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No. My response should be misconstrued as this.<br>
<br>
Political affiliations should have no bearing on your being involved
in a space--I am "centre-left" by Canadian standards (and probably
"pinko-commie" by American) just to inform you. What should be a
qualifier to your involvement in a space is laying out your
intentions on why you want to be a member. If you're there to create
and do cool shit, then you should be in; if you're there to further
your personal, political agenda, you shouldn't.<br>
<br>
As long as you're not spreading hate and making others
uncomfortable, politics should never play a role.<br>
<br>
VHS was asked by an IndyMedia clone to allow them to make use of the
space to work on their productions. We collectively said "no" and
the issue never came up again. We had to keep a neutral stance
during the Olympics while many of our members were being followed by
the RCMP and Vancouver Police due to their affiliation with
anti-games groups. Keeping VHS politics-free has been policy since
its inception six years ago and so far it has had success. We don't
try to do anything more than provide a space to do and make cool
shit.<br>
<br>
- Colin<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 03/07/2014 10:32, Al Billings wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:8B087D3A-C59D-486F-8036-F3D519EEBD5C@openbuddha.com"
type="cite">
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Is your space welcoming to people, regardless of personal politics
or do you have to be a specific kind of
lefty/socialist/anarchist/hippy/whatever in order to be welcome?
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I say this as a socialist but I don’t want there to be a
political litmus test on whether people are welcome in a space.
My space has members who, quietly on occasion, bitch about Obama
and his “agenda” with an eye roll from some other members. We
have a communist or two and probably more than a few anarchists.
Generally, I know someone for a year or more before I even
realize their personal politics. Why? Because we’re there to
hack, not to form a political party.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There are definitely spaces where this isn’t the case. If you
aren’t on board with the specific local politics (which are
usually a certain specific form of left leaning anarchism), you
are shunned pretty heavily and “don’t fit in.” I’d rather have a
Republican that wants to build a project from salvaged computers
than an anarchist that just wants to hang out in the kitchen
“food hacking.”</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Al</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<div>On Jul 3, 2014, at 10:28 AM, Randall G. Arnold <<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:randall.arnold@texrat.net">randall.arnold@texrat.net</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;
font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight:
normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal;
orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">I
disagree when you frame that as an absolute. Sure, there
CAN be negative outcomes when a maker/hacker space or
organization has fixing societal problems as a goal, but
it ain't necessarily so. It all comes down to defining
the goal(s), having people to support them and for members
with different goals to be respectful of each other and
not get in each other's way.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;
font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight:
normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal;
orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;
font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight:
normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal;
orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">If as
a makerspace member I put together a special interest
group that builds remote wildlife monitoring stations for
helping horned lizard conservation, and I don't disrupt
anyone else in the process, then I'm positively hacking
the planet and no one gets hurt. Win-win.</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<div apple-content-edited="true">
Al Billings<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:albill@openbuddha.com">albill@openbuddha.com</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://makehacklearn.org">http://makehacklearn.org</a>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
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