Post by @lrhodes@merveilles.town

RE: https://digipres.club/@alexandra/117576651383899283

It should go without saying that a principled commitment to community and agency (like that spelled out by CASA: https://destructured.net/casa ) would result in a very different answer.

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CASA

alexandra dunn

@alexandra@digipres.club 24 hr. ago

I can't think of a better illustration of the fundamentally selfish, libertarian foundation of the free software movement than a GNU maintainer loudly affirming that contributions known to be produced by slave labor are welcome without reservation https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2026-11/msg00128.html

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⁂ L. Rhodes

@lrhodes@merveilles.town 4 hr. ago

A position like "we would accept contributions made with slave labor" demonstrates how a schematically exclusive focus on personal liberty gives FOSS advocates permission to suspend all other ethical considerations when it's convenient to do so. Any genuinely liberatory movement must build from a recognition of the messy conceptual borders at which freedoms and ethics interact. Personal freedom gained by suspending ethical obligation is indistinguishable from the exercise of tyranny.

evie!

@wec@fv390.hs.bam.moe 2 hr. ago

Dualtronic

@felix@wandering.shop 2 hr. ago

@lrhodes Been repeating this every few months:

> I spent years exploring the concept of freedom in my stories, and no matter how I looked at it, one conclusion imposed itself every time: there is no freedom without belonging. If you don't belong anywhere, that doesn't make you free, but adrift. Conversely, if you belong where you are, are you really a prisoner? It's not like you'd leave even if the door was wide open.

-- https://felix.plesoianu.ro/blog/freedom-and-responsibility-in-software.html

Felix Rambles

Freedom and responsibility in software

⁂ L. Rhodes

@lrhodes@merveilles.town 2 hr. ago

@felix Belonging definitely feels like an underappreciated value when it comes to some aspects of computing. I've written about a related topic (grounding) with respect to social media: https://destructured.net/groundedness-networked-community

destructured

Groundedness and community

On the potential of truly decentralized social media

Cassandrich

@dalias@hachyderm.io 2 hr. ago

@lrhodes It's so fucking stupid.

It's not even the license aspect of whether someone can use the software for evil (which you can't really stop anyway because evil doesn't respect rule of law only power).

It's them explicitly saying they are willing to work with and accept contributions from slavers.

Something they are under no obligation whatsoever to accept. It's their personal choice.

⁂ L. Rhodes

@lrhodes@merveilles.town 2 hr. ago

@dalias Not only that they're willing to work with slavers, but that they consider it a matter of principle to do so, because they're committed to a software-specific conception of freedom, and context doesn't matter.

I'm not exactly a consequentialist, but if my principles led me into thee situation of collaborating with slavers, I'd probably reevaluate my commitment to those principles.

Cassandrich

@dalias@hachyderm.io 2 hr. ago

@lrhodes It's even worse than that. It's not like there is some important software problem they think they'd need slavers to solve, where the software is taking priority. It's just that they *want to work with evil people* for its own sake.

⁂ L. Rhodes

@lrhodes@merveilles.town 3 hr. ago

My advice to folks rushing out to recite the usual FOSS rhetoric is: Pause, take a deep breath, and ask yourself, "Is the timing on this going to make me look like a slavery apologist?"