Keeping KDE Apolitical

[Albert Astals Cid]

El dilluns, 3 de novembre del 2025, a les 22:51:16 (Hora estàndard d’Europa 
central), Anonymous Viewer va escriure:
> > Even still, I don't agree that being "apolitical" in your definition is a
> > unquestionable goodm I would like to ask you to question why you think
> > being "apolitical" is a good thing.  --
> > Margaret "Mae" Miller (she/her)
> 
> Because picking a side will naturally result in the exclusion of people not
> on that side.

Exactly, we can do two things:
 * Include the bullies and exclude the nice people
 * Include the nice people and exclude the bullies

I hope it is clear to you that we prefer the second one.

Please, stop bothering us and distracting us from producing software.

Best Regards,
  Albert

> Promoting a culture of conformity where there is a chilling
> effect on range of people's speech and expression. You end up like GNOME
> where there is a clear political majority of a particular school of thought
> in the management and development of the project. That in of itself is not
> a bad thing, but it is when any it gets to the point where anything
> critical or contrary to their world view will end up getting drowned out
> and result in your character assassination by getting branded a nazi. This
> is the exact kind of activity that I would like to see the KDE community
> avoid for the foreseeable future by acknowledging that people participating
> will have political views and are free to express themselves as such. But
> KDE Plasma as an organisation and project must strive to remain apolitical
> to cater to many demographics as possible. That will simply not be the case
> if people continue to speak on behalf of KDE Plasma in their capacity as an
> employee or contributor to share their political theoretic. 
> 
> As some have previously pointed out there, is a time and place for political
> activism but KDE Plasma should not be one such place. Inclusion is built
> into the very ethos of free and open source software, so there should be no
> need for involving identity politics or culture wars any further than it
> already has.
> 
> On Nov 2, 2025 at 10:56 PM, Margaret Miller <mmiller at wanderingwires.net>
> wrote:Even still, I don't agree that being "apolitical" in your definition
> is a unquestionable goodm I would like to ask you to question why you think
> being "apolitical" is a good thing.
> --
> Margaret "Mae" Miller (she/her)
> 
> Nov 2, 2025, 14:52 by rtroy at ScienceTools.com:
> > On Sun, 2 Nov 2025, Margaret Miller wrote:
> >> 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.
> 
> > Hmmm...
> > 
> > With respect, I'd like to ask you to adjust how you assert stuff like
> > that.
> > 
> > You're not wrong, Margaret, in stating that there are many instances in
> 
> modern times, especially in the USA and parts of Western Europe (perhaps
> elsewhere) that very partisan and political things are done in the name of
> being "apolitical." However, someone else's improper use of our common
> language shouldn't be a reason for us to redefine words and twist things.
> That is, how you phrased your defense of the marginalized was itself
> falling into a linguistic trap. I agree with "Slopsec" we all stay out of
> it.
> 
> > I believe "Slopsec's" articulation was the more accurate: We can and
> > should
> 
> defend being apolitical in KDE and avoid it in ourselves when dealing with
> unrelated subjects. And let us not try and redefine the word apolitical or
> buy into other people's false definitions. Slopsec asked we keep politics
> out of this venue and I agree, and defending those who need defending as
> you propose isn't, in my view, political.
> 
> > Word-hijacking has long been, unfortunately, "a thing" in humanity and
> > it's
> 
> both insidious and corrosive and is intended, most times, to either divide,
> or convince one of false narratives. A simple but obvious example would be
> the likes of Nancy Pelosi (among many others) who try and call themselves
> "left" just because they're not where current Republicans are, when anyone
> of my generation would call them out as 1980's style Republicans. It's an
> attempt to redefine the word for their own political purposes and I say we
> not buy into it. Apolitical means NOT political. And defending against
> bullying as you propose isn't a political act, it's an act born of good
> morals.
> 
> > In any event, ABSOLUTELY, Margaret, DEFEND those who need defending, like
> > the
> marginalized. Lets just try and not talk past one another, please.
> 
> > I hope I haven't just whacked a hornet's nest!
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Richard
> > 
> > P.S. You can read MY basic political affiliations in my signature line as
> > it
> articulates the who and what I pledge allegiance to.  RT
> 
> >> --
> >> 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 free
> > ly 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
> > 
> > --
> > Richard Troy, Chief Scientist
> > Science Tools Corporation
> > 510-717-6942
> > rtroy at ScienceTools.com, http://ScienceTools.com/
> > 
> > I pledge allegiance to We, The People, to mutual peace and harmony, and
> > to the natural Earth and biosphere upon which We, The People, depend.