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Hitler Quote Controversy In the BSD Community

New submitter Seven Spirals writes: Recently, the FreeBSD folks have removed Fortune with a fairly predictable far right 4chan condemnation. Then last weekend saw a lively debate on NetBSD's current-users mailing list about the inclusion of Hitler quotes in the Fortune database with dozens of posts falling on the left and right. The quotes themselves are fairly tame material probably intended as cautionary. However, the controversy and the reaction of BSD users has been real and very diverse. So far, the result has been to pull Fortune out of FreeBSD and to relocate the quotes into the "offensive" database in NetBSD's case.

8 of 500 comments (clear)

  1. I refuse to be trolled by sinij · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some people enjoy getting trolled, but I refuse to care about something so nonsensical as fortune. Is it stable? Can it be used to run exploits or escalate privileges? If not, then I don't care. For people who care, fork it or overload with -nohitler parameter.

    1. Re:I refuse to be trolled by eneville · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This. Fortune is just a database of strings. It is as much a library as a public library, there seems to be gentrification in the community, IMO, if it offends get over it. Don't go and try to memory hole history, it happened, the west is the way it is now due to the battles, but you have to remember at the time Hitler did have a following, no matter how right or wrong, it is worth remembering what he did so that it can be avoided in the future. If we ignore it fully then how can we be wise to stop a repeat?

  2. Re:Issue? by Lost+Race · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The hacker community has always been full of people with a certain kind of personality. That kind of personality can laugh at Hitler. But hackers are a dying breed. Software development is no longer driven by that "hacker" personality, and the software development community now has to be much more sensitive and respectful of a more diverse population. Which means no more Hitler jokes, or casual swearing, or crude innuendos, or Monty Python references, or etc etc. Oh well, it was fun (for the hackers) while it lasted.

  3. Re:Indeed. "Nazi" is short for "National SOCIALIST by PoisOnouS · · Score: 5, Funny

    Marxist predictions of a revolution in a wealthy capitalistic society failed to materialize; the "proletariat" was enjoying an increasing standard of living in Britain and Germany, where these revolutions were supposed to have occurred, which really upset and confused the devout Marxists.

    So, Marxists began to split into factions, which tried to revise or reinterpret Marxist teachings to include nationalism (rather than classism) and to include direct violent upheaval rather than passive waiting. In Italy, there were the rise of the syndicated "unions", or "fascists", where the struggle became between not rich and poor people, but between rich and poor countries. This idea of nationalistic socialism spread to Germany, which added to it the idea that there is a struggle between the races, too.

    Why did the Nazis so hate the ? Because the communists were rivals for the Nazis socialist powerbase; all of this stuff is leftism

    In Europe, the people on the "right" were the monarchists, who wanted to conserve the old order.

    In America, the people on the "right" are the people who want to conserve the ideals of the American Revolution, in the face of the unending onslaught from leftist "progressives"; the "right" are the true Americans, who want a small government whose sole role is to protect the rights of the people (notice, the government doesn't grant rights, but rather protects rights), whereas the leftists want to increase power ever more in the centralized state, and either spread their control to the rest of the world (kind of a communist outlook) or simply nationalize large swaths of society (kind of like the fascists of Italy and Germany).

    Either way, the point is that Marxists, Communists, Leninists, Trotskyists, Stalinists, Nazis, Socialists, Progressives, Antifa, etc., are all Leftist political movements.

    Can I interest you in a position as a helicopter pilot?

  4. The actual quotes by Junta · · Score: 5, Informative

    https://svnweb.freebsd.org/bas...

    I think it's not exactly sincere Hitler supporters that are the only ones that could think the change a bad idea. I would think pretending those things were never said because we are hurt they were ever said is harmful for the future. Lest we have public figures repeat many of those patterns without recognizing the problem because we bury our heads in the sand at the past when it offends us.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  5. Meanwhile Stalin remains by mi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    % fortune -m 'Joseph Stalin'
    %% (fortunes)
    A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
                                    -- Joseph Stalin
    %%
    Even God cannot change the past.
                                    -- Joseph Stalin
    %%
    Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.
                                    -- Joseph Stalin
    %%
    In the future, there will be fewer but better Russians.
                                    -- Joseph Stalin

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  6. Re:Indeed. "Nazi" is short for "National SOCIALIST by clovis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When categorize Nazi party as being left or right, rather than compare it to the communists, you could just as well compare the Nazis to the Weimar republic. You can't get consistent answers if you do that.

    Personally, I think that labeling parties right/left (or even worse policies as right/left) engenders sloppy thinking and is often, if not usually, a tool for deceptive speech. In the case of labeling 20th century fascist movements as being right/left, you might as well try to categorize apples, grapes, and watermelons into right/left fruits. They are their own kind of thing and such simple binary labeling only serve to obscure what they are, and to obscure the nature of whatever they are being compared to.

  7. Re: Might have been nice if the summary explained. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nazi stands for national socialist workers' party.

    The Nazis were originally socialist, and had a strong socialist faction up until 1934, when the leader of that faction, Ernst Rohm, was murdered on Hitler's order along with many other "leftists". This consolidated Adolf's authority, and made it easier for him to work with German industrialists. All economies are a mixture of socialist and private enterprise, but after 1934, saying Nazi Germany was "socialist" makes as much sense as saying that China is "communist".