Shanti’s Dispatches

… but less fun defending yourself against charges of language bigotry.

Oh sweet, someone reads my blog!

Peaceful Dialog

Starbucks-window Breaking Anarchist (even in the name of good fun)

The analogy isn’t perfect, but taken to extremes this is what we’d have in the real world.

Do you care about winning converts?

No? Okay, that’s cool.

Do you want to have to defend yourself for being a Ruby (or Rails) Guy?

Let’s say you’re the Gandhi of fair trade protest. You organize massive swaths of people that come together and hope to make a difference on the issue, based on the merits of your argument and the justness of your cause. You believe that if you gathered enough people, lobbying power, etc. that you could honestly make a difference in this arena.

Then along comes a rival faction, wearing ski-masks, who at every junction when you’re about to have the spotlight, throw bricks through Starbucks windows and cause a huge ruckus doing their anarchist thing.

They totally steal all the attention away from your peaceful cause. Nay, they have hijacked your cause and now you can’t get a fair break from the media or general population.

You’re with fair trade? (Oh, one of those nut jobs …)

The Fear / Annoyance

I’m at a conference or industry event. I introduce myself and say that I’m a Rails developer.

Fellow Dev:  Ohhhh... You're with those asshats.
Me: 'Scuse meh?
Fellow Dev:  Yes, the language bigots.
Me: Oh, that's not me.
Fellow Dev:  Well okay, but that crew you roll with sure can be
   a bunch of arrogant assholes.  That's why I use Python.
Me: Well then...

I forsee this happening in the future, sadly.

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