We Need to Have a Talk about Cultural Shiboleths

Over the last few months, a new term of endearment has been floating around the net: "fossbro". As it says in the Book of Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. As I age, that statement seems more and more true. Indeed, fossbro has antecedents. In 2007 or so, the equivalent term being bandied about was "freetard". This sounds like something that came from one of the chans, and it probably did. It didn't stay there. I encountered it in the #archlinux channel on IRC. It's not socially acceptable to make up portmanteaus ending in -tard, but it is socially acceptable to invent portmanteaus ending in -bro and to use them as cultural shiboleths or weapons to attack strawmen. Fossbro is the new freetard, and if that assertion makes you uncomfortable, it should.

I'm a weirdo, an outsider, a freak, and I don't like these shiboleths. In parting, if you want to understand people like me, I strongly suggest reading Meredith L. Patterson's excellent piece: When Nerds Collide. You can read it on Medium, but if you'd prefer plain text served over Gemini, I have an archived copy.

When Nerds Collide (HTTP link to medium.com)

Archived copy converted to plaintext by Chris Brannon, shared without permission