is aware of this before they make a purchase order.
So many options!
Did you take exception to the company prior to this controversy? After all, they use manufacturing plants in a country which blends far right and far left political ideas concepts quite openly.
> Minimizing the extent of political involvement makes any hobby or interest infinitely more enjoyable and less toxic,
Citation needed. Why? I don't feel this at all. It's great to see virtue sang forth, imo.
Nah, everything has been made political. And that's a big issue.
Technology is a force multiplier just like weapons are, and as such, it can never be extracted from politics.
It can, however, be really difficult to be aware of all the dirty laundry companies have, and cross-company deals like TFA deals with only make that harder. I definitely have a lot of sympathy for those who (admittedly like myself) don't spend their time investigating what every company in their life does behind the curtain.
Even once you know a particular company does something shady, it can be difficult (if not impossible) to find alternatives due to the massive consolidation of markets we've seen in past decades. Or, just as bad - you do have several options, but all of them engage in bad behavior, such that there's still not an obviously good option.
Normally, I'd expect governments to tamp down on this, but, well, even many western countries' governments are bribed to the gills explicitly not to, and I don't see that getting any better in my lifetime.
Everything is political. The way you dress, where you work, who are your friends, what you buy. Especially what you buy, maybe most of all in this society.
