Blog post: "politics"

[jducoeur]

(Once the blog is up and running, and has gotten a reasonable amount of fun new technical content, we should deal with this particular elephant in the room. This isn't the post content, or even a lightly-edited draft, just some stream of consciousness thoughts. The full article will need a lot of careful drafting, and input from the Steering Committee as a whole.)

Substantial parts of the Scala community have become increasingly dismissive of "politics" in recent years. It's become hip to say "no politics", implicitly asserting that that is a good thing. It isn't.

"Politics" is a scary word, but what it means at heart is what people care about. Human beings don't always agree with each other; given any two people, they probably disagree about a lot. Politics is the art and science of dealing with those differences, and there is little that is more important.

Yes, some "politics" is just factional infighting, and that generally has little value -- the Typelevel Steering Committee very deliberately tries to stay out these sorts of playground fights, and we encourage our members to stay calm and not get into flame wars. We prefer not to engage with people who misrepresent us: there isn't much to be gained by feeding trolls or wrestling in the mud.

(Although please note: Typelevel is a collective, not a dictatorship, and we aren't in the business of either endorsing or refuting the private opinions of our members -- they speak for themselves.)

But much of what is casually dismissed as "politics" is deadly serious, and needs to be treated as such. The world is filled with evils, ranging from sexual abuse to a hundred forms of bigotry to the rise of authoritarianism. Standing against such things is not merely "politics" -- it's basic human decency.

So the next time you see someone poo-pooh "politics", it's worth asking: what do they mean by that? Do they actually mean to be that dismissive of the concerns of others? Do they actually believe that technology has no effect on a real world that is full of politics? Do they mean that it doesn't matter when those very real issues show up in the technical community itself? (Which is certainly no stranger to these sins.)

It's easy to be flippant, and pretend to be above "politics". But the right and just thing is to take those concerns seriously, even when they lead you into difficult waters. That's how you foster a community that is genuinely inclusive and welcoming.