This will definitely clear things up.
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RMS addresses the free software community
31–40 of 537 posts
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#32Unrelated but, I'm curious: how does RMS pay the bills? The FSF board seat is a volunteer position and he no longer works for MIT. Is he paid as a consultant or something?
He has both earned (as a software consultant) and been awarded fairly large sums of money in the past, and has purposefully lived inexpensively. Not sure if he presently has any income or not. As far as I know, neither the FSF nor MIT paid him since the early 1980's.
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#33Now, would the journalists who wrote articles with titles that are a variation of "RMS defended Epstein" [1,2] apologize or at least correct their articles? Also, now that RMS has explicitly clarified his position on these issues, can the people who leveraged his "silence" and "bad behavior" to oust him from the FSF at least admit that their motive was less about making the free-software movement welcoming and was mo…
I'd be surprised if we saw retractions, especially retractions reaching everyone who saw the original claims, but maybe Vice could write a piece attacking the daily beast article while the daily beast writes an article attacking the Vice one.
Yes, "Famed writes ableist insensitive articles with fabricated lies about an aspie."
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#34> Some have described me as being "tone-deaf," and that is fair. With my difficulty in understanding social cues, that tends to happen. For instance, I defended Professor Minsky on an M.I.T. mailing list after someone leaped to the conclusion that he was just guilty as Jeffrey Epstein. To my surprise, some thought my message defended Epstein. As I had stated previously, Epstein is a serial rapist, and rapists should…
https://time.com/5651186/jeffrey-epstein-investigation-co-co...
"Minsky’s widow, Gloria Rudisch, denied he had sex with Giuffre or any other girls, telling the New York Post that the couple had visited Epstein a few times, but that she was always with her husband."
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#35I think message is genuine, and sympathize with his stand. His work on free software has been invaluable and shaped the software world in a good way. To paint the whole person as a "bad guy" ("terrible person") in the context of the latest developments always seemed off to me. However, usually apologies in this context backfire. Everything that you say about this can and will be used against you. This has happened to…
>However, usually apologies in this context backfire.
As pointed out by other commenters, this is more of a defense, or an explanation, than it is an apology.
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#36Free Software would not exist without RMS - and cancel culture will destroy the movement without him. If they can take down RMS, there is no stopping them.
As far as the cancel mobs are concerned, you can keep me out of the Free Software community if you don't want me. You can call me a racist, a nazi, a transphobe or whatever other slur you can think of for having a different or controversial opinion. That is your prerogative - but you cannot stop me from using Free Software, so that part of it cannot die and there is nothing you can do to cancel that. So while I cannot participate in the movemement, I can still participate and reap the benefits of free software - so you can hate me and cancel me but you can't stop me from benefiting from the fruits of your labour. Eventually you will run out of people to label, your ideology consumes and destroys itself. That makes me smile, just a bit.
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#37> Some have described me as being "tone-deaf," and that is fair. With my difficulty in understanding social cues, that tends to happen. For instance, I defended Professor Minsky on an M.I.T. mailing list after someone leaped to the conclusion that he was just guilty as Jeffrey Epstein. To my surprise, some thought my message defended Epstein. As I had stated previously, Epstein is a serial rapist, and rapists should…
Didn't Minsky rejected her proposal to have sex?
Unknown. Wikipedia says
> Virginia Giuffre testified in a 2015 deposition in her defamation lawsuit against Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell that Maxwell directed her to have sex with Minsky among others. There has been no allegation that sex between them took place nor a lawsuit against Minsky's estate
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#38> Some have described me as being "tone-deaf," and that is fair. With my difficulty in understanding social cues, that tends to happen. For instance, I defended Professor Minsky on an M.I.T. mailing list after someone leaped to the conclusion that he was just guilty as Jeffrey Epstein. To my surprise, some thought my message defended Epstein. As I had stated previously, Epstein is a serial rapist, and rapists should…
> Minsky (71) had sex with a 17 year old who had been trafficked and coerced, in 2001.
You're doing the exact thing that journalists did when they condemned RMS. Virginia Giuffre testified that Epstein directed her to have sex with Minsky; however she has not said that they actually had sex. His ex-wife also claims that she was with him the entire time they were on the island.
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#39"Later in life, I discovered that some people had negative reactions to my behavior, which I did not even know about. Tending to be direct and honest with my thoughts, I sometimes made others uncomfortable or even offended them -- especially women. This was not a choice: I didn't understand the problem enough to know which choices there were.
Sometimes I lost my temper because I didn't have the social skills to avoid it. Some people could cope with this; others were hurt. I apologize to each of them. Please direct your criticism at me, not at the Free Software Foundation."
This is such a great argument for why he shouldn't be in a leadership position. These social skills are crucial in this role.
Re: RMS addresses the free software community
#40Extremely well put statements by RMS and FSF. Clearly, RMS has many true leadership capacities and is absolutely devoid of any corruptability.
I'm wondering if this last talent does actually require being on the spectrum, as he admits to in his first paragraphs.