The Great Hacker Politics Retcon, or ESR Strikes Again

[major_clanger]

I've always been rather fond of Eric S Raymond's Jargon File (published as The New Hacker's Dictionary). Unfortunately, ESR himself seems to have spent the last few years on a personal political train that has taken him so far past Barking he's practically in Dagenham (as a traumatised autopope can testify, following the Worldcon SF Politics Panel From Hell). NTK now reports that he's quietly modified the Jargon File's entry on Typical Hacker Politics to take it from "Vaguely liberal-moderate" to the new as-approved-by-Eric "moderate-to-neoconservative". Lest anyone wonder what Eric's own definition of 'neoconservative' is, have a look at his Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto".

Perhaps Eric should have a look at his own definition of retcon.

MC

Comments

More gems from ESR

[overconvergent.livejournal.com]

Also on his website is an interesting revisionist history of fascism in Spain (http://armedndangerous.blogspot.com/2003_04_20_armedndangerous_archive.html#93053213).

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

It sounds like hacker politics are boringly human.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I fear you too are guilty of quoting out of context. What the new entry (http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/politics.html) actually says is: "Formerly vaguely liberal-moderate, more recently moderate-to-neoconservative" and adds "(hackers too were affected by the collapse of socialism)".

I disagree, of course: I think the only thing that has changed is Eric's own politics, and that he is presuming that the hackers with whom he is regularly in touch represent the general political feeling of J. Random Hacker. But the full quote makes it clear that while he is guilty of political bias, he's not guilty of retconning.

Strangely enough, I found that while I deplore Eric's politics, I would have been genuinely shocked if he had turned out to be a retconner.

Perhaps if enough hackers who still consider themselves "vaguely liberal-moderate" write to Eric, he'll acknowledge he was wrong and change it back again?

Mea Culpa

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Point taken, and I'll certainly accept that ESR isn't trying to pretend that he never described hackish politics as being typically lefty. As such, no, he isn't really retconning.

I'm not even sure though that he's generalising from other hackers, even a self-selected group of them. I have the sneaking suspicion that he's actually generalising from himself.

The point is that ESR has a very prominent place in the hacker culture, which has a lot in common with, and overlap into, sf fandom. The Jargon File has (by ESR's own admission) become almost a manifesto for the hacker/fannish mindset, and it's a little disturbing to find the author and guardian of that manifesto showing signs of editing it to present his progressively more extreme political views as part of the mainstream of his subculture.

Perhaps if enough hackers who still consider themselves "vaguely liberal-moderate" write to Eric, he'll acknowledge he was wrong and change it back again?

Hope springs eternal :-)

MC

[pmcray.livejournal.com]

The Hacker's Dictionary is deeply wonderful in many ways, but ESR's prejudices do shine through (more accurately, blaze through). See his entry on "Suits", for instance.

Re: Mea Culpa

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure though that he's generalising from other hackers, even a self-selected group of them. I have the sneaking suspicion that he's actually generalising from himself.

Could be.

The point is that ESR has a very prominent place in the hacker culture, which has a lot in common with, and overlap into, sf fandom. The Jargon File has (by ESR's own admission) become almost a manifesto for the hacker/fannish mindset, and it's a little disturbing to find the author and guardian of that manifesto showing signs of editing it to present his progressively more extreme political views as part of the mainstream of his subculture.

True: but one reason why ESR has a prominent position in hacker subculture is because the Jargon File described fairly accurately hacker mindsets and reactions. The more the Jargon File drifts away from reality, the less respected ESR will be - inside the subculture, at least, as witness this exchange of opinions.

Hope springs eternal :-)

Well, yeah. I doubt it myself: I think an e-mail campaign would just make him conclude that a small minority of icky lefties were complaining. ':-)