Author Topic: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language  (Read 4729 times)

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Offline Dakota Bob

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C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« on: December 14, 2013, 05:24:09 pm »
So the backstory is, this article appeared on the internets, disscusing the possibility of a "feminist" programming language.

So 4chan decides to engage in some jolly hijinks and develop C+=, the documentation containing such gems as:

Quote
No class hierarchy or other stigmata of OOP (objectification-oriented programming). In fact, as an intersectional acknowledgement of Class Struggle our language will have no classes at all.

Personally, I got a nice chuckle out of it, but it has rustled a few jimmies. the original documentation was hosted on GitHub, but was removed after complaints.

So, what do you think? is it offensive, or do you think they need to lighten up?

Offline Witchyjoshy

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2013, 07:06:11 pm »
I may be a feminist but I'm not female so I think I'll defer to people who actually might be affected by such a thing on this matter.

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Offline The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2013, 07:29:17 pm »
I don't find it offensive. The whole "feminist programming language" thing comes across as rather pretentious.
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Offline Sigmaleph

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2013, 07:32:22 pm »
The original article doesn't have a lot of merit, as far as I can tell. It makes the strong claim that current programming languages are in some way lacking in feminism, and then utterly fails to defend that claim*. The closest thing to an argument seems to be the idea that using object-oriented programming somehow has some sort of implication regarding subject-object theory, because, um, both have the word "object" in them I guess. I initially suspected parody, and I'm still not entirely sure it's not.

In other words, it has all the trappings of postmodern nonsense, and I firmly defend the right to mock postmodern nonsense. That being said, the way it's being mocked...

Quote
11. Programs are never to be "forked", as the word has clear misogynistic tendencies and is deeply problematic. Instead, programmers may never demand "forking", but ask for the program to voluntarily give permission. "Forking" will henceforth be called "consenting", and it is entirely up to the program to decide if the consent stands valid, regardless of the progress of the system clock.
12. Forced program termination is not allowed unless the program consents to it. The process is part of the choice of the program, not the programmer.

This sounds too much like "haha, those silly feminists and their obsession with 'consent'". It's not the only objectionable part, but it is the most egregious.


*Or, for that matter, acknowledge in any way that one might not find an obvious application of feminist theory to programming languages. The author does expand a bit after being questioned in the comments, but the arguments are hardly better.
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Offline Sleepy

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2013, 08:46:44 pm »
A "feminist" programming language is ridiculous. Pretty sure you shouldn't read into a language that much.
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Offline Murdin

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2013, 08:36:56 pm »
So much butthurt over the fact that GitHub deleted a piece of political satire from their source-sharing service. I find it quite ironic from an anti-feminist group to use a completely inappropriate support for their soapboxing - and then complain about censorship when they are legitimately shut down. Isn't that a feminist stereotype?

As far as the actual... piece of work... goes, its authors clearly tried to write a smart, polemical and thought-provoking satire of feminism in general, beyond the specific article that inspired its theme. As far as I'm concerned, most of the humor comes from trying to imagine how such a language would function, rather than how those crazy ideas for a programming language connect with the "crazy feminist ideas". The actual satirical elements are of the lowest and laziest kind, relying exclusively on ridicule, strawmanning and the occasional bit of sarcasm, only good to preach to the converted.

It doesn't even really make the effort to point out the ridiculousness of their arguments. It just... let them speak for themselves, which is admittedly enough to discredit them. The problem being of course that the whole thing relies entirely on a strawman, that their "feminist" opinions are in fact an extremely poor representation of what feminists actually think, and that many of them comes from typical SJW/libtard strawman talking points other than feminism. As a result, it makes the concept of feminism look only as inherently ridiculous as anti-racism, LGBT acceptance and rights, opposition to strict social hierarchy, wealth redistribution of any kind, and generally not being a narrow-minded, selfish, authoritarian dickwad. I doubt this was the intent of the satire.

It's also choke-full of incoherences. In the "Philosophy" section, C+= is established as a functional language, even though the very concept of functions is "feminized" as lobbying later on and then finally condemned outright. Exceptions are associated with "trigger warnings", that is, with objectionable material that should presumably be censored in stereotypical feminazi fashion... yet we are later told to "accept the program the way it is" and not debug it nor even catch the exceptions in the name of "free speech". The checking of privilege plays two unrelated roles in data typing and function execution. I don't think any of these are intentional "in-character" contradictions intended to make a satirical point.

Then you have those parts that are just plain shitty. Not shitty as in shitty satire. Shitty as in shitty shit written by shitty people. Sigmaleph already pointed out the trivialization of rape, but even that is technically arguable ; perhaps the aspiring satirists suddenly remembered they were supposed to parody a specific article rather than attack dem evul feminazis and used sexual consent as an exemple of a legitimate concept transposed into an illegitimate context. The transphobia, however, is NOT arguable. The section titled "On 1s and 0s" mocks the very idea that gender and sex are not a binary in the absolute strictest meaning of the term.

In a few occasions, the satire does actually take on some actual transgressions commonly found in serious, modern, mainstream feminist discourse. I won't go so far as to call it a "stopped clock", but the bad far outweighs the good.

Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2013, 08:58:22 pm »
People need to lighten the hell up...anyone with eyes and two brain cells to rub together can see its a blatantly obvious parody.  I'd be more likely to be offended by something like Fuck4.
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Offline Sigmaleph

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2013, 09:09:49 pm »
Of course it's obvious parody. Does that make any difference? Parody is not exempt from being criticised as lazy or in poor taste. Or just plain stupid.
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Offline Witchyjoshy

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2013, 11:04:12 pm »
Parody does not give you a free pass to spew hatred and bigotry in the name of "humor", in other words.
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Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2013, 12:40:46 pm »
This is true, but I was more referring to the people calling for its removal, or more accurately, censorship.  It might be in poor taste, but no one's got a right to censor things that offend one's sense of taste.

Besides, I thought it to be more a parody of extreme feminism, and not just regular, garden-variety feminism.
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Offline Dakota Bob

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2013, 02:00:17 pm »
Besides, I thought it to be more a parody of extreme feminism, and not just regular, garden-variety feminism.

That's how I took, more of a parody of Tumblr SJW's.

Offline Ironchew

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2013, 02:33:01 pm »
Quote
Feminist Software Foundation



EDIT: I approve of the Feminist Software Foundation license incorporating a trigger warning. So many people flip their shit over the GPL, and now I realize it's because the topic of proper licensing is a highly traumatic experience for some, and we should really check our privilege before slapping the GPL on virgin code.

EDIT 2: Forget it, I can't even compile in this language. Time to go back to Bash, where I can execute one-liners like this:

unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; umount; sleep; kill -stop ${_pid} # needed to stop quickly forking parent from producing child between child killing and parent killing
« Last Edit: December 16, 2013, 03:23:19 pm by Ironchew »
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Offline Witchyjoshy

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2013, 07:23:20 pm »
Besides, I thought it to be more a parody of extreme feminism, and not just regular, garden-variety feminism.

The problem I have is with the large amount of dudebros on the internet who refuse to believe there's a difference :/
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Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #13 on: December 16, 2013, 07:55:43 pm »
Besides, I thought it to be more a parody of extreme feminism, and not just regular, garden-variety feminism.

The problem I have is with the large amount of dudebros on the internet who refuse to believe there's a difference :/

Shouldn't our attentions, then, be directed towards them, the actual problem, rather than something that is, at most, tangentially related?
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Offline Witchyjoshy

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Re: C Plus Equality, the parody programming language
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2013, 08:04:56 pm »
Besides, I thought it to be more a parody of extreme feminism, and not just regular, garden-variety feminism.

The problem I have is with the large amount of dudebros on the internet who refuse to believe there's a difference :/

Shouldn't our attentions, then, be directed towards them, the actual problem, rather than something that is, at most, tangentially related?

That's the thing... this "feminist programming language" feels like it was made by those dudebros :/
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