Someone I know linked me to this mailing list archive thread:
https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2021-September/thread.html#30503
Seems like they're fucking around with timezone data, but he says it's mostly for muh diversity reasons, but I'm too stupid to follow this thread.
It looks like a sane person is trying to fork the modified time DB away into a separate project and leaving the original alone but I'm having a hard time following this entire thread. Anyone know of what's going on?
Way too complex to untangle from a mailing list thread. I can't tell if there are SJW motivations, but I see references to Kosovo and adopting European standards for all countries instead of keeping each country's timezone. Hopefully someone in the know can chime in.
All I know is, everything woke turns to shit.
This is a summary post of the issue written by who appears to be the main objector to the change. It concerns itself with what happens with time zone data prior to 1970, where some city/country specific timezone data was merged in a way that is
On the one hand it doesn't appear to be politically motivated, but on the other hand I don't think it's the sort of change a Norweigan nationalist would make for example.
I'll also say I don't entirely understand some programmers' obsession with making datasets smaller at the expense of accuracy in this modern age. Especially when the datasets are small to begin with. How many people are clamoring for a smaller time zone database?
I have read the threads and determined that there WAS significant political motivation in the patch that is being contended. It is apparent in the defenders' stances when discussing it, such as this one:
The opponents have stuck to technical issues in their opposition of the changes, but the defenders keep bringing up racism to argue for the changes. That's to be expected in the current political climate, only one side is allowed to attack while the other is required to meander about the margins without giving voice to the real problem.
The same person later warns that a fork better "satisfy equity, diversity, and inclusion concerns" as a parting threat.
Another choice quote from this character for the road.
This austere individual is deeply, deeply concerned about the fact that he has to defend this aweful racist mess of time zone information that biases sources that were written in researchable locations and archived for posterity. What about Kenya? What about Niger?!
His entire argument is that the non-existence of those sources makes the existence of 'white' sources racist for existing and taking up space in the database he heavily contributed to back when he was a blithering and blind white supremist haplessly promoting the master race with his vile contributions of facts related to calendars.
His big move was to 'streamline' the database by creating a new arbitrary metric for data inclusion and retroactively apply it to the entire set.
He smugly adds:
He's an egomaniac traipsing as a friend of the downtrodden savages he regretfully overlooked before.