Tribalism Is the Enemy Within, Says Shuttleworth

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 30, 2010 @07:57AM from the can't-we-all-just-get-along dept.

climenole points out a post from Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth about internal strife in the free software community. He wrote, "Tribalism is when one group of people start to think people from another group are 'wrong by default.' It's the great-granddaddy of racism and sexism. And the most dangerous kind of tribalism is completely invisible: it has nothing to do with someone's 'birth tribe' and everything to do with their affiliations: where they work, which sports team they support, which Linux distribution they love. ... Right now, for a number of reasons, there is a fever pitch of tribalism in plain sight in the free software world. It's sad. It's not constructive. It's ultimately going to be embarrassing for the people involved, because the Internet doesn't forget. It's certainly not helping us lift free software to the forefront of public expectations of what software can be."

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Re:So drop out and there will be one less "tribe" by commodore64_love · 2010-07-30 08:14 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Like when people label me a "racist" because I belong to the local Tea Party.
"But I'm not racist."
"You belong to the TP - you're racist."
"My girlfriend's black."
"You lie!"
"No really here's her photo. See?"
"Lie lie lie!"
"Oh for Christ's sake - forget it."

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall