Keeping KDE Apolitical

[Guilherme MS]

Talking as someone that is not clued into what might have happened in the
promo room and just got this email in the mailing list, I think the choice
of posting on X/Twitter is a special case because it was weaponised as a
political platform by its owner. KDE staying there is as much of a
political statement as KDE deciding to leave. I don't think there is an
apolitical way of dealing with that situation, and personally, I'd rather
KDE be on the side that left than on the side of a billionaire that is,
without a doubt, a political extremist. If you think about it, this was the
most apolitical decision KDE Promo could possibly make.

Em dom., 2 de nov. de 2025, 19:12, Margaret Miller <
mmiller at wanderingwires.net> escreveu:

> No. I love KDE precisely because they're not falling for this "apolitical"
> nonsense that only ever is used to benefit the far right and push out
> marginalized people.
> --
> Margaret "Mae" Miller (she/her)
>
>
>
> Nov 2, 2025, 14:09 by anonymous.viewer at mailfence.com:
>
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > Something concerning that was brought to my attention compelled me to
> compose my thoughts. For the sake of maintaining a healthy community with a
> diverse array of people from different backgrounds, I would like to implore
> that you please keep KDE Plasma apolitical. It should not be used as a
> platform for character assassination or the badjacketing of people and
> organisations for political views which may differ from your own. There
> could be about half a dozen of reasons why KDE Plasma may have wished to
> abstain from interacting on X/Twitter and each of them likely to be valid
> from a purely technical or utilitarian prospective. Instead, an employee of
> KDE Plasma for promotion and communication asserted their own politics and
> spoke on behalf of KDE Plasma as a whole in a statement when addressing why
> KDE Plasma has stopped posting to X.
> >
> > I don't think this is something that should be tolerated in our
> community, as the politicisation of projects and hobbies only serves to sow
> division which leads to ostracism and exclusion rather than inclusion.
> Hobbies should be politically neutral as to remain inclusive for all people
> from different walks of life. The founding ethos of the free and open
> source community ensured that nobody was excluded or marginalised for their
> immutable traits or beliefs as they did not matter or would've otherwise
> impacted a person's ability to participate. These very founding principles
> are being threatened by those who that assert their politics into the
> hobbies and projects where it has no business being. The free and open
> source movement is political in nature, yes. However, there should be
> absolutely no room for identity politics and culture wars which distract
> from the very purpose of our hobby. Creating, maintaining and iterating on
> software and public infrastructure that anyone may freely use for the
> betterment of humanity.
> >
> > I've left my thoughts here in good faith as a user of KDE Plasma and
> welcome any discussion or feedback.
> >
> > Thank you all for your time and cheers for reading.
> >
> > —Slopsec
> >
> > --
> > Sent with https://mailfence.com
> > Secure and private email
> >
>
>
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