Re: Bug#283578: ITP: hot-babe -- erotic graphical system activitymonitor
Andrew Suffield <asuffield@debian.org> wrote:
> [...] freedom of expression constitutes one of the essential
> foundations of a democratic society and one of the basic conditions
> for its progress and each individual's self-fulfilment.
>
> [...] it is applicable not only to "information" or "ideas" that are
> favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of
> indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb. Such
> are the demands of pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness, without
> which there is no "democratic society".
>
Debian is not a democratic society. It is not intended to be a source of
all information known to man. It is supposed to be a project to produce
a Free operating system. That means:
a) Things that are not useful should not be in there
b) Things that are gratuitously insulting to a large number of people
should not be there unless they're fantastically useful
Having this argument over a program that is entirely useless in the
first place just makes it harder to have a proper discussion in the
cases where it actually matters.
Or, putting it another way: failing to include this piece of code does
Debian no demonstrable harm. Including it does. I know we have something
of a reputation for preferring philosophical masturbation to actually
doing the useful thing, but that shouldn't result in a several hundred
post flamewar. What are you all, stupid or something?
--
Matthew Garrett | mjg59-chiark.mail.debian.devel@srcf.ucam.org
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