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Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

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561–570 of 943 posts

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may have good intentions, but they lack respect for established norms, and spend little time thinking about the function and purpose of those norms. They kick over Chesterton's fence and assume it was there because Chesterton was some sort -ist: https://fs.blog/2020/03/chestertons-fence/

That is what revolutions are about, no?

Only some revolutions involve unfocused rage at existing norms, and they’re usually bad ones (like the French Revolution).

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it was no vague anonymous - he once hit on me - lynch mob, but very concrete criticism of RMS. Things he said and did in the past - and in the present. (only thing would be, that his "voluntary resign" was obviously done with a lot of pressure)

one of those criticisms as a i recall was 'he had a mattress in his office' as if this suggested something untoward rather than him sleeping in his office

No. If you go back and look at that accusation, it was that he was propositioning people for sex in the halls of MIT, AND he had a mattress in his office.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#563
post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> willingly resigned from his position at the FSF because of it. I don't think willingly is the best way to put it. It was more along the lines that he was told there would be consequences and he could avoid them if he resigned.

It's possible this is true, although I personally suspect if he was willing to put out a statement that said something like (paraphrasing) "I did a dumb thing, I'm sorry, I now understand why rape is bad, and I'll work on being better about understanding why these types of things are bad" he would have kept the position. However, even if I'm wrong, and he really was forced to resign, I don't think it detracts that mu…

He could write out an exact description of what he said and what he has changed his views on, but I doubt people who has seen the media characterization of his comments would be made any happier.

He could say "I previous thought the word sexual assault meant the word assault added a qualifier that required the application of force or violence, but I now know that the word assault in this case mean a legal definition that also includes negligent to seek consent and absent of intent to cause harm.". Would that change the media perception?

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you say this?

So, there’s a bit of a history of Stallman botching GNU leadership. The organization has grown to the scale where it requires a different skill set to lead than the skill set he has. It’s clear he has a vision for the GNU software, but the development process itself is chaotic and needs more central guidance on a policy/process level—but he tries to lead it on a more technical/maintainer level. One example is the gli…

Maybe the practical effect of him giving up leadership on the GNU Project would be actually "better" than giving up leadership on the FSF - I even doubt there was anything better (beyond a form of realpolitik "damage" control) that happened when he left the FSF. The way he leads the GNU Project has been disputed numerous times. But the attempts of some to leverage the FSF departure to make him go away from the GNU Project were distasteful.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get this. "You should abandon any other ideals you have when working for our ideological project."

Basic compartmentalization. If i have ideological goals A, B, C, then i can work on goal A with people who are indifferent or against B, C, and also work on goal B with people who are indifferent or against A, C, instead of trying to find people in intersection of A, B, C.

I doubt people can compartmentalize things that are in vehement disagreement with their core values.

Would Stallman work on implementing a DRM?

And not in this case, but what about someone denying the other’s existence? Actively supporting groups that work on restricting someone’s basic rights? (Mozilla with Eich)

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#566

Mob justice is not OK just because women do it. If these women have anything substantial they should make formal reports/complaints, not anonymous vogue statements like, "he make me feel uncomfortable". Cannot believe that one even has to say this. Why are women always presumed to be innocent and men always presumed to be guilty? Also, frankly, there is a point at which, certain behaviour might make you feel uncomfor…

This was not mob justice. There was decades of poor behavior here, he wasn't pushed out because of this singular event.

https://medium.com/@thomas.bushnell/a-reflection-on-the-depa...

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how this is relevant _at all_ to the linked article. You seem to be taking existing arguments that aren't even related to RMS's case and arguing against a strawman of an extreme version of them. No "mob justice" happened here. No women came forward and said RMS "hit on them" or whatever. RMS faced criticism for comments which justified rape and were close to victim blaming, and willingly resigned from his…

Don't rewrite history, main reason Richard was pushed out was a MeToo/racism witch hunt against him. He was not the only one attacked on it, most heads of open source projects were also a target at the same time.

Honestly I think they went after Stallman because he is a prominent figure and at the same time white, male and not exactly in his twenties.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it was no vague anonymous - he once hit on me - lynch mob, but very concrete criticism of RMS. Things he said and did in the past - and in the present. (only thing would be, that his "voluntary resign" was obviously done with a lot of pressure)

one of those criticisms as a i recall was 'he had a mattress in his office' as if this suggested something untoward rather than him sleeping in his office

Well, but in combination with the sign on his office" Knight for Justice (and hot ladies)" and other remarks he did - you maybe see, why some people might get another idea?

And why women feel uncomfortable around such a men? And why it therefore might be a bad idea to have such a person in a leadership position?

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ribbonfarm called this a couple years ago: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/03/06/a-quick-battle-field-g... Specifically battlefront #8. He calls it consequential because the the neurodivergent/PC conflict highlights an inherent paradox in the PC worldview. Most applications of political correctness focus (at least on the surface) on defending a marginalized group against the verbal attacks of a privileged one. When a…

Some of this is good but I don't understand what China on the map has to do with anything. It also isn't mentioned in the article at all... I'm pretty sure China cares little about American political correctness wars.

China likes to portray America as a racist country (see the fourth installment of the comically overt propaganda series Ip Man on Netflix), but beyond that I’m not sure.

Re: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF

#570
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wh...a. Transitioning fixed your social cue perception?! That is incredibly fascinating. I'm not even sure how to classify that... pragmatic psychological function (oookay that's probably not a thing), neurobiology, or what else. IMO this is a gigantic breadcrumb for Something™. The question is what the axis point was, and what got fixed as a result. Cooool. I am very curious what else shifted that you'd be happy to…

Autistic MtF programmers is something that happens enough to be a trope, joke or meme.

Also, frankly, many of them happen to be bloody brilliant, seemingly much moreso than average.
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