The Tech Bullies vs. Raspberry Pi

The mob of Tech Bullies has chosen a new target this week.

We need to have a serious discussion about bullying within the computer nerd world. Because it has gotten absolutely way out of hand.

Case in point: The mass bullying campaign that is currently being waged against, of all organizations, Raspberry Pi. The adorable little ARM-based, single-board computers that took the Linux, Maker, and computer nerd worlds by storm back in 2012.

While this is certainly not the only example of bullying happening within Computer Nerd-dom, it is the most recent. And it has been both brutal and cruel. So we’re going to talk about it.

Note: The Lunduke Journal generally avoids politics. I like to keep political topics elsewhere in order to allow this to be a place where nerds — of all political leanings — can enjoy the nerdy things we all love. What follows is not about politics. It is about bullying and cruelty. The Lunduke Journal won’t stand for that… no matter where it comes from.

Raspberry Pi hired a guy

It all started on Thursday, December 8th, when Raspberry Pi announced that they had hired a new “Maker in Residence” by the name of Toby Roberts.

This is Toby. He’s holding a light saber. A very rad looking light saber.

Toby, their new “Maker in Residence” has a pretty amazing list of builds to his credit. From his own 3D Printer (which he built from scratch and named “Krane”) to an Arc Reactor with an infinity mirror. He even makes chocolates, using custom moulds, that look like scale replicas of Raspberry Pi Pico’s.

He doesn’t just us 3D printers. He made his own.

All of which, obviously, makes the man highly qualified for his new “Maker” job.

The guy they hired used to be a police officer

But that’s not what the bullies of the tech world are using to attack Raspberry Pi… they’re focusing on the fact that Toby… used to be a police officer.

“We hired a policeman and it’s going really great. Meet our Maker in Residence.”

What did he do as a police officer? Well here are the details according to the hiring announcement:

“I used to be a police officer tackling serious organised crime and terror threats across the east of the UK,” Toby tells us. “I was a Technical Surveillance Officer for 15 years, so I built stuff to hide video, audio, and other covert gear. You really don’t want your sensitive police equipment discovered, so I’d disguise it as something else. The variety of tools and equipment I used then really shaped what I do today.”

So, in short, Toby Roberts is a super nerd that used his extreme nerdiness to help fight organized crime and terrorists.

The bullies begin to bully

Because of that… the bullies of the Tech world pounced.

The stream of posts, throughout social media, was cruel, vulgar, and intended (clearly) to cause harm. Here is a quick sampling from Twitter. Doing any of a number of searches (such as “raspbery pi acab”) will result a steady stream of vulgarity, threats, violence, hate, and general bullying against the Raspberry Pi organization and the specific individuals within it.

“ACAB”, for those unfamiliar, stands for “All Cops are Bas…[CENSORED]”. (We don’t say that word here… profanity is not allowed on The Lunduke Journal. But you can probably figure it out.)

It goes on and on and on. Try different searches of various swear words — and other derogatory or threatening terminology — and you’ll find page after page of bullies intent on causing harm and inflicting pain. Both physical and emotional.

The bullying was even more cruel and vulgar over on the Mastodon federated social network. Profane, vile, and downright… dark. Feel free to search it out… but prepare yourself for some disturbing stuff being posted by bullies on that social network.

The bullying got worse…

In a brief interview with Buzzfeed, Liz Upton (co-founder of Raspberry Pi), told Buzzfeed that both the new hire, and their social media person, had been doxxed and received death threats.

From Upton during that interview: “I think what we’re looking at is a dogpile that’s being organized somewhere. There’s obviously a Discord or a forum somewhere. I don’t think this is organic, but it’s very unpleasant, and extraordinarily unpleasant for the people involved.”

Doxxing, death threats, violence, vulgarity… just the worst aspects of humanity. All being thrown, by a (mostly anonymous) group of online bullies, at Raspberry Pi… and the human beings working for the company.

This is not an isolated incident

What makes this all even more terrible, is that this isn’t the only example of extreme bullying to happen within the Tech World. Not by a long-shot.

Prominent software developers, executives, journalists, and others have been regularly attacked by bullies. Oftentimes mobs of bullies. In fact, it happens so often, we have become mostly blind to it.

If The Lunduke Journal dedicated itself to writing articles detailing the public bullying of people within the Linux and Open Source world alone… that would become the only topic you would find here. Every day would be a new story of bullying. Some big, some small. But each one… very wrong.

We must shame the bullies

If you spend time watching round after round of bullying in the Tech world… you’ll notice some distinct patterns. Patterns in the topics. Patterns in the tactics. And, perhaps most importantly of all, patterns in the bullies themselves.

That’s right. It is, more or less, the same people who are out there bullying other nerds. Over and over again. On different topics. Directed at different people. But, so often, it is the same bullies.

Nerds. Bullying other nerds. Over and over again.

That bothers me on a distinctly personal level.

As a kid, I was a lanky, pasty, nerdy little guy. With glasses. And a worn-out Ewok T-Shirt.

Like so many of you… I was bullied. Regularly. Brutally. And it sucked.

You know who is not supposed to be bullying nerds? Other nerds.

Sure. Many of us have our differences. But we’re all nerds. We can disagree. We can argue. But bully?! That’s just not acceptable.

We need to call out our fellow nerds when they engage in this behavior… when they bully others. These bullies need to be shamed.

These bullies need to feel deep, deep shame for the harm they inflict on others. Maybe that will get them to stop the bullying. Shame can be a powerful tool in helping people learn how to behave properly and kindly towards others. When someone does something cruel (like bullying) feeling shame should be a natural response.

In the meantime…

Will those bullies attack me for writing this?

Of course they will.

It won’t be the first time. And it won’t be the last. Better them attack me than attack someone else.

Do I expect this article to cause any bullies to actually stop their senseless, cruel bullying? Who knows. But it’s worth a shot. Heck, maybe if enough of us speak out against all of this… maybe then… just maybe… some will stop.

Side note: Let’s not make this political

There are (multiple) very real discussions, related to this particular incident, that veer deeply into the political realm.

I’d like to request that we avoid those political topics here on The Lunduke Journal. If you’d like to talk about the political aspects over on other sites, that is totally fine. But this really and truly is all about bullying. Let’s focus on that.

Remember the three core rules of The Lunduke Journal:

1. No cursin’ or swearin’.

2. No politics.

3. Be Excellent to Each Other.

Keep those in mind when posting in follow-up comments on this.