I can’t even.
I’ve been tracking misogynistic ridiculousness on this blog for five years, but I’m not sure I ‘ve ever run across anything quite as ridiculous as this.
A prominent Open Source guru, Eric Raymond, is warning tech dudes to be extra super duper careful around their female colleagues, because any one of them could turn out to be a secret feminist “honey trap” aiming to frame men in tech with false allegations of harassment or rape.
In a blog post earlier this week, Raymond passed along what he called a “disturbing warning … from a source I trust.”
His anonymous source warned him that it was no longer safe for men in tech to mentor women, or even be in the same room with them. “I’m super careful about honey traps,” the source wrote.
For a while, that’s how the Ada Initiative was trying to pre-generate outrage and collect scalps.
That’s right; according to this mysterious source the now-defunct Ada Initiative wasn’t actually a non-profit trying to bring more women into the open source world; it was a secret army of false-accusing honey-trap sex commandos, or something.
“The MO was to get alone with the target, and then immediately after cry ‘attempted sexual assault,'” the source wrote, adding that these devious sex harpies disguised as female programmers had already “made multiple runs” at Linux creator Linus Torvalds.
Naturally, faced with a set of outlandish accusations offered with zero proof, Raymond did what any rational, skeptical, scientifically minded man would do: he posted them on his blog and warned men that even being in the general vicinity of a woman at a tech conference was like playing with a loaded false accusation gun, or something.
[I]f you are any kind of open-source leader or senior figure who is male, do not be alone with any female, ever, at a technical conference. Try to avoid even being alone, ever, because there is a chance that a “women in tech” advocacy group is going to try to collect your scalp.
He expressed outrage at the alleged attempts to sully Torvalds’ name.
If my source is to be believed (and I have found him both well-informed and completely trustworthy in the past) this was not a series of misunderstandings, it was a deliberately planned and persistent campaign to frame Linus and feed him to an outrage mob.
I have to see it as an an attempt to smear and de-legitimize the Linux community (and, by extension, the entire open-source community) in order to render it politically pliable.
Will those sexy feminazi sex hyenas stop at nothing?
Linus hasn’t spoken out about this; I can think of several plausible and good reasons for that.
Apparently “because it’s not true” isn’t one that Raymond thought of.
Even though “the Ada Initiative shut down earlier this year,” Raymond went on warn that the danger will likely persist as long as evil SJWs live and breathe.
[T]his report is consistent with reports of SJW dezinformatsiya tactics from elsewhere and I think it would be safest to assume that they are being replicated by other women-in-tech groups.
And any women who are unhappy that they are being lumped in with these devious honey traps can go fuck themselves, because you ladies brought all this on yourself with your talk of rape culture and all that. And yes, he uses the word “ladies.”
Don’t like that, ladies? Tough. You were just fine with collective guilt when the shoe was on the other foot. Enjoy your turn!
Oh, and then Raymond says that in light of this irrefutable evidence of feminazi infiltration conspiracy theory utterly lacking in proof of any kind and frankly ludicrous to boot, he’s going to apply the skepticism he should have shown his mysterious source’s wild tale to actual accusations of sexual assault leveled at men in tech.
Naturally, the extended manosphere is abuzz with talk of this vast sexy conspiracy. Breitbart Tech breathlessly reported that “FEMINISTS ARE TRYING TO FRAME LINUS TORVALDS FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT, CLAIMS OPEN SOURCE INDUSTRY VETERAN.”
“If true,” Breitbart’s Allum Bokhari declared,
these claims will rock the world of software development, not to mention the wider tech community, which is suffering under the yoke of diversity campaigners levelling bogus charges of sexism at companies and individuals and pestering companies to improve their diversity credentials.
Discontent at the behaviour of feminists in tech has already been spreading in the open source community thanks to the feminist-led introduction of controversial codes of conduct for developers on some open source projects. But these new claims elevate feminists in tech from the controversial to the potentially criminal.
“If true,” claims that monkeys are flying out of my butt would rock the world of monkeys, not to mention the wider butt community.
Concluding his article, Bokhari wonders why
other tech news outlets – normally champing at the bit to report on diversity issues – have so far been curiously silent on this story. Breitbart Tech is, thus far, the exception.
Maybe because these tech news outlets prefer to write about, you know, tech news and not the fever dreams of misogynistic conspiracy theorists?
On Reddit, meanwhile, the usual suspects are doing what they usually do. KotakuInAction, the main Gamergate hub on Reddit, the Breitbart story drew more than 2600 upvotes, last I checked; on the Men’s Rights subreddit it garnered nearly a thousand.
And people wonder why women don’t feel welcome in tech? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that tech bigwigs like Raymond literally think every woman in their general vicinity is a potential “honey trap” out to steal his “scalp” if not his precious bodily fluids.
http://newsradio.certifiedweird.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/newsradio_dont_care.jpg
Linus Torvalds has done plenty enough to de-legitimise his own community. Trust me, Captain Tin Foil, we don’t need to do it for him.
Linus Torvalds is notorious for being the poster boy of the narcissistic tech asshole. I can well believe that if someone walked into a group of a hundred tech fanatics and told them that rabid feminists were on their way to slander one of their number as a rapist and harasser, their first reaction would be “QUICK! FORM A HUMAN WALL AROUND LINUS!”
I’m just surprised that Theo de Raadt’s name hasn’t come up yet.
Kupo, mockingbird, Fnoicby and everyone who has been in similar situations hugs and kisses if you need them.
I don’t get it, what would the benefit to the women be? 10 seconds of notoriety and getting blackballed by the industry as someone who’s narced on an employer? How is that a win?
This is an Underpants Gnome plan.
So I googled “Linus Torvalds sexual harassment”. I found… nothing but stories about this guy’s post, and the post itself. There’s lots of general criticism of Linux-related advertising, and the community being as misogynistic as you’d expect a sub-niche of the tech-geek world to be these days, but nothing about Torvalds personally.
If it weren’t for Eric Raymond, then, there would be no hints or rumors about this at all. Instead, he’s created exactly the sort of environment that would cause such rumors to occur.
I always thought the rap sheet on Linus was that he is a colossal asshole who thinks yelling at people is the best way to get things done. He may well be somewhat sexist on top of that, but sexual harassment and assault hasn’t been something I’ve heard about.
(Note to self: Wait for all the comments to load before you weigh in with your brilliant commentary ’cause you’ll probably be about the sixth person to say it…)
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrh6b3fvBh1qe3fl9.gif
:sigh: blockquote mammoth you win again.
Apologies Eric Raymond not Linus.
This seems to be just the sort of “tech news” that Breitbart Tech was launched for.
BTW, has Milo Yiannopoulos yet googled who Linus Torvalds is?
@fruitloopsie, exactly, it comes from insecurity. And in my experience these types of men have good reason to be insecure. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve encountered a man in my line of work and been absolutely stunned by their lack of knowledge on some topic or another. In “Lean In” (for all its flaws), Sheryl Sandberg discusses how men will apply for a job if they feel like they’re 60% qualified, whereas women usually only apply if they think they’re 90% qualified. I definitely see that reflected in the workplace.
It could just be a case of projection on the part of the writer rather than Linus himself being the harasser, especially since we haven’t seen anything like this pop up on him previously.
Projection is a thing with these guys.
At the same time, probably best not to assume it.
with all those upvotes, no wonder that gamergate became a hotbed for rapists.
I guess it depends on whether there have been actual accusations against Linus, as the writer says. It never occurred to me the writer or others would make something like that up. But isn’t this a perfect example of how someone’s reputation can be destroyed…I and others, assuming this info came from Linus himself, assume there is likely something there if multiple women have accused him. Yet “feminists” are the ones out to ruin his rep? This wasn’t “out there” until the writer PUT it “out there”. What an idiot.
Linus sexually harrassing people is 100% credible, but I never had heard of that specific claim against him. Not all assholes are rapey assholes after all.
Of course, if someone have an actual case against him, I would be likely to agree with it, and hope for due process. I like what that guy have built, but that’s no protection from law in my book.
This story has been posted over on Pharyngula too. I posted a link there that some might find interesting– a recent interview with one of Linus Torvalds’s daughters. The contrast with esr’s… discharge could not be starker.
It’s important to note that, as far as anyone can tell, Linus Torvalds has literally nothing to do with this insane gibbering. His name is in the headline to clickbait.
Davidgerard
Don’t say “insane” that’s a ableist term.
I don’t get why people don’t read the comment policy.
And if it’s true that the moon is made of cheese, I’m legally entitled to a 10-acre estate in the French riviera. But it’s not true. And I’m not.
Unfortunately.
I wish these dudes would decide whether I am, as a feminist, a repellent troll or a irresistible siren. Its very confusing.
@davidgerard
You missed the bit in ESR’s paranoid rant where he suggested that Torvalds was the main target of his imaginary false-rape-accusers? (Not that I don’t agree that Torvalds is less credible as a sexual harasser than ESR himself.)
Honestly, with things like this, I now operate under what I call the Hastert Rule*. If a pundit, or someone in a position of authority, makes an effort to downplay or ignore sexual harassment or abuse, there’s usually a reason for that effort. If they aren’t guilty of it themselves, it’s almost guaranteed that someone in their close circle is.
*: Named for Danny Hastert, former Speaker of the House, who left that office when he was caught up in a scandal because he failed to investigate charges that several other Republicans had been sexually harassing interns. Hastert was recently charged with deceptive practices relating to his efforts to pay off an unnamed individual without alerting the IRS. The open secret about the charge is that the payoff was because Hastert was involved in misconduct back when he was a high school wrestling coach, either molesting or having sex with one or more underage students.
I just typed Linus Torvalds into google and this Breitbart article is the second thing that comes up right after his wikipedia. “Feminists” and “sexual assault” is a real eye-catcher.
Is Raymond aware that it is him who linked Tovarlds with sexual assault, as there is no other story about this that pops up in the search results?
I don’t know how he can justify that, unless his source is Linus himself…
@EJ, Fruitloopsie – *hugs back*
It’s all water under the bridge for me now.
The biggest thing was that especially as a young woman who’s a bit unsure of herself (I got hired for a part time position mostly by geeking out during the interview and was hired to a full time position because I caught on quickly and thought that the work was fun) is that you start to feel like maybe your perception’s really off, maybe it really is just you .
A male coworker or two noticing and speaking up (even if it’s just to you to say, “Woah, what the fuck was that guy’s problem?”) makes all the difference in the world.
@Fnoicby – I’ve noticed, too, that most of the men in tech who are secure with their skill set and abilities are eager to work with, learn from, teach, and accept anyone regardless of gender.
Though I don’t constrain that to men with ABSOLUTE TECHNICAL MASTERY (if nothing else, tech’s too large and ever changing for someone to know everything), so perhaps I should amend that to say “secure with themselves”.
The BEST people that I’ve known in tech have just been excited to share their enthusiasm and knowledge with anyone who’ll listen.
Heck, that’s half of what attracted me to my husband 😀
And that’s why I’m so deeply disappointed (I used to also be surprised, but not anymore) when assholery manifests in the tech sector.
This stuff is supposed to be fun!
It’s exciting!
You get to tinker and discover and mold and create!
With code or with solder, you can use your knowledge and wits to make something new exist or turn something that had been a pile of nonsense into a something that works and does!
But I guess people are going to be people and get tribal about things.
Raymond sounds like a rational guy and is probably right.