I didn't know about the memes and Twitter jokes. Even after that post, people still try to blame him.
I’m pretty sure this situation will convince some developers to instantly stop maintaining their OSS projects - and the world deserves it.
I would understand some criticism or not politely worded bug reports (especially from young users), but hatred... All of this filth... Today I’ve been disappointed in developers a lot.
I really wish Denis to stop maintaining core-js and find a real job. Haters will get what they were fighting for, his family will get the money.
There are few positions more level-headed than “war bad, but bombing civilians also bad”.
Can you consider that neither Putin nor Zelensky are good people?
> The fighting continued, the civilians were dying, children as well as adults. OSCE statistics (2017-2020) showed that the number of civilian deaths in the occupied territories was almost twice as high as in the unoccupied territories. Another independent report from the International Crisis Group gives the following explanation: “The higher civilian casualty rate in non-government-controlled areas is due to the fact that these places are more urban and populous[…] Together, the numbers suggest that neither side is trying to hit civilians but also that combatants are not doing all they can to avoid collateral damage.”
> The death of the children should be addressed separately. “Why were you silent for eight years while children were killed in Donbas?” sounds as if Ukrainian army is shelling children. But OSCE suggest other causes of death: 87% of boys died because of being careless with explosives. In this context, the International Crisis Group also recalls Russian propaganda, for example, when “they announced that a Ukrainian drone strike had killed a five-year-old boy in a Donetsk suburb. In fact, the boy had died some 15km from the front, out of the Ukrainian drones’ range, possibly by setting off an unexploded shell he found in his yard.”
> According to the OSCE, mines and other unexploded armaments are the second most common cause of civilian casualties in Donbas after shelling with heavy weapons. The international crisis group criticizes Russian militants in this context: “Meanwhile, de facto officials tend to be unwilling to admit that shooting from positions in areas like the Donetsk suburbs can provoke return fire and lead to civilian deaths. They have baulked at suggestions that they move their troops to keep locals out of the line of fire.” The shelling from residential areas of the occupied territories was also reported by Bellingcat. On the other hand, the International Crisis Group blames Ukraine as well: “Public figures in government-controlled Ukraine sometimes overlook or minimise the problem of civilian casualties from live fire. Losses among civilians frequently do not make it into Ukrainian news reports, partly due to journalists’ lack of access to reliable sources in areas across the line; media tends to focus on the heroism of government troops.” It is possibly the only argument in favor of “eight years of silence” claim.
https://rpr.org.ua/en/news/eight-years-deconstructing-the-mo...
If you look at the casualty figures, the civilian deaths have been around two dozen per year for the last few years; half of those have been from mines and such. About half the remainder have been from active hostilities, e.g. shelling. Russia didn't start this war over six civilians a year dying from shelling in Donbas.
Still, all the hatred and memes appeared _before_ the war, so it is an example for other OSS developers of what they will get for their hard work.
Again, I didn't mean that people hate him only because he is Russian. I meant that weak people will use every excuse they can find to blame him. Nationality, felony, bad accent, even his quotes about the war - all of that was not so important when people decided to use his work, but all of that they use now to bark with the pack.
Is that verifiable? Because...
> In November 2019, Denis Pushkarev, maintainer of the popular core-js library, lost an appeal to overturn an 18-month prison sentence imposed for driving his motorcycle into two pedestrians, killing one of them.
https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/26/corejs_maintainer_jai...
Unfortunately Russia judiciary system is far from ideal and fair but better to trust that system than to take his word as truth.
What? Why would that be better? Absent more information I'd rather assume innocence until proven guilty.
While I certainly don't know any specifics about what things are like in Russia, I suspect this is not so different from most other countries in the world. Here in America, children are made to pledge their allegiance to the flag of the US every morning with a hand over their heart. This is before they have any concept of what the words "pledge" and "allegiance" even mean.
Second, make sure that you are not engaged in a textbook case of whataboutism[0]. Then please tell me what you think of our conversation, concerning these two topics. Thank you!
As an aside, I personally consider dismissing points as whataboutism to be an overly and unjustly used deflection in discussions. It's an easy word to throw around when meaningful hypocrisy is called out, for example. Or in the case when the argument itself specifically is about the non-exceptional nature of something, as in the current case. I would also remind you that it was you who had specifically requested examples of similar behaviors in the US. Dismissing the response as whataboutism when you specifically asked for it is a bit unfair.
In the end, I don't have strong opinions or insights to share on this subject. I just wanted to voice my issue with the characterization of my reply as whataboutism, but that itself is a tangential topic on a tangential topic of a tangential topic, so the discussion isn't really worth furthering here.