Ask HN: What Happened to ESR? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What Happened to ESR?

28 pointsthowway3445sd16 comments

For more than a year ESR(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond) has not posted anything on his blog esr.ibiblio.org or his home page http://www.catb.org/esr. Does any one know what happened to him?

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Well, at least he is still active programming: https://gitlab.com/esr/reposurgeon/-/issues/405

I've seen him post comments on other forums; he still exists. I suspect he's quiet because speaking up may get his work removed from the internet. Voicing contrary opinions has got dangerous the past couple years.

That's a pretty disingenuous take you've got there – contrary opinions (e.g., on gun control) are one thing, but hate speech (in the form of blatant transphobia) is quite another.

ESR saw what happened to RMS and went underground. That's a good thing.

People became too trigger-happy, and there's this ever-changing baseline and being left in the wrong side of it immediately kills your career.

I'm a cis male who's also a proud feminist, but I also think that I can get myself easily cancelled if I'm not formulating my opinions very carefully.

Heck, even the things I just wrote here can be enough to trigger a lot of people!

I'm totally ok if people will argue with each other, or use their free-speech to protest the things they see wrong. But no, what's forming today is an organized "shut these people up or we'll kill your business" angry mob.

I think it's pretty indicative of your point that every time that I post something here, I get anxious. I use my real name here, and I'm terrified of posting an opinion that's not carefully apolitical or overexplained, and possibly losing everything.

...is exactly the kind of thing your parent comment was talking about.

Getting pushback when you spread hate about others isn't a "dangerous" development. It's others using their free speech to say they feel what ESR is saying is not ok.

>but hate speech (in the form of blatant transphobia)

I really hope you Red Army wannabes one day get what you deserve. You think you are the defender of the weak but you openly threaten someone's livelihood because one doesn't follow the new liberal gospel.

It's a shame ESR can't say whatever he wants because he's genuinely afraid.

And regarding "transphobia" lol. lmao.

I love when being treated fairly is liberal gospel.

I love when self-deluding yourself into believing that men who get cosmetic genital surgery and wear women's clothing are magically women is liberal gospel.

Define hate speech. Not sure about ESR but RMS definitely didn't do any.

> but hate speech (in the form of blatant transphobia)

When did ESR voice hate speech in the form of blatant transphobia?

You could email him? His address is fairly easy to find on his site.

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