61–70 of 681 posts
Instead, I’ll make a point that should concern anyone who actually cares about Free Software and not dragging it into the culture war: the article claims Free Software has a bus factor of one (or possibly zero now). That had better not be the case. And if it is the case, now is the time to do something about it.
Our culture has made a very bright line decision that sex with minors is unacceptable. Expressing doubt about this cultural norm, or especially advocating against it, is considered unacceptable. Of course one can argue with the merits of those two facts, but they are plainly true and fairly widely accepted. The very concept of statutory rape reinforces how clear this judgment is. The reference to "statutory" means th…
Exactly. There's no need to pretend, as some other comments in here are doing, that he's being hauled off by some sort of cultural police force.
> He held his positions at MIT, GNU, and the FSF for over thirty years, and in that time nobody accused him of coercion, unwanted touching, or verbal harassment. The author missed the point of the Me Too movement. Lot of other powerful people were not publicly accused for decades because they were powerful and could easily silence their accusers.
this is certainly not the case for Stallman, as proven by the continuous stream of angry criticism that he has been receiving from many people through the years. It does not seem that RMS held any real power over anybody (except maybe for the handful of FSF employees). The fact that this criticism, which has already existed openly, has had a real effect on the FSF and MIT is obviously due to pressures from higher-ups, not from twitter pawns.
> They focused on his tone deaf communication style and awkward demeanor. They spoke of behavior from decades ago and pointed out the fact that he had a mattress in his office. It wasn't just awkward demeanor. He actively made women feel unwelcome in the workplace and behaved unprofessionally over and over again. > He held his positions at MIT, GNU, and the FSF for over thirty years, and in that time nobody accused h…
I hope people thinking like above, or sad finger-pointers like the ones writing the articles, are removed from the tech industry...
That was sarcasm, because apparently in 2019 that's an acceptable thing to say with a straight face.
> They focused on his tone deaf communication style and awkward demeanor. They spoke of behavior from decades ago and pointed out the fact that he had a mattress in his office. It wasn't just awkward demeanor. He actively made women feel unwelcome in the workplace and behaved unprofessionally over and over again. > He held his positions at MIT, GNU, and the FSF for over thirty years, and in that time nobody accused h…
Please elaborate?
Just because some people made Stallman out to be worse doesn't mean his position wasn't still bad. This issue has been debated ad nauseum so I won't go into details.
Instead I think it's more interesting to talk about the author's proposition that the open source movement wouldn't be as successful as it is without Stallman. And with this I strongly disagree. I don't think we ever got the vision of open source stallman wanted. We didn't end up with a thriving open source environment. We ended up with something that hackers contribute to in their spare time, with corporations benefiting immensely and giving back pennies. I know some people feel inspired by Stallman and the things he wrote. But honestly, his main ideas like being wary of walled-gardens are things that someone or another would've mentioned.
He was interesting, but I don't think was someone that was crucial for many of the benefits we have today. And I want to emphasize that this isn't a slight against him. I just mean that the stuff he's done isn't enough to excuse his terrible behavior. Like washington founded america so his greatness still burns bright even with his actions on slavery. Columbus on the other hand doesn't deserve the accolades he got especially in light of the horrible things he did even if he did discover the new land.
No, they were not "technically correct." Neither Stallman nor the author of this post are experts on sexual assault, and neither has the requisite knowledge to even judge whether the statements were technically correct or not. If people are too lazy to learn about an issue in some depth, they should just shut up and listen to the experts. And if they don't want to listen to the experts, they should at least study the issue in some depth. I'm sure neither Stallman nor the author of this post would be as forgiving towards equally clueless, equally stupid comments made about programming by people who have no clear idea of what it is.
Also, the problem with making those comments, correct or otherwise, wasn't one of tact. That the author and Stallman don't understand the actual, direct, real harm in an authority figure making such comments in a public workplace forum could be either due to innocent ignorance or willful ignorance, but it is ignorance. And if, in the case of Stallman, he continues to cause this harm after being warned, and doesn't wish to apologize, and this comes after decades of inappropriate workplace behavior, then a sane world would show him the door.
In any event, like a lawyer who doesn't know the law, the author doesn't address, nor seem to understand, the issue at the heart of the matter, and puts himself in the same position of ignorance as Stallman. And so the post isn't so much a defense as it is yet another diatribe on how weird, confusing and even unfair certain subjects can seem to people who don't understand them nor really wish to. Thank you, but we know that. Stallman, or anyone for that matter, deserves better than this Rudy Giuliani "defense."
> They focused on his tone deaf communication style and awkward demeanor. They spoke of behavior from decades ago and pointed out the fact that he had a mattress in his office. It wasn't just awkward demeanor. He actively made women feel unwelcome in the workplace and behaved unprofessionally over and over again. > He held his positions at MIT, GNU, and the FSF for over thirty years, and in that time nobody accused h…
You are making me feel unwelcome on this forum and your comment is unprofessional.
> Yes, because of people like you, Geoff. When people like Stallm ....
It's because of people like you that allegations ruin people's life.
When there's nothing to prove, you are talking about what could have
> They focused on his tone deaf communication style and awkward demeanor. They spoke of behavior from decades ago and pointed out the fact that he had a mattress in his office. It wasn't just awkward demeanor. He actively made women feel unwelcome in the workplace and behaved unprofessionally over and over again. > He held his positions at MIT, GNU, and the FSF for over thirty years, and in that time nobody accused h…
> It wasn't just awkward demeanor. He actively made women feel unwelcome in the workplace and behaved unprofessionally over and over again. Every episode I read about fell into the category of "socially awkward adult male". If we can't, as a group, tolerate awkwardness, we are very much down the rabbit hole of mandatory social conformity. By all means, point me to a real abuse scenario by Stallman. I like being prove…
Sigh. No. It's not just about one incidence of some mistakenly pedantic comments, as has been made clear by many, many people. It's a pattern of behaviour over years combined with no interest in listening to other people or accepting that he might be in the wrong. His behaviour towards women in particular has resulted in a lot of people sharing stories of his behaviour which, on their own, should be enough for someon…
He worked in MIT for over 30 years, do share any evidence at all of the pattern you are referring to.