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> Who within the culture is empowered to authorize you?

Not you, or me

> Can I ask any Irishman for permission to use a shamrock?

That is unfair. American Indians, in the USA, are treated as if they do not exist.

To quote the Brian Behlendorf (of the ASF):

> Native American tribe called the Apaches, right, who succumbed to the invasion from the West, from the United States, and they were the last tribe to give up their territory and for me that almost romantically represented what I felt we were doing with this web-server project…

I think the Apache people take exception when the attempted genocide, of them, is "romantically represented"

> This frankly outdated spaghetti-Western “romantic” presentation of a living and vibrant community as dead and gone in order to build a technology company “for the greater good”

Yes

The Irish (some of my ancestors) are in a different boat. But if you want to coopt the Irish shamrock for your server software, it is still in bad taste if you have nothing to do with Eire.

But because the English did not eliminate the Irish, barely, they get to set the agenda. There are not so many romantic descriptions of the potato famine. Some, but they are in very bad taste.

Put yourself in the shoes of people who are told that the story of their near genocide, is "romantic".

The ASF are starting to do the right thing, and we should be calling them the ASF too. I appreciate the difficulties they are going to have changing their name, but that needs to be done too.

We cannot live in peace together when we do not listen to each other, and when re romanticise others tragedy for our own careless reasons



> Eire

The name of the country in English is Ireland. The name of the country in Irish is Éire. Eire without the fada is not great in either language - in Irish it means burden, and in English it was used by the UK government and BBC for many years as they didn't want to acknowledge the actual name of the country for fear it would be seen as accepting sovereignty of Ireland over Northern Ireland.

I don't normally bother to correct people on this, but in the context of the argument you're making, it's a pretty poorly placed mistake.


> I don't normally bother to correct people on this, but in the context of the argument you're making, it's a pretty poorly placed mistake.

Touche, or touché


> Not you, or me

Then who? If two parts of the same party, with equal bonafides, have differing opinions then how is that resolved?

It will get weird, and stupid, very quickly. Either it will turn into some outrageous purity contest or lead to the removal of any multiculturalism - or basically what @jackbravo said here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40998946


> Then who? If two parts of the same party, with equal bonafides, have differing opinions then how is that resolved?

This is what being "grown up" is all about. Dealing with these fuzzy concepts.

There actually is not much difficulty, once you put your mind to it. ASF are just starting that journey

Here in Aotearoa we have been doing this for thirty years.




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