What do feminism and Free software have in common? Debates. The debates are about short-term personal freedom versus long-term global freedom. Here’s how it goes: <\/p>\n
Feminism<\/b>
If I want to wear high heels, why shouldn’t I have that choice? Isn’t feminism about choice? If I want to be with a man who treats me badly, why shouldn’t I have that choice? Isn’t feminism about choice? Well, yes, you can<\/i> choose those things, but ask yourself why you’re choosing them. Doesn’t it have to do with the way a patriarchal society is raising you? Shouldn’t we work at dismantling that structure? <\/p>\n
Free Software<\/b>
If I want to use proprietary software, why shouldn’t I have that choice? Isn’t Free software about freedom of choice? If I want to use Windows-only software, why shouldn’t I have that choice? Isn’t Free software about freedom? Well, yes, you can<\/i> choose proprietary software, but if you don’t stand up to vendor lock-in with proprietary software, you’ll be locked in and won’t have a choice any more. <\/p>\n
Okay, they’re not exactly<\/i> the same, but the mindsets are similar, even if I’ve reduced the arguments to one- or two-sentence sound bytes. I think we need a little bit of each, so as not to alienate anyone. People should be able to have some short-term choice and personal freedom and also be mindful of long-term goals and larger freedom outside of the personal. It doesn’t make sense to force others to be femi-Nazis or Free software Nazis (nothing traditional, nothing “oppressive”; no proprietary software, no DRM whatsoever), but it also doesn’t make sense to encourage a “Yeah, whatever works for now. To hell with the consequences” attitude. <\/p>\n
In the ideal world, of course—if we get there—people will have any choice they want, and it will be a real choice, with no danger of being locked into or reinforcing a dangerous sociological trend.<\/p>\n
Further Reading<\/b> What do feminism and Free software have in common? Debates. The debates are about short-term personal freedom versus long-term global freedom. Here’s how it goes: Feminism If I want to wear high heels, why shouldn’t I have that choice? Isn’t feminism about choice? If I want to be with a man who treats me badly,… Continue reading Feminism and Free Software<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,18,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux","category-race-class-gender-sexuality","category-ubuntu","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1917,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/1917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychocats.net\/ubuntucat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Individual Choice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"