[ale] [Kinda OT] The "TalkMaster", Freedom and Free Software

Richard Bronosky Richard at Bronosky.com
Mon Jan 30 18:39:46 EST 2012


Conservatives are not against software freedom. They are not even against
voluntary socialism. If you choose to go live in a socialist community, of
which there are many in the US, you are free to do so. (I'll give you a
warning though, those communities are very particular about who they let
join.*) The problemarises when governments start to enforce socialist
policies at gun point.

* It is this selectiveness that is crucial to their success.

When you start labeling people as evil and stupid, you errantly project
evil and/or stupid ideas on them. That makes you ignorant. (Ignorance is a
great word. You should look it up.)
On Jan 30, 2012 2:22 PM, "Jim Kinney" <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

> Having met the as..., er, man, he is an entertainer first and little else
> second. He drank his own kool-aide a long time ago.
>
> The freedoms yelled for by his minions (as well as those of RLimbaugh on a
> national scale) are a subset of those we are all supposed to enjoy.
>
> As per usual talk show host style, they will take an idea or sound-bite
> that does have some validity and twist it and pound on it until it no
> longer resembles the original stated problem. Then they turn their
> followers loose on it.
>
> As with all show hosts, they push what pays them. Does Microsoft buy
> product placement on his show? I would not be surprised if that were the
> case.
>
> There is no way in hell the conservative talk show pundits could EVER
> mention the open source products, platforms or process in any light but
> negative. What we do is viewed as socialism because there is a perceived
> cooperation between developers. These show followers will only support
> competition (i.e. Microsoft monopolies making a crap ton of money, Apple
> monopolies making a crap ton of money, Cisco....). To cooperate to make a
> better product is anti-American in their little minds.
>
> Never mind that once the bidding for a new
> bomber/highway/fighter/gun/school/bridge/etc. is over it's a cooperative
> effort to build it between the multiple groups doing the work.
>
> Never mind that taxpayer money has gone into such open source projects as
> SELinux and PostgreSQL and OpenVista (hospital records) and Spacewalk (open
> sourced from contracted Satellite Server).
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 1:53 PM, mike at trausch.us <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
>
>> I don’t know how many of you actually spend (waste?) time listening to
>> talk radio, but I do on occasion.  One of the things I spend (again,
>> waste?) my time listening to in the car or when I think to fire up the
>> stream on my computer is Neal Boortz.
>>
>> Now, he seems to take the position that freedom is paramount and that we
>> should all exercise it.  He constantly complains, for example, about
>> “government schools” and how they do not really provide an education,
>> much less equip our young to exercise their freedom.
>>
>
> Schools are more about "control" than education. That dictate comes from
> the the same crowd that listens to his kind of drivel. "Zero Tolerance"
> also translates into "zero progress". School kids have no freedoms.
>
>>
>> However, he seems to spend an awful lot of time pushing products for
>> Windows in the spots on his show.  I have never even once heard him or
>> any of his sheep call in and mention that there is free software which
>> enables people to exercise their fundamental freedoms with regard to
>> their computing platforms.  In fact, it seems that his platform is
>> nothing more than a façade, where he is quite happy to push things that
>> cause people to become less free as a result of the use of the things
>> that he pushes.
>>
>
> Free as in beer is anti-American. Free as in speech is becoming similar.
>
>>
>> I find myself wondering:  Is this because he doesn’t know about it?  Or
>> is he insincere?
>>
>
> Clueless AND insincere? Add in apathetic because Open Source stuff won't
> benefit his bottom line.
>
>>
>>        --- Mike
>>
>> --
>> A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
>> than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
>>                                   --- Carveth Read, “Logic”
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> --
> James P. Kinney III
>
> As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
> consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they
> please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
> - *2011 Noam Chomsky
>
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> *
>
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