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Comment by crownosey | Hacker News Reader

I thought bigotry was scapegoating a minority group because of the actions of a few members.

Do you value the time and quality of life of the billions who can't drive a Chevy, nor will ever have a device that can run an Electron app or $10/month for Spotify?

It's not all free as in beer you know, free software is meant to serve a free society by allowing everyone to participate in the social construction of technology, not provide consumer luxuries. I think the term you're looking for is "open source"

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> I thought bigotry was scapegoating a minority group because of the actions of a few members.

That's certainly one common recent use of that term. Although more often than not it's just "I don't like them but don't really have argument that passes first smelling therefore they are bigots"

The OED 2nd Edition defines bigotry as "obstinate and unenlightened attachment to a particular creed, opinion, system, or party."

Like tech bros who colonised the terra nullus of the work previously done by hidden figures then?

> proportion of women represented in the computer science field peaked around the mid-1980s and has declined ever since

> women represented in the computer science field peaked around the mid-1980s and has declined ever since

I thought ‘surely not’. I was wrong.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/there-are-too-few...

I've been in IT since the 1970s. The decrease in women in the field is striking. The article you cite is correct to make the connection to CS degree representation. Prior to the 1980s, CS degree programs were nascent if they existed at all. Not requiring this qualifitcation allowed an amazing diversity of people to enter the field.

Steve Jobs was in a way quite typical of the sort of people who showed up in the IT field. He would have a tough time getting hired today.

but open ideals are enlightened ones, so it cannot be bigotry per your definition.

I suggest staring deeply into why culture and natural language work like they do (or used to do, seems only stubborn 'artistic' types are working with culture like that nowadays)

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