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Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

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Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#201

As a very liberal person, I have to say that I am disgusted by cancel culture. Disgusted. This is so harmful to society, and is a dark path that the left has taken in my country. To put it plainly, my political party has turned into whinny little people. People should lose their jobs over things like sexual or any type of harassment but when I read Stallman's actual comments last year, I thought that it was very clea…

As an also very liberal person, I'm mostly in favor of what we're calling "cancel culture," the broad weight of it \ I 100% believe to be a movement in the right direction.

That being said, there are people who are going too far, and this feels very much like that. I don't think people trying to oust RMS much appreciate the sheer weight of what they are up against, and that uphill fights like this are going to bring in "extremists" and just plain weirdos.

You're (at least at times) fighting literally the richest and most powerful people in the world, and only a tiny number of people even much understand what the whole thing is about, much less are on your side.

I'm a black person in tech, I'm well aware of both what it's like to have to deal with boorish powerful people, but I'm also close enough to older folks who've also been in real serious underdog type fights to understand that - you don't always get your choice of co-fighters when you're in the minority -- at the risk of being dramatic, it's darn near war.

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#202

As a very liberal person, I have to say that I am disgusted by cancel culture. Disgusted. This is so harmful to society, and is a dark path that the left has taken in my country. To put it plainly, my political party has turned into whinny little people. People should lose their jobs over things like sexual or any type of harassment but when I read Stallman's actual comments last year, I thought that it was very clea…

Same here Mark. Thanks for putting these words so nicely. I have also stopped using commercial social network like Twitter. People do not even know that their brains are being manipulated. And people who had nothing to do with Free Software and have not even read or written anything about Free Software are making slanderous comments about FSF and the movement in general. Pretty disgusting and I don't know where the west society is heading to. I am glad I don't live in the west. But left liberals are taking similar paths in this country too, so I guess it is not too long before we catch up with the rest of the world.

May be this is the easiest thing people can do?

What are some alternatives to Firefox on GNU/Linux?

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#203
post #181
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't sound very liberal to me.

He's not. https://mark-watson.blogspot.com/2016/01/i-will-not-vote-for...

I mean, you're technically correct in the sense that "liberal" and "leftist" have been erroneously conflated in American politics for some time. So yes, a "liberal" not voting for Clinton would be out of character.

A leftist not voting for Clinton, however, seems perfectly reasonable, considering that she is not even remotely leftist. She's a neoliberal, who ran on a neoliberal platform - one that would've made no meaningful effort to advance actual leftism in this country. It would've been, at best, appeasement.

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#204

As a very liberal person, I have to say that I am disgusted by cancel culture. Disgusted. This is so harmful to society, and is a dark path that the left has taken in my country. To put it plainly, my political party has turned into whinny little people. People should lose their jobs over things like sexual or any type of harassment but when I read Stallman's actual comments last year, I thought that it was very clea…

Same here Mark. Thanks for putting these words so nicely. I have also stopped using commercial social network like Twitter. People do not even know that their brains are being manipulated. And people who had nothing to do with Free Software and have not even read or written anything about Free Software are making slanderous comments about FSF and the movement in general. Pretty disgusting and I don't know where the w…

Very much agree wit that sentiment to stop using social media, but you are not going to escape 'manipulation' or political views from that.

I find your remark on 'where society is heading to' very odd. You say you don't live in the west so might not have a full picture, but overall I wouldn't see any negative trend. Some things are sometimes taken to an extreme, but I would prefer excess caution around sexual harassment over, say, a culture which treats women as sub-human, as less than men, or as the property of men, as is sadly still the case in far too many countries.

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

'Cancel culture' is a thing - it's been the subject of academic scrutiny, even by left-leaning professors and academics on how it affects movements within the left. And you're right, it isn't a uniquely 'leftist' thing. But purity politics (whether the predecessor or the underlying philosophy of how 'cancel culture' operates - regardless of whether it's a 'thing' or not) and moral grandstanding are serious topics of…

You are largely thinking about the US, which just seems to be more and more politically polarised. The 'cancel' part is not a feature of (left) activism though, it's a general feature of this polarisation - see e.g. the whole 'take a knee' controversy.

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#206
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Testimony happens in a court of law not on Twitter. Show us the testimony.

Legal testimony happens in a court of law. Testimony can happen anywhere. Religious testimony for instance. Or testimonial advertising.

Lol, thus you are saying testifying in church is 'evidence'.

Gotta love the mental gymnastics on HN sometimes.

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#207
Stop using Firefox( https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/the-firefox-brows... ) Firefox alternatives that use the same engine(Gecko): Palemoon - supports all old addons http://www.palemoon.org/ Waterfox - modern fork of Firefox without the spyware https://www.waterfox.net/ Librewolf - another fork closely following Firefox https://librewolf-community.gitlab.io/

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#208
post #168

Please read this to get another point of view on the calls to ostracize RMS. It has facts, quotes, and givies analysis from Nadine Strossen, former president of the ACLU. https://www.wetheweb.org/post/cancel-we-the-web

This makes me want to read Nadine Strossen's books. Interestingly "Defending Pornography" came out the same year Wendy McElroy's "XXX" did. ( http://www.wendymcelroy.com/xxx/ ) Interesting coincidence.

It’s sad how far the ACLU has fallen. Where they were once principled, with leaders like Nadine, they have instead turned into just another partisan activist organization. Their social media posts look like a college student’s overly-conformist and simplistic personal Twitter feed. I sadly ended up cancelling my donations after supporting them for years.

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#209

What did Stallman do specifically? Why is it always so hard to find out what someone actually said or did when they are being cancelled?

Can't help on what set people off, but those who value the truth collated a thorough debunking of the media smear job. https://sterling-archermedes.github.io/

Wow thanks for sharing that. This rabbit hole of smearing by activists and left leaning news media is far far deeper than I was expecting. Unfortunately with so few paying attention I’m not sure how to even fight back. It feels like speaking up risks one’s social and professional credentials, and I’m not sure it would be effective given there are overwhelming numbers of people spreading these smears.

Re: Mozilla, Tor Join Calls to Oust Richard Stallman from Free Software Foundation

#210

> Having a bed in his office at MIT is creepy as hell. My understanding is that he slept (ie. lived) in his office, so having a bed there would be normal, not "creepy as hell." Also, many professors have beds in their labs in case of long-running experiments. I've seen them and thought it was practical. I read all of the related links about Stallman and didn't see any actual evidence. What's odd about the US left is…

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