diff --git a/content/blog/closed-openness.md b/content/blog/closed-openness.md index bad4166..c458506 100644 --- a/content/blog/closed-openness.md +++ b/content/blog/closed-openness.md @@ -76,11 +76,9 @@ Throughout my career, I've maintained that technical spaces should remain focuse ## When Principles Collide -During my tenure in the NixOS ecosystem, I operated under the assumption that personal and political differences were irrelevant to our shared technical interests, and hoped, perhaps naively, that I'd find the same consideration in return. My long absence from social media may have been a blessing — had I been more jaded before becoming heavily invested in NixOS, things might have played out differently. +During my tenure in the NixOS ecosystem, I operated under the assumption that personal and political differences were irrelevant to our shared technical interests, and hoped, perhaps naively, that I'd find the same consideration in return. My long absence from social media may have been a blessing — had I been more jaded before becoming heavily invested in NixOS, things might have played out differently. Though I am far from perfect, I take pride in maintaining professional discourse, critiquing ideas rather than identities, regardless of how aggressive others' politics become. In the end, though, sometimes the greatest service you can offer is simply maintaining your principles when others abandon theirs. -I take pride in maintaining professional discourse, critiquing ideas rather than identities, regardless of how aggressive others' politics became. This isn't virtue signaling — I genuinely wish I could have had more meaningful conversations with those I supposedly "opposed" to get to the bottom of our differences. That mentoring instinct runs deep, and it cuts to the heart of this entire post. In the end, though, sometimes the greatest service you can offer is simply maintaining your principles when others abandon theirs. - -Earlier, I touched on how the bully-pushover dynamic leaves no room for true leadership qualities like mentorship and guidance. What we witnessed and thoroughly documented in [RFC 175](https://github.com/nrdxp/rfcs/blob/rfc-175/rfcs/0175-appeals-council.md) demonstrates this perfectly: power so entrenched it had become casually, almost lazily tyrannical. The greatest threat to such entrenched power isn't opposition — it's genuine leadership. Those who take initiative to solve real problems, who demonstrate authentic mentorship, who build rather than control — these are the people who must be eliminated first. +Earlier, I touched on how the bully-pushover dynamic leaves no room for true leadership qualities like mentorship and competance. What we witnessed and thoroughly documented in [RFC 175](https://github.com/nrdxp/rfcs/blob/rfc-175/rfcs/0175-appeals-council.md) demonstrates this perfectly: power so entrenched it had become casually, almost lazily tyrannical. The greatest threat to such entrenched power isn't opposition — it's genuine leadership. Those who take initiative to solve real problems, who demonstrate authentic mentorship, who build rather than control — these are the people who must be demonized or eliminated first by the manipulator. Understanding this dynamic is crucial for defending against future political attacks. The systematic resistance to actual leadership isn't accidental — it's a deliberate strategy, whether driven by instinctual self-preservation or calculated power maintenance. Those who hold power through manipulation cannot allow genuine merit-based leadership to flourish. @@ -88,31 +86,29 @@ Our approach to RFC 175 revealed this dynamic in action. We maintained professio What followed was even more revealing. After nearly two weeks of forced silence on our own RFC, we were finally "allowed" to speak, but by then the damage was largely done. Next came the open letter calling for Eelco's resignation — which, ironically, we watched being ghost-written in real-time thanks to a leaked shared document from someone apparently troubled by the backroom dealings. -The final act came months later. Despite moving on to discussions about what would eventually become Ekala and limiting my involvement in NixOS to answering newcomers' questions on Discourse, I was quietly [banned](https://github.com/NixOS/moderation/blob/a1c292a453a93fc5d22dcc4738514d6d636d0d74/moderation-log.md?plain=1#L3-L7) for "regularly heated debates" after commenting on yet another weaponization of political rhetoric during the constitutional "election." They simultaneously banned my RFC co-author and another associate who hadn't even spoken out, using the same generic charge. The brazenness alone revealed how smug they'd become in their authority. This, after years of effectively challenging their rhetoric through nothing but logic and organic community support (I haven't even touched on RFC 111 from years back). +The final act came months later. Despite moving on to discussions about what would eventually become Ekala; limiting my involvement in NixOS to answering newcomers' questions on Discourse, I was quietly [banned](https://github.com/NixOS/moderation/blob/a1c292a453a93fc5d22dcc4738514d6d636d0d74/moderation-log.md?plain=1#L3-L7) for "regularly heated debates" after commenting on yet another weaponization of political rhetoric during the constitutional "election." They simultaneously banned my RFC co-author and another associate who hadn't even spoken out, using the same generic charge. The brazenness alone revealed how smug they'd become in their authority. This, after years of effectively challenging their rhetoric through nothing but logic and organic community support (I haven't even touched on RFC 111 from years back). I document these events not to settle scores, but to correct an increasingly doctored record. People often encounter fragments of these discussions — carefully edited by now — and accept the painted narrative of me as some radical agitator. The irony is profound: [in this context](../nixos-policy-breakdown/#marginalization-is-contextual-and-temporal), I represent exactly the marginalized voice they claim to defend. I had no coalition, no special interest group, no funding — just my voice, my friends who've been similarly ostracized, and the occasional supporter willing to stand with me. -This serves as a reminder that even a single person willing to resist tyranny can hold it at bay for quite some time. While I wasn't alone, I was perhaps one of the most persistent and tactical critics. My agenda was transparently simple: I wanted Nix to be the best it could be — the same motivation that now drives my work on Ekala. +This serves as a reminder that even a single person willing to resist tyranny can hold it at bay for quite some time. While I wasn't alone, I was perhaps one of the most persistent and tactical critics, for a time. My agenda was transparently simple: I wanted Nix to be the best it could be — the same motivation that now drives my work on Ekala. But this isn't merely a personal grievance or isolated incident. The philosophical framework that enabled the NixOS takeover by politically entrenched radicals is, unfortunately, spreading. These events serve as a microcosm of a much more pressing concern. In 2024 alone, we witnessed similar patterns in the Linux kernel community, Python's governance debates, and numerous other high-profile projects. The timing and tactics are too similar to be coincidental. -## A Coordinated Takedown +## A Coordinated Takedown? -Whether these politically charged takeovers of high-profile open-source ecosystems are deliberately coordinated or simply the product of mass hysteria hardly matters. What's become painfully clear is that this pattern extends far beyond NixOS, representing a coordinated effort across the broader open source realm. +Whether these politically charged takeovers of high-profile open-source ecosystems are deliberately coordinated or simply the product of mass hysteria hardly matters. What's become painfully clear is that this pattern extends far beyond NixOS, representing a potentially coordinated effort across the broader open source realm. -The motive is equally unimportant. There could be a thousand reasons why powerful entities might want to control open source, using hot-button issues that reasonable people avoid like the plague. The sheer brazenness of the coordination across Linux, NixOS, and others — using identical tactics and rhetoric — makes it apparent that someone is deliberately moving to take over governance of key projects, thereby gaining _de facto_ control of the entire industry. +The motive is equally unimportant. There could be a thousand reasons why powerful entities might want to control open source, using hot-button issues that reasonable people avoid like the plague is just "good politics", in that respect. The sheer number of incidents even across such eminent projects as Linux, Python, and others — using identical tactics and rhetoric — appears to indicate a success, on their part. -The sad reality is that it's largely already done. The only remaining hope lies in the utterly defiant nature that kickstarted, and still smolders, however faintly, at the bedrock of the entire open source endeavor. +The sad reality is that the damage is largely already done in many of these projects. The only remaining hope lies in the utterly defiant nature that kickstarted, and still smolders, however faintly, at the bedrock of the entire open source endeavor. The problem runs deeper than politics. The obsessive need to levy a particular political agenda is philosophically and logically opposed to the core tenets of open source and free software. We foolishly tried to juggle incompatible ideologies. Freedom cannot coexist with compulsion — it's a contradiction in terms. Attempting to force one political perspective, however righteous you believe it to be, fundamentally opposes the foundation of the open source ecosystem itself. > "Freedom cannot coexist with compulsion — it's a contradiction in terms." -But how does this takeover actually happen? - ### Corporate Capture -In the corporate realm, politics revolves around image. Considerable behind-the-scenes effort goes into crafting an "organic" appearance. Whether this approach serves corporations is beside the point — what matters is that this corporate _status quo_ is being transplanted wholesale into the open source world. The specific political agenda is irrelevant; what matters is that the mechanisms now mirror corporate culture. +In the corporate realm, politics revolves around image. Considerable behind-the-scenes effort goes into crafting an "organic" appearance. Whether this approach serves corporations is beside the point — what matters is that this corporate _status quo_ seems to have transplanted wholesale into the open source world. The specific political agenda is irrelevant; what matters is that the mechanisms now mirror corporate culture. This transplant is more devastating than it might appear on the surface. Open source doesn't operate like the corporate world. Corporations function within capitalism, while open source, at its core, resembles the ancient gift economies of tribal communities. 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