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Re: Is missing SysV-init support a bug?



Cameron Norman <camerontnorman@gmail.com> writes:

> Those reading so much into such a small and understandable
> capitalization mistake (SystemV -> SystemD) should learn to take
> themselves less seriously and view things from different perspectives.

You will find that when you point out the correct spelling to those who
use this one, the response is not "oh, whoops," like it would be for a
mistake.  Rather, it's usually a rant of surprising vitriol, a bunch of
bizarrely constructed justifications for why their spelling is correct,
and an insistence on continuing to use it.  You can see that happen on
this very thread.

That means "mistake" is clearly not the correct term.

I find the correct term a bit mysterious, partly because I don't
understand the impulse, but I suspect it's much closer to "dog-whistle"
[1] or "tribal marker" than "mistake."

The reactions of others is not about the spelling difference, which is
obviously trivial.  It's about the refusal to change, the insistence on
mislabeling something, and the surprising anger and oddly twisted defenses
that ensue afterwards, making it clear that this is a marker of something
much deeper and much darker than just a trivial mistake.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics for those
    unfamiliar with this term.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>


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