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“I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

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Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#21
RMS is accused of having, expressing (and sometimes retracting) contentious viewpoints. Correct me if I'm wrong and you think he's been soliciting sexual favours and/or sniffing co-workers' chairs, etc.

It seems pretty clearly 1A here. People love to bring up the mechanics of 1A ("Congress shall pass no law, etc.") and say that 1A hasn't been violated, but that really misses the point of it - namely that people can freely discuss the government and the laws.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#22
post #19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RMS's role in the FSF was president, and now Member of the Board of Directors. Sure this requires some technical skills, but the main factor is leadership and the ability to bring people together. If anyone believes that RMS is fit for that role, that says a lot about the state of FOSS.

So would you rather want someone who cancels or censors disenting opinions? Dogmatism has bright days ahead apparently. Diversity was never meant to be that everyone was supposed to think the same way, as far as I recall.

This false dichotomy is equally toxic. Leadership always means bringing people together, not imposing one or other set of idiosyncrasies.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#24
post #9

Good riddance? I'm tired of social culture spokespeople flogging technologists over the head Nobody can make a case that RMS is a swell guy, he's awful. Still, he's without a sliver of a doubt the single most influential activist for FOSS that there's ever been. Getting rid of polarization happens with one instance of forgiveness+rehabilitation at a time. You cant cancel your way to better culture.

RMS's role in the FSF was president, and now Member of the Board of Directors. Sure this requires some technical skills, but the main factor is leadership and the ability to bring people together. If anyone believes that RMS is fit for that role, that says a lot about the state of FOSS.

Disagreeable people have done amazing things for the Free Software movement. It is, at heart, a highly intolerant movement. It does not care about compromise, it cares about principles. It does not tolerate half-hearted attempts and lip service.

Compromise and bringing people together is the slow track to becoming subservient to corporate interests. Mozilla works with people and we end up with an OK browser that is strategically playing second fiddle to Google.

Brave was really quite an eye opener for me as a reminder that a web browser doesn't have to tag along on the path Chrome dictates. Which is ironic given that they use Chrome as a base and Firefox has its own rendering engine.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#25
post #15
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RMS's role in the FSF was president, and now Member of the Board of Directors. Sure this requires some technical skills, but the main factor is leadership and the ability to bring people together. If anyone believes that RMS is fit for that role, that says a lot about the state of FOSS.

What is bringing people together - RMS-style "we're here to code" or progressive "everything is politics"?

Indeed "we're here to code" is the winner. Anything else just turns software into high school popularity contests, and there are thousands of other organizations who cater to that.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#26
post #7

When an organization, that you have a leadership position in, does something that you believe is wrong, and you have failed at preventing it and correcting it, then resignation is an entirely appropriate option. Walsh has integrity.

Using twitter to bitch at large about your former employer is integrity? Thats a new one.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#27
post #21

RMS is accused of having, expressing (and sometimes retracting) contentious viewpoints. Correct me if I'm wrong and you think he's been soliciting sexual favours and/or sniffing co-workers' chairs, etc. It seems pretty clearly 1A here. People love to bring up the mechanics of 1A ("Congress shall pass no law, etc.") and say that 1A hasn't been violated, but that really misses the point of it - namely that people can f…

[deleted]

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#28
post #9

Good riddance? I'm tired of social culture spokespeople flogging technologists over the head Nobody can make a case that RMS is a swell guy, he's awful. Still, he's without a sliver of a doubt the single most influential activist for FOSS that there's ever been. Getting rid of polarization happens with one instance of forgiveness+rehabilitation at a time. You cant cancel your way to better culture.

RMS's role in the FSF was president, and now Member of the Board of Directors. Sure this requires some technical skills, but the main factor is leadership and the ability to bring people together. If anyone believes that RMS is fit for that role, that says a lot about the state of FOSS.

RMS created the FSF, and you're asking if he is fit for the role?

He created the role. It fits him like a glove, because he created it from his own vision. If you don't think he is fit for the role, then you don't understand what you're talking about.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#29
How did the FSF imagine this would play out? The fact that RMS isn't really the kind of guy you want doing public relations work, combined with the cancel culture shitstorm that originally got him booted, should've been enough to make anyone think thrice before reappointing him.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#30
post #16
post #4

The idea of free software is a very libertarian one. You have freedom. Its the same ideology that drives concepts such as freedom of speech. It is not compatible at all with the authoritarianism that drives cancel culture. Maybe these people should get together and form their own authoritarian-left software foundation. Call it the People's Software Foundation or something. No Dang, I'm not being snarky. This is a leg…

It's ironic that you're claiming free software isn't compatible with authoritarianism while suggesting that anyone who doesn't support the Great Leader isn't welcome and should voluntarily purge themselves from the movement.

RMS doesn't lead with authoritarianism. You're assuming that anyone who is in a position of leadership is an "authoritarian," but that's not what the word means.
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