Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

In Defense of Richard Stallman

geoff.greer.fm

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 681 posts

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#241

Post by virgilp »

CathedralBorrow wrote: post #202
coldtea wrote: post #76

Diversity -- but no diversity of opinion... Inclusiveness -- but let's ostracize the non-conforming aspie... Fairness -- but let's fire people or make them resign from unrelated positions for their personal opinions, because obviously all of a person's life should serve as a big PR, and god forbid they don't play the role 24/7. Someone might call them for it on Twitter, and what could their employee/organization do o…

I'll speak up: I'm happy that Stallman resigned from his positions, but the final straw for me was the surfacing of Stallman's pedophilic musings over the years. You left that part out.

Actually, no, he didn't - he lead with it.

> Diversity -- but no diversity of opinion...

Is there any sort of evidence of action? Him having had sex with children?

If anything, it's you who left out the part where Stallman already said, before this incindent, that he was wrong. I.e. he said it because he actually changed his mind and believes he was wrong, not in order to "save face" or clear his image or avoid scandal or whatnot.

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#243

Post by sascha_sl »

brain5ide wrote: post #33
kolektiv wrote: post #18

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…

Would you be willing to provide a few links to those stories over the years? I never knew enough about his personal behavior to judge that and have no idea how to search for it.

my last comment is a good jumping off point

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21113873

I might have to add a bunch of sources since we seem to have a lot of people in denial. The responses to the Medium article are... not nice.

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#244

Post by [deleted] »

toxik wrote: post #45

Humanity is converging on ideological monoculture. There is one correct way to think, and if you're dumb enough to step outside of those bounds, people _will_ come after you, and destroy whatever you have. One comment here even suggested that RMS is a rapist in so many words, really? I submit that you cannot have innovation without inconvenient characters. You must allow a plurality of ideas and ideals to exist, even…

[deleted]

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#245

Post by sgt »

CathedralBorrow wrote: post #209
meerita wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the mail from Stallman and I couldn't believe people forced him to resign just because he stated that 1 it is not clear assault 2, he don't disbelieve his colleague had sex. BTW: I have also suffered the tough, complicated, unstable and rare personality of Stallman. Not for that I want to see him dead but like everyone else, when he has been unrespectful with me, I let him know. Everyone who knows Stallman…

Well there were also those posts about having sex with children sometimes being quite fine. Edit: The downvotes are interesting given that this is how Stallman himself characterized those posts: "Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it."

Not trying to be pedantic, but we're not exactly talking about children here.

I believe the girl was 17 and probably gave the impression (when put in a group with other girls) to be older.

And 17 is not illegal in most countries, so morally that age by itself is and should not be a major issue.

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#246

Post by ourlordcaffeine »

loktarogar wrote: post #191
ourlordcaffeine wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society: "We must embrace neuro-diversiry" Midly Autistic, not-good-looking man: Shows signs of autism Society: "No! Not like that! Kill it! Kill it!"

Autism isn't a catch-all excuse for his behaviour and using it as one spits in the face of people with autism who face the same challenges and work hard to improve. Stallman didn't care.

My comment is as much a general observation as it is a specific one, because unfortunately I have seen this before.

People, even many of the ones advocating for inclusivity, are extremely unforgiving of autistic traits and will dogpile on any social faux-pass accidentally made.

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#247

Post by bariswheel »

kolektiv wrote: post #18

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…

You're spectacularly misguided and wrong.

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#248

Post by lexs »

blowski wrote: post #85
sergiosgc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Agreed. If Stallman was a charming, charismatic, handsome guy with a square jaw and good hair the whole conversation would probably have a different lens placed on it.

Are you applying the incel meme of the chad and virgin here? Quite disgusting honestly...

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#249

Post by [deleted] »

DanBC wrote: post #213
toxik wrote: post #45

Humanity is converging on ideological monoculture. There is one correct way to think, and if you're dumb enough to step outside of those bounds, people _will_ come after you, and destroy whatever you have. One comment here even suggested that RMS is a rapist in so many words, really? I submit that you cannot have innovation without inconvenient characters. You must allow a plurality of ideas and ideals to exist, even…

> There is one correct way to think, Yes, when it comes to "is raping children okay?" there is only one way to think - "No, raping children is not okay".

[deleted]

Re: In Defense of Richard Stallman

#250

Post by lettergram »

CathedralBorrow wrote: post #202
coldtea wrote: post #76

Diversity -- but no diversity of opinion... Inclusiveness -- but let's ostracize the non-conforming aspie... Fairness -- but let's fire people or make them resign from unrelated positions for their personal opinions, because obviously all of a person's life should serve as a big PR, and god forbid they don't play the role 24/7. Someone might call them for it on Twitter, and what could their employee/organization do o…

I'll speak up: I'm happy that Stallman resigned from his positions, but the final straw for me was the surfacing of Stallman's pedophilic musings over the years. You left that part out.

Please provide a link. I’ve seen this repeated, but no source. I don’t necessarily doubt it, but if you don’t provide a link your basically committing slander.
Post reply on HN