Liars


It’s yet another tale of misogynists building myths about feminists. Feminists are all out to get those hard-working, super-smart guys working in the tech industry, don’t you know.

Yesterday, Eric Raymond, a software development and open-source software advocate, published an explosive allegation on his blog: a recently disbanded group called the Ada Initiative, which advertises itself as helping make tech more welcoming for women, had been attempting to entrap men by using “honey pots” to seduce them and then accuse them of rape. “The MO was to get alone with the target, and then immediately after cry ‘attempted sexual assault,” wrote Raymond’s source, an IRC correspondent he doesn’t name but who he says has been “both well-informed and completely trustworthy in the past.”

Worst of all, these evil feminists have been gunning for a high-profile target: Linus Torvalds, the tech-hero founder of Linux. “Linus hasn’t spoken out about this; I can think of several plausible and good reasons for that,” writes Raymond. “And the Ada Initiative shut down earlier this year. Nevertheless, this report is consistent with reports of SJW [social-justice-warrior, a derogatory term used frequently in anti-feminist writing] dezinformatsiya tactics from elsewhere and I think it would be safest to assume that they are being replicated by other women-in-tech groups.”

Right. So two assholes chat on IRC and invent a sordid story, and that becomes Truth in their eyes.

I knew people in the Ada Initiative. I supported the Ada Initiative. I attended a workshop by the Ada Initiative. Their story is total nonsense. This “honey trap” bullshit was not only never part of their agenda, but there are zero instances of Ada Initiative personnel going after men in industry. but of course this is already being touted on Breitbart as evidence of an ongoing conspiracy.

Two guys talking on IRC. That’s their standard of evidence.

But let’s drill down to the real intent of their story.

I’m going to take my source’s implied advice. And view “sexual assault” claims fitting this MO with extreme skepticism in the future.

It’s all about justifying ludicrous degrees of skepticism about commonplace events. Men accused of sexism can now be assumed innocent because two guys on IRC made up a conspiracy theory about Devil Women.

Comments

  1. biogeo says

    I use software that Eric Raymond wrote or contributed to just about every day. So on that basis, I have to say: thanks for the free software, ESR, now shut the hell up, you tremendous asshole.

  2. anchor says

    They seem to be organizing…as if these scoundrels had the competence to match their imagined wherewithal.

    PZ: you must visit that post title on many another examples that fit in future: “Liars”

    I’m sure a plumply relevant topic under that line would pop up on at least a monthly basis.

  3. gmcard says

    Paraphrasing from one of the MRA-overrun tech sites:

    Feminists want rape convictions on nothing more than accusations!

    Someone accused the Ada Initiative of being a honey trap! The Ada Initiative is terrible!

  4. Athywren - Frustration Familiarity Panda says

    I’m kind of curious about the thing about Linus Torvalds. I mean, that seems like kind of a dangerous thing to claim if it’s not true, and all it would take is one syllable (huh?!) from Torvalds to seriously discredit the guy but… I don’t know, are they just expecting him to never hear about it? And why, if he’s made no moves to speak about it himself, with good and plausible reasons, assuming for the moment that it’s actually a true fact and not one freshly plucked from a digestive system exit point, what sort of inconsiderate prick decides to put it out there? That whole thing just seems weird to me.

    Also, funny from the comments, apparently the fact that @shanley on twitter (I feel like I should know that name somehow?) says the f word (that would be “fuck”) a lot proves that there are “crazy ones” on both sides? I… um… what?

  5. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    “Linus hasn’t spoken out about this; [ESR] can think of several plausible and good reasons for that,” writes Raymond.
    So, whatever ESR can think of, which he claims is “plausible”, must be true?
    Another case of intellectual arrogance, thinking skill/talent in one field means skill &talent in every field. As #2 noted, being a skilled software developer does not exclude being an a-hole as well. eg: ESR

  6. The Other Lance says

    ESR has made tremendous contributions to the software world. This is not one of those instances…. Idiot.

  7. HappyHead says

    I’m pretty sure that the reason “Linus hasn’t spoken out about this” is because it’s entirely in ESR’s imagination, and he’s never even heard about it. Sort of like the reason why ESR hasn’t made any statements confirming or denying the conspiracy of the tiger-people from Neptune to control the price of left turn signals.

  8. gmcard says

    The Other Lance @ 8

    ESR has made tremendous contributions to the software world.

    What, exactly? The abandoned giant mess of security issues that was fetchmail? The janitorial work on giflib? Taking a soapbox from a free software movement dedicated to the rights of developers and users and usurping it to promote a giveaway for corporate profit? Taking a humorous collection of tech jargon prepared by others and sullying it with right wing partisan nonsense? ESR’s contributions to the software world are essentially nil. His contributions to self promotion, however, are indeed tremendous.

  9. brucegee1962 says

    This is far from the first explosively controversial thing ESR has said, unfortunately. See here or here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  10. nelliebly says

    It continues to be a real fucking mystery why more women don’t go into STEM careers…

  11. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    I’m going to take my source’s implied advice. And view “sexual assault” claims fitting this MO with extreme skepticism in the future.

    Standard MRA drivel, essentially don’t believe anything a women says. Which is why I don’t believe anything MRAs say without filtering it through extreme skepticism. Which is why I am ignoring this fatuous and meretricious claim.

  12. John Small Berries says

    It’s really disheartening that so many of the people I’ve respected have turned out to be flaming misogynist assholes. Welp, one more to add to the list.

  13. Nemo says

    And the point of this conspiracy to entrap men would be… what, exactly?

    @15: He’s been an asshole as long as I’ve known of him, which is a couple of decades or so by now.

  14. numerobis says

    esr has been a flaming asshole as long as I’ve known about esr, which is at least 15 years. Maybe he wasn’t flamingly misogynistic that whole time, but there’s no surprise here.

  15. says

    Compare and contrast esr’s grubby, pathetic gibbering with this interview with one of Linus Torvalds’s daughters. On the one hand, we have an intelligent young woman speaking of her love for technology and intersectional feminism; on the other, we have… well, I’m not sure what we have but I’m sure I’ve scraped something like it it off the sole of my shoe on occasion.

  16. says

    Smart guy with an undeniable impact on the entire technology scene is shitty a shitty person, and that’s not really a secret inside the tech scene. Unfortunately, the tech scene has been a place where guys like this have been able to hide for a long time. Good to know that’s slowly, so very slowly, changing.

    His wikipedia article does really provide a few clues… “Raymond is a member of the Libertarian Party.”

    Not saying all Libertarians are asshats, but the chances are far above the norm.

  17. Vatican Black Ops, Latrina Lautus says

    Oh Christ, I see ESR hasn’t changed one whit since I saw him last, a decade-plus ago. And was it ever memorable. I was at a tech conference with several friends, and he walks up, zeroes in on the 23-year old who is wearing a (perfectly appropriate) tank top, puts his smiling face inches from her cleavage, looks at her face with the same smarmy smile, and strolls away.

    We were all in shock. Then I wanted to throw a chair at his retreating misogynistic head.

  18. petesh says

    @18: Thanks for the link. To everyone else: This is the last paragraph.

    I also think that some community leaders just don’t value diversity. It’s really easy to argue that tech is a meritocracy, and the reason there are so few marginalized people in tech is just that they aren’t interested, and that the problem comes from earlier on in the pipeline. They argue that if someone is good enough at their job, their gender or race or sexual orientation doesn’t matter. That’s the easy argument. But I was raised not to make excuses for mistakes. And I think the lack of diversity is a mistake, and that we should be taking responsibility for it and actively trying to make it better.

  19. llewelly says

    ahhh, ESR … knows some coding things really well, wrote lots of entertaining popular accounts of the history of “hacking” and its lexicons, thinks he knows everything really well, but in fact is terribly sloppy and has very specialized knowledge … and left fetchmail full of bugs and huge security vulnerabilities.

    Also, a denier of fossil fuel driven global warming, and in that, a person who analyzes code on the assumption that it is fortran, when it is obviously not fortran.

    I’ve been following the mailing lists of many FSF and other open source projects since the mid 1990s, and I’m long convinced that ESR is someone we’d be better off without, despite some contributions.

  20. Holms says

    Worst of all, these evil feminists have been gunning for a high-profile target: Linus Torvalds, the tech-hero founder of Linux. “Linus hasn’t spoken out about this; I can think of several plausible and good reasons for that”

    I can think of the very best reason for his silence on this: he has never noticed being targeted by them, because they never targeted him. That is, the allegations are bullshit.

    This can be applied further than just Linus. Even if we assume that the Ada Initiative truly had such a conspiracy, even we also assume that this conspiracy was coordinated in perfect secrecy, at some point there has to be a public record of an accusation of rape. If the Ada Initiative truly had a system of entrapping and ruining men in tech, why is there not a glut of rape accusations?

    …Exactly.

  21. qwints says

    The accusation didn’t even have an internal logic for how ESR’s source was supposed to have found out about the evil scheming feminists. At least those nonsense KKK accusations had a plausible explanation for how the accuser found out.

  22. says

    As others have remarked already, this is unfortunately par the course for ESR. He’s a racist, sexist, gun-toting nutbag. Has been for many years, decades even.

  23. says

    Cat Mara @18, Thanks for that link. Good interview.

    Linus Torvalds’ daughter emphasized the fact that she had support from a group of like-minded young women during her junior year of high school. Support from women. That made all the difference for her.

  24. Athywren - Frustration Familiarity Panda says

    @Lynna, 26

    Linus Torvalds’ daughter emphasized the fact that she had support from a group of like-minded young women during her junior year of high school. Support from women. That made all the difference for her.

    Yet more definitive proof of a feminist conspiracy! :o
    The call is coming from inside the house!!!

  25. says

    a recently disbanded group called the Ada Initiative, which advertises itself as helping make tech more welcoming for women, had been attempting to entrap men by using “honey pots” to seduce them and then accuse them of rape.

    Oh for…<near-fatal eyeroll>

    It takes a truly stupid misogynist to believe that women would happily form a group to track down the oh-so-important men in order to have sex with them for nefarious reasons. I can’t answer for all people, but I’m rather choosy about that whole taking one for the team business.

  26. Anselm Lingnau says

    I don’t think it is a very wise move to try to seduce someone whose wife used to be the national karate champion of Finland six times over.

  27. Gregory Greenwood says

    I’m going to take my source’s implied advice. And view “sexual assault” claims fitting this MO with extreme skepticism in the future.

    Repugnant MRA drivel and a pretty standard victim blaming formulation. PZ interprets it as;

    It’s all about justifying ludicrous degrees of skepticism about commonplace events. Men accused of sexism can now be assumed innocent because two guys on IRC made up a conspiracy theory about Devil Women.

    But I would go further – this sounds an awful lot to me like a sexual predator trying to poison the well; preparing the ground to discredit ahead of time any possible accusations down the line. There are other tells in the piece, such as the use of the phrase ‘honeytrap’ which is originally Cold War parlance for a female spy who used her sexuality to extract intelligence from male officials, and of ‘dezinformatsiya’, the name of a KGB disinformation campaign. The use of such language, with all its demi-militaristic and underhanded resonances, offers a worrying insight into Raymond’s mindset.

    Things get even worse. From the final link in the OP;

    The short version is: if 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.

    Paranoid delusions that women are out to ‘collect his scalp’ ring all kinds of alarm bells, as does his clear tendency to universalise his delusions to encompass all ‘senior male figures’ who are ever in the orbit of any woman. Blind, bigoted hatred paired with irrational paranoia can easy become a very dangerous mix.

    Then we get;

    “They have made multiple runs at him.” Just let the implications of that sink in for a bit. 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.

    Raymond buys into a persecution complex by proxy and again brings up militaristic language. Taken in context with the rest of his post his level of fear and hatred for women is disturbing to witness.

    He also seems to view his tendency to treat all women as if they are devious tricksters out to get him as some sort of just desserts;

    (Don’t like that, ladies? Tough. You were just fine with collective guilt when the shoe was on the other foot. Enjoy your turn!)

    Ignoring the fact that men have never been subject to any kind of collective guilt for misogyny or rape culture – the Patriarchy is cited as the problematic factor, and contrary to the weird obsessions of idiots like Raymond, the Patriarchy is not synonymous will all men everywhere, but is instead a term with a very specific meaning used to describe a toxic social system that tends to afford undue and harmful privilege to certain specific manifestations of the performance of masculinity. While the most obvious victims are women, the Patriarchy can also very easily be harmful to men who don’t conform to that model of ‘ideal’ masculinity, and the Patriarchy can often find support and reinforcement within society from the people who help enforce its norms, some of whom are women.

    As for the principle of Schrödinger’s Rapist (that I think Ryamond may be eluding to here), that is not collective guilt either, but rather an expression of the uncertainty women face when dealing with men because they have no way of telling if a man is a rapist or not just by looking at him. It expresses the way in which the crimes of sexual predators negatively impact the relationships between men and women, not that all men are rapists or that all men bear equal responsibility for the crimes of rapists.

    There is also something very troubling about anyone who would treat the entirely reasonable wariness some women have around men as a legitimate basis for some tit-for-tat collective ‘punishment’ for all women.

    Raymond almost seems to see himself and those like him as being at war with women and in particular ‘SJWs’ – a sentiment expressed in as many words by one of the commenters on his site, who goes by the handle Jay Maynard;

    One forgets the W in SJW at their peril. They view it as a war, and all is fair…

    (Incidentally, read the comments on that site at your peril – they are a cesspool of misogynistic bigotry)

    I am left wondering how many steps there are from embracing this mindset to a spree shooting horror of the kind we have become all too familiar with over the years.

  28. porlob says

    this sounds an awful lot to me like a sexual predator trying to poison the well; preparing the ground to discredit ahead of time any possible accusations down the line

    This was my immediate thought. Certainly seems like this would be an effective silencing strategy. Let’s say someone associated with a group promoting women in STEM was assaulted or harassed by an individual with a long history of abusive or generally awful behavior towards women, and that individual was promising to come forward. An exhaustive article about how the women-in-STEM group was merely a front group to gin up false rape accusations may well scare off the individual from coming forward.

    I’m not saying that’s what did happen. But it certainly would fit the facts.

  29. hiddenheart says

    I’m appalled by this, but not surprised. Raymond denies that HIV causes AIDS, and thinks The Bell Curve is the key to understanding why people of color are so poorly off, and on and on. Like so many fearful, angry white men, he spouts libertarian rhetoric and gives practical support to the Republican Party as it does all the things they’d call tyranny if anyone else did them. Hating and fearing women is just part for the course, alas.

  30. says

    There’s also the confirmation bias part of this that is infuriating: “an IRC correspondent he doesn’t name but who he says has been ‘both well-informed and completely trustworthy in the past.'”
    Right. I bet I could name all sorts of people who could be viewed as “well-informed and completely trustworthy” if no one bothers to ever fact-check them.

  31. anteprepro says

    Eric Raymond:

    Nevertheless, this report is consistent with reports of SJW [social-justice-warrior, a derogatory term used frequently in anti-feminist writing] dezinformatsiya tactics from elsewhere and I think it would be safest to assume that they are being replicated by other women-in-tech groups.”

    It looks like someone speaks fluent Gamergater.

  32. says

    I won’t say that PZ’s a sociopath but he’s got some pretty strong antisocial tendences:

    -Accusing people of being liars despite being pathologically dishonest himself

    Constant use of ad-hominem attacks and slander against anyone who offends him

    Claiming to be against bullying, harassment, etc while devoting numerous blog articles to cyberbullying and attacking those he dislikes – at some point you can’t claim hypocrisy is unintentional – at some point you’re totally aware of it and just pathologically remorseless about it

    Failure to demonstrate any remorse or awareness of responsibility – blaming “his enemies” for why he got the boot from Atheist Ireland for example – instead of his own behavior – such as personally attacking dozens of individuals, making “jokes” about murdering people, mocking suicide victims, etc and ironically attacking women who disagree with him (such as claiming that victims of mental health problems are essentially “faking” it).

    I think he needs to take a break from the political propaganda and see what a licensed psychotherapist has to say about his behavior – he’s a “man child” in every sense of the word – a grown man writing petty hate articles with sophomoric attacks about anyone who says anything he dislikes, even most pre-HS graduates I know aren’t that emotionally underdeveloped – sad, just sad… great way to stereotype scientists as being socially akward loners though

  33. anteprepro says

    Looks like the troll finally found their way to an article that people might actually see. Wonder which previously banned asshole this one will turn out to be. The suspense, oh the suspense.

    (Previous turd drop was here )

  34. says

    How can you troll a troll site? A site where the head honcho uses “asshat” to describe Charles Darwin isn’t exactly the New York times. Most sites I know of that approach levels of stupidity like that are young earth creationist sites.

    Get some social skills, a date, a shower or something – assuming you’re a male I think the fact that even Chris Brown probably gets more positive female attention than you do should tell you something about yourself.

  35. says

    I might not be all that nice myself but my points are dead on. You guys run a site dedicated to attacking everyone who offends you (even when they’re right) and whine about “trolls” – I’m here because I find that funny.

  36. freemage says

    porlob
    5 November 2015 at 11:46 am

    this sounds an awful lot to me like a sexual predator trying to poison the well; preparing the ground to discredit ahead of time any possible accusations down the line

    This was my immediate thought. Certainly seems like this would be an effective silencing strategy. Let’s say someone associated with a group promoting women in STEM was assaulted or harassed by an individual with a long history of abusive or generally awful behavior towards women, and that individual was promising to come forward. An exhaustive article about how the women-in-STEM group was merely a front group to gin up false rape accusations may well scare off the individual from coming forward.
    I’m not saying that’s what did happen. But it certainly would fit the facts.

    I’m calling the Hastert Rule on this shithead: Any time you find a pundit, or a person in a position of authority, downplaying and actively dismissing the very concept of sexual harassment and assault, there’s ALWAYS a reason. If they aren’t guilty themselves, then they are close associates of others whom they know are.

  37. Gen, Uppity Ingrate and Ilk says

    I’m just lulzing at the troll’s username. Wow, wishful thinking much? Delusions of grandeur, or even better, delusions of importance as opposed to impotence? It sure tells me all I need to know about this little trolly troll.

  38. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Ah, somebody named Sauve Ass-assin shows why extreme skepticism should be applied to MRA fuckwits. Evidence nowhere to be seen, and nothing but attitude expressed like it means something….NOT.

  39. says

    10 bucks says that Nerd of Redhead gets more attention than women from me… I can afford to lose 10 bucks.

    And Freemage? lol – Well going by Ted Haggart I’d actually reckon that someone overly paranoid about non-existant claims of sexual assault is more likely to be guilty of it – just like Haggart’s obsession with the evils of homosexuality was likely an attempt to distract from his own repressed urges.

    What sex crimes have you committed that you’re trying to hide here?

  40. says

    But hey if you want trolling, you got it:

    Most victims of sexual assault deserve it anyway for trying to make themselves attractive to please straight, white men. Andrea Dworkin says so so it must be true.

    Hell most of the women on this website would be lucky to be sexually assaulted – otherwise they’d have to pay for anyone to bother, lol. I think most of them are secretly jealous that the “victim” was chosen instead of them and they have to resort to their pink dildo.

    [Not so suave. Bye. –pzm]

  41. says

    …Raymond’s source, an IRC correspondent he doesn’t name…

    Say, where are all those people who railed against anonymous accusations in the past?

    Guys? Are you out there?

  42. Gregory Greenwood says

    How about I raise your self awareness a bit, Suave Assassin (never was a username more amusingly inappropriate)?

    You @ 35;

    I think he needs to take a break from the political propaganda and see what a licensed psychotherapist has to say about his behavior – he’s a “man child” in every sense of the word – a grown man writing petty hate articles with sophomoric attacks about anyone who says anything he dislikes

    (Emphasis added)

    And yet, you @ 43;

    10 bucks says that Nerd of Redhead gets more attention than women from me… I can afford to lose 10 bucks.

    And Freemage? lol – Well going by Ted Haggart I’d actually reckon that someone overly paranoid about non-existant claims of sexual assault is more likely to be guilty of it – just like Haggart’s obsession with the evils of homosexuality was likely an attempt to distract from his own repressed urges.

    What sex crimes have you committed that you’re trying to hide here?

    Petty hate, sophomoric attacks – yup, it is all here. Your projection skills rival those of a spot light, and on current evidence seem to be the only impressive thing about you. Still, no matter – you will soon get your wish and be banned for terminal stupidity, and then you can run off back to the Slyme Pit or AVfM or whatever internet cesspool spawned you crowing about your cyber-martyrdom at the hands of the evil feminazis.

    So, congratulations I guess….

  43. says

    The James Bond wannabe:

    You guys run a site

    FFS. I don’t run a site of any kind (well, my blog, but that’s not here, it’s not affiliated) – if you must troll, work on your fucking material for once.

  44. anteprepro says

    Two things Suave Assassin accomplished, in addition to simply making a fool out of themselves:

    1. Perfectly encapsulated the slimy, shitty people we regularly have to deal with on this blog that pretend to be honest critics “Just Disagreeing” (though in this case, the act was given up very quickly).

    2. Provided an illustration for why Eric Raymond and his bullshit can survive and thrive. There is an absolute abundance of assholes who simply revel in misogyny. They just find it inherently fun. Entertaining. Hilarious. And for that reason, they absolutely hate anyone who tries to stop their merrymaking.

    But perhaps even giving them that much credit just feeds into their delusions of grandeur. Because, honestly, both of those accomplishments are pretty minor. I could dig up a few dozen like it from this site alone. Just so banal.

  45. says

    He could lie about me all he wants, but the final straw was this remark:

    Hell most of the women on this website would be lucky to be sexually assaulted

    Fucking asshole.

  46. drken says

    If there are a group of women running a honeypot scam to entrap tech leaders, one would assume it would have been somewhat successful by now. I’m not up to date on who has been accused of what by whom, so where are all these men who have been accused of rape by Ada Initiative members? Also, if you’re going to lie about whether you were harassed/assaulted/raped, why the trouble of a honeypot? Just lie about everything.

    It sounds to me like another of those things that happens “all the time”, but most people don’t know anyone it’s happened to. Unlike actual rape, where most people know somebody who’s raped or been raped (or at least the victim of an attempted rape).

  47. Saad says

    They really seemed to not like the word asshat.

    Why is does it always have to be a dudebro type?

  48. Athywren - Frustration Familiarity Panda says

    @Saad, 53
    Asshat is their killphrase. Frankly, not a particularly wise choice, given how often they must hear it. Should’ve gone with Laputan Machine.

  49. says

    PZ:

    Fucking asshole.

    Barely begins to cover it. I certainly won’t be going around, saying “oh, just call me Lucky!”

  50. Moggie says

    I’m not sure esr has ever forgiven Linus for the CML2 controversy.

    In brief: Raymond developed a new configuration system for the Linux kernel source, which would have played a major role in the Linux project going forward. But, in a serious blow to his massive ego, it was rejected, and he flounced.

  51. says

    Ok, I am reading Pharyngula for eight years, I have fairly good memory and I think I remember where for example this straw man has origin:

    …“jokes” about murdering people…

    It fefers probably to the article where PZ wrote about stabbing a priest if he tried to preach to him while he were dying. Well that one made me uncomfortable too, but I understand that PZ does not actually want to stab anyone.

    Plus the troll demonstrated typical MRA inability to understand the difference between expressing opinions on your blog and attacking, cyberbullying and harrasing people. Nothing new there, just standard idiocy.

    But I am unable to remember where these distortions come from

    mocking suicide victims…such as claiming that victims of mental health problems are essentially “faking” it…

    Has anyone got a clue which articles were distorted into these two mis-interpretations?

  52. Athywren - Frustration Familiarity Panda says

    @Charly, 57

    But I am unable to remember where these distortions come from

    mocking suicide victims…such as claiming that victims of mental health problems are essentially “faking” it…

    Has anyone got a clue which articles were distorted into these two mis-interpretations?

    Possibly referring to when Robin Williams died and PZ pointed out that nobody was talking about Ferguson? I don’t think that really fits, though….

  53. says

    @Athywren #58
    When you wrote it I remembered about it. I think it fits. PZ wrote that article rather unhapilly, because even someone who is in general in agreement with the liberal and progresssive message of this blog, if they read that one article out of the broad context (and to know the broad context one has to read for months, if not years), they can easily misinterpret it even it the best of faiths. That makes it so much easier to abuse it in bad faith.

    Thanks for the reminder, it has bugged me. End of derail.

  54. Sili says

    I’m going to take my source’s implied advice. And view “sexual assault” claims fitting this MO with extreme skepticism in the future.
    Interesting.

    I would have thought the take-home message was, make sure never to be alone with women.

  55. says

    YEah, this all makes perfect sense. Those women by not being actually able to do the tech stuff just tried to ruin it for the menz because they probably hate computers. Some guy said so, therefore it must be true and all those women are liars.

  56. Pierce R. Butler says

    Competent in one specialized field; dismal failure outside it.

    Hmm.

    Has anyone ever seen Eric Raymond & Ben Carson in the same room at the same time?

  57. Numenaster says

    Interestingly, the comment on Raymond’s blog just below Jay Maynard (hi Tron Guy!) says this:

    just spread the word that many men are now using hidden recording devices to defend themselves this way. FUD can work for good.

    This struck ESR as a good idea, and I endorse it. Let these guys try to shield themselves from an enemy that they can’t identify. Have their hidden cameras live-stream their every interaction for their protection! They can have the endless stomach-turning paranoia that goes with that mindset: indeed, they have it already.

    And if they’re busy recording and looking over their own shoulders, they’re either not harassing anyone themselves or else they’re providing the evidence for their own downfall. It’s a win-win.

  58. teejaykay says

    I have only one thing to say to this Unsuave Hashashin and this Eric person.

    What the bloody Nora are you people on, and are you sure it’s not causing intellectual osmosis, because between the arguments and smarty-durr-pants-S-M-R-T talk, why do I feel like I’ve been deprived of part of my g and am now going to communicate with smileys from now on?

    :D
    :O
    (Tilt your head for this if you are not as smart as Eric!) D:

  59. says

    By the way, Suave Assassin is also the previously banned sexist asshat “Sam K”.

    But of course he is.

    He’ll probably be back under another pseudonym, as his kind do.

  60. screechymonkey says

    Oh sure, PZ, you’re just bitter about how you “got the boot from Atheist Ireland.” I didn’t even know you were ever a member! Even the popes are usually content to only excommunicate their own flock.

  61. Tualha says

    Oy. And here I just decided to go back into IT, and was going to review the hacker-howto. Well, I’ll still do that; it’s a very good guide. But wow. I knew he was a whacko gun nut, but I didn’t know he’d flown completely off the handle. What a dick.

    He doesn’t want to find himself alone with a woman? No problem, I’m sure. It will no doubt be entirely mutual.

    I’m waiting for Linus to say ESR is smoking crack :)

    Actually, hmm. Maybe ESR’s been hitting ye olde meth for a while? That would explain a lot.

  62. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Anyone else think there’s more than a 5% chance that the nym “Sam K” was intended to reference a certain even-more-than-usually-misogynist stand-up comic?

    BTW: Thank you, PZ.

    My browser is acting funny & I came in at the end of the thread and had to scroll up. I saw that Suave Assassin was banned, and for what, and it made reading the jerk an exercise in amusement instead of anger. I like that I can trust you to send the worst of the worst packing.

  63. A Masked Avenger says

    Folks already said everything better than me, but:

    * I don’t respect him as a hacker, because I was severely bitten by fetchmail bugs and security holes. Grumble grumble.

    * The Cathedral and the Bazaar was a self-aggrandizing bit of wankery to position himself as a “leader” of the “free software” movement (as it was then known). It’s crappy economic reasoning, and a transparent effort to see where the crowd is running, then get out in front and pretend they’re following you.

    * I sort of miss the “Everybody Loves Eric Raymond” web comic. I still remember the auto-payout2me / auto-peotomy joke with some affection. (It portrays self-inflicted harm on ESR, so not linking. Google “the redhat package mangler” at your own risk.)

    * But damn is that guy a piece of shit. I agree with the others that this level of paranoia suggests that he is either an abuser, or knows abusers. Could be a wannabe abuser, though: they love rape culture the way wannabes who are dirt-poor love corporate capitalism.

  64. nutella says

    Raymond is full of it, of course, but one thing struck me as particularly odd about his claims. It’s funny that he names Linus T as his purported victim suffering in silence. Linus is famous in the OSS community for saying exactly what he thinks in a very direct way without editing for politeness. Suffering in silence doesn’t seem to be his style.

  65. Numenaster says

    @nutella #72, I noticed that several people in the thread on Raymond’s site pointed this out: there were no actual past cases cited, and one message to Linus would serve as proof or disproof. These posts were pretty uniformly derided as 5th-column attempts at…something nefarious. I saw Dean Esmay responding to one such: he recently left A Voice For Men, as I recall. If ESR isn’t an MRA himself, he certainly is being advised by them.

  66. lanir says

    This was instructional for me to read. Not in the way Eric intended of course. It simply underlined for me one simple fact.

    Even if you’re very smart and talented at using logic you can still be utterly, ludicrously wrong if you accept junk data as a given before you start using these otherwise wonderful talents.

    If you don’t just accepted the end result here before even looking at the evidence, there’s no way you can possibly arrive at the conclusion presented.

  67. emmachess says

    ESR, ahh where do I begin. Reading his blog confirms that Eric is a wannabe “thought leader” in the open source movement who wrote a book 23 years ago and is still trying to cruise on that brief notoriety. He is in his late 50’s and staring into the face of age and irrelevance and starting to thrash around maniacally to keep his meager bona fides above the water line. He hangs out with the “cool kid” younger programmers trying to impress them with his stories of writing all the code that underpins EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD! He has a weird love/hate relationship with Torvalds and alternates between pooh-poohing Torvald’s contributions to open source and dreaming of becoming Linus when he grows up. He even wrote a blog posting placing himself in the pantheon of bestest programmers in the history of the world forever along with Torvalds and Stallman. ESR believes any attention from Linus is good attention, so no qualms about linking Linus and sexual misbehavior. Eric also sees himself as a programming/math genius equivalent to Dave Mills, who wrote the Network Time Protocol (Eric calls him an “eccentric genius”), and ESR is now busy forking the project because the “cool kids” only like new stuff and besides solving the complexities of time on the internet just involves a bit of math and a few tricky algorithms that he hasn’t quite figured out yet. One person on Twitter has already offered a $10.00 bounty for any security flaws Eric introduces in the protocol—presumably because there will be so many that he can’t afford to pay too much per incident.
    On a side note my husband (who is in the open source community and not a member of the he-man women haters club) wants to know where all these “honey traps” are. He never sees them at his conferences. He is sad now, because he suspects that means he is not a “thought leader.” :(

  68. Dark Jaguar says

    These people… Look, if it’s a questionable situation, don’t have sex! Trap averted! I mean, it’s pretty unprofessional to try to start a sexual relationship with a coworker anyway.