My elementary school education happened during that Web 2.0 push for "one device per child" and teaching computer literacy early. In second grade, I had a computer lab class. In third grade, we were taught touch-typing. By fourth grade, we were each given a laptop that was ours to use throughout the rest of our time at the school. I'm immensely grateful for that education, and the things I learned during that time I continue to use to this day.
One of the things that they taught us in that time was the idea of the "online footprint". Essentially, it meant "don't say stupid shit on social media thinking your classmates/grandma/future-employer won't see it". It's the idea that the things you post online are there forever, and can come back to haunt you. Unfortunately, people seem to disregard that advice nowadays, perhaps partly because of just how much stuff seems to disappear from the Internet. The idea of "the Internet being permanent" doesn't quite hold up in the days of "lost media searches" and websites shutting down without warning.
Maybe people should pay more attention to their online footprint.
In a random Internet conversation I had the other day, another person mentioned how they disliked Jeff Geerling's politics. I had only known him from his YouTube videos, and had never found them to be particularly political, so I asked what the person meant. Turns out, Jeff's blog can be quite different from his YouTube channel.
He has made many posts, some dating back as far as 2009. They discuss, of course, his usual antics with the Raspberry Pi, precision time, and Linux, but he also posts about being a devout Catholic, as well as politics.
The person sent a page linking to some of Jeff's more... questionable blog posts.
In 2011, Jeff wrote a blog post entitled "The Exodus App – Pulled from App Store for being 'Gay Cure'" where he made the following statement regarding gay people:
Is this really the position you have, Jeff?
Implying that gay people "acting on homosexual tendencies" is a bad thing, is disappointing to say the least. On top of that, arguing that a religious position should be heard at an equal level to a scientific fact is, frankly, absurd.
That blog post is 15 years old, now. I'm certain that at this point, visiting the page would redirect to a remorseful apology, explaining how he was mistaken and has grown as a person... right?
The article is still up, under a slightly changed URL.
In 2009, Jeff wrote a blog post entitled "Abortion: What About Rape, Incest, etc.?", making the following statement about abortion:
He is positioning himself (and the Catholic Church) as arbiters of morality, and also as a person (I was unaware that anybody actually held this view) opposed artificial contraception? Not artificial conception (IVF, ICI, etc), but artificial contraception (condoms, IUDs, COCP). He then cites the Catholic Church's position against abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, or when the health of the mother is endangered.
It is incredibly disappointing that he takes this position, but surely this article has been replaced with some kind of apology or remorse by now... right? Nope.
He has taken this article down entirely.
But this might all be okay if these were personal choices that he were making for himself. If he chose not to use birth control or to have an abortion, that would be his own personal choice to make.
In 2012, Jeff wrote a blog post entitled "HHS Mandate - Why Birth Control?", in which he derides the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for providing free birth control (or has he puts it, "artificial contraception").
He also states that birth control is used to let specifically women have sex "without consequences" and that he is "opposed to paying for other people's sexual gratification".
The fact that he blames women in this situation reveals quite a bit about how he sees women in general. He then states that he opposes his taxes being used for birth control, making this no longer about his own personal choices, but about how he wants them to be forced upon others.
He also frames birth control as "drugs that encourage promiscuity", as if people only use birth control for the purposes of being promiscuous.
Birth control has many uses, such as stabilizing a menstrual cycle, acne treatment, or even cancer risk reduction.
This article is STILL POSTED TO HIS WEBSITE.
That same year, Jeff wrote a blog post entitled "Obama's HHS 'Concession' is no concession at all", where he accuses the government paying for birth control to be a violation of his religious rights.
How he came to this conclusion... I do not know. For someone so seemingly intelligent, it's astounding that he came to the idea that "the Catholic Church can force the government to stop paying for literally anything it opposes", and not realize that that itself is the true violation of the separation of church and state.
This, too, is STILL POSTED TO HIS WEBSITE.
He then, in another post (still up), encouraged his readers to financially contribute to a lawsuit against the government-provided contraception.
Maybe he believes that his tracks (pun intended) are covered by the banner he adds to his older posts:
Well if he claims not to delete posts, then I find his deletion of one of his most egregious posts to be questionable. It is not as though he has forgotten about the remaining posts, either. He continues to respond to comments left on them.
I really enjoyed watching his videos, and it was incredibly saddening to see this side of somebody who I had watched for years. Unfortunately, I really can't look at him the same way anymore.
To be clear, I am not judging him for being a Cathoic, as (despite what Jeff believes), I am friends with Catholics who accept gay people for who they are, understand that abortion is a personal choice, and who don't object to... condoms? Jeff Geerling specifically has revealed himself to be a bigoted person without remorse, and for that I am disappointed.
I do believe that people can grow and change over time, and I don't want to be the kind of person to "cancel someone forever over a thing they did in 2012". The problem is that instead of taking it down and apologizing, he adds a little banner and removes only his most egregious post.
Do better, Jeff.