(An open letter to the Linux community.)
\nYou need to decide for yourself how dire your circumstances are now that the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct (CCCOC) is in place. If you think the Social Justice capture of the Linux kernel is all-well-and-good, you need do nothing. Everything is running right on schedule.
\nBut if you think this heralds the end of Linux as anything resembling a meritocracy (however flawed), as well as the beginning-of-the-end of a project that you love and depend on, then you need to take action. Nobody is coming to save you. You\u2019re going to have to save yourselves.
\nWhereas the Social Justice Attack Survival Guide is a good defense, playing only defensively leaves the non Social Justice cohort of the Linux community indefinitely vulnerable to attack, individually and collectively. To end that vulnerability, you will need to achieve something very difficult. You will need to drive the rejection of the CCCOC, and demand restoration of the Code of Conflict (or perhaps the outright rejection of anything resembling a Code of Conduct at all).
\nYou may ask, \u201cWhy should I have to do anything? They\u2019re the ones who suck! They should do the right thing themselves, I shouldn\u2019t have to make them.\u201d And in a way, that\u2019s all true \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t matter. You can\u2019t wait for \u201cthe management\u201d to \u201ccome to their senses.\u201d They have no incentive to change. You have to motivate them to change.
\nHere\u2019s one form of motivation:
\nYou go on strike.
\nDon\u2019t resign. Don\u2019t delete or disable your accounts. Keep them, because you\u2019ll need them when this is over (if it ever is over). But stop volunteering:
\nStop donating money. Email them and say how much you have given in the past, and why you won\u2019t give any more.
\nStop donating time and effort to commits. Email the project and list your commits, fixes, and features, and say why you won\u2019t be committing any more.
\nStop answering questions and writing documentation. Instead, respond along the lines of \u201cI\u2019d love to help \u2026 once the CCCOC is removed.\u201d
\nIf you are paid to work on the kernel, stop doing that work. Tell them why you are going on strike.
\nGo on strike, and speak up about having gone on strike, until the CCCOC is reverted and the Code of Conflict is put back in place. The longer you keep volunteering, the longer it looks like you are OK with the CCCOC.
\nThey cannot survive (at least, not as easily) without your volunteer efforts. Stop volunteering, and speak out as to why you are stopping. Be prepared to do it for longer than you think you\u2019ll have to.
\nThreats to their cash flow, to their free-resource flow, will be a serious motivator for them to listen to you.
\nThat\u2019s a starting point. If they need further motivation, their actions between now and later will make the followup approach more obvious.
\nDo it today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not \u201clater\u201d \u2013 today. The longer you wait, the more inertia will build up against you.
\nNow, I have to warn you: the consequences for you going on strike might be overwhelming. You are likely to find yourself the target of Social Justice, with all that entails. Each of you has to decide for yourself if you want to deal with that kind of fallout, and I\u2019m not kidding when I say it is psychologically and emotionally draining. But you also have to decide for yourself if you want to just sit back and let Linux be co-opted in this way. The choice is yours.
\nAnd if you see someone else going on strike with you, support them.
\nGood luck.
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