251–260 of 537 posts
I wonder if RMS wrote apology emails to the individuals that he hurt: > I sometimes made others uncomfortable or even offended them -- especially women. If not, someone might need to explain to him that that too is customary in our society.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Neither of those things will happen. We would be better off if we could remove those dishonest people from our communities here and elsewhere. Dishonest reporting, and amplifying of dishonest posts on social media is not something you will ever get an apology for, because those efforts were never meant to survive scrutiny. They were meant to create "pressure" to cause reputational damage. You cannot convince or engag…
> We would be better off if we could remove those dishonest people from our communities here and elsewhere. You mean, only in some non-asshole way, so that we don't look exactly like them?
How about not be like them at all? People are stupid, but they can learn from their mistakes, and society can help them by accepting an apology rather than shunning them forever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mostly in-person around MIT (just like Captain Crunch or Jake Appelbaum in the conference scene... informal until it wasn't), but a few have made it onto the web. See #2 here: https://selamjie.medium.com/remove-richard-stallman-appendix...
I'm not seeing much from women that actually went to MIT and interacted with him there. A lot of the accusations I've seen are second hand stories/rumours from third parties that never went to MIT or interacted with him directly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which apology? He’s only apologizing once quickly for losing his temper (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.) and spends a whole lot of time explaining why he is different and we should all put up with his social ineptitude because he didn’t know better. That does not constitute an apology. We…
> and [he] spends a whole lot of time explaining why he is different and we should all put up with his social ineptitude because he didn’t know better My reading of this in the context of the post is that he self-aware enough to strive to be better, and admits he has failed to do so in the past. > We the socially inept can and do learn to adapt. He’s a clever man, he can do it too. Your response touches on something…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But OP does not contain discussion about sex with minors. That discussion was (in the past) on his personal web stallman.org .
Yes it does. It claims the allegations against Minsky are false. That has not been proven and the allegations are highly credible. It's an offensive and stupid thing to say, especially publicly, especially when you're "apologizing".
The Minsky defense was not the primary, most important reason RMS can't serve as an effective, inclusive leader for free software, it was just the one that got the most attention. This does nothing to address the numerous complaints of harassment towards MIT students, the _other_ times he spoke out in implicit support of pedophilia, the public gaffes that are unacceptable as a public representative (e.g. the foot ski…
He has been treated unfairly many times and that is, completely independent of whether he's the best choice as leader for the FSF, wrong. You do it here: "the _other_times he spoke out in implicit support of pedophilia...". He wants to have a discussion about what makes sex between people of varying ages wrong. He applies normative principles to it and can't see why it's wrong (e.g., age of consent varies...why would…
Wtf does that have to do with free software?
And why does he keep doing this over and over again? There's no smoke without fire
> 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 was on the island in 2002, and Guiffre (born 1983) was 18 at the time.
What actually happened isn't particularly relevant. We're not talking about what happened, we're talking about the behaviours that RMS will defend.
RMS defended the concept of someone having sex with a trafficked coerced 17 year old girl.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Didn't he write that Epstein's child sex trafficking victim being pimped to septuagenarian professor Marvin Minsky should be considered consensual sex and not rape, despite her attestations otherwise?
He didn't write that; it was reported as that. It wasn't appropriate but RMS being RMS wrote about a situation in which the girls were being coerced into presenting willingly, which Minksy then could have believed. RMS is technically correct - this scenario could have happened - but I don't believe it as Minsky couldn't have been that naive.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We the socially inept can and do learn to adapt. He’s a clever man, he can do it too. This is such a weird concept to me. I have no problems getting social cues, it comes natural to me. Doing it purely intellectually? I wouldn't have a fucking idea how to. I think it's similar to doing pretty lame things like walking. It's a complex task that you can only do because you do it automatically. If we had a pill that wo…
It's a thing those of us on the spectrum have a bit of a challenge with. Whether people on the autism spectrum are high-functioning or not, probably the top question is "are you mad?" because it is often hard to tell. However, I don't feel autism should be used as an excuse for bad behavior. I take responsibility for my actions and words, and so should RMS.
I agree. I'm not suggesting that it should be an excuse, just that it's a weird recommendation.
Some people find it easy to acknowledge their difficulties, others have a very hard time with that. It seems to me like RMS alludes to his difficulties, but doesn't get diagnosed, or doesn't share his diagnosis. That's his right, obviously. Other people then figure "hey, that guy is totally normal, he's just an asshole". Coupled with the fact that some get very emotionally invested when certain topics are touched, it's a recipe for disaster.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Then why do you care at all about the FSF in the first place? It sounds like you're here just to spread rumors and opinions in this case. I can't answer for the OP but it's clear that the FSF was a in a leadership position within the software world in the 1980s and 1990s. That position has slipped precipitously despite the increasing importance of the GNU software they developed in every aspect of modern computing.…
> I can't answer for the OP but it's clear that the FSF was a in a leadership position Who cares about 'leadership position' aren't people capable of deciding things for themselves? > FSF stands for are good and important, however without an organization to promote them they will continue to wither in the modern age and bringing back RMS will not help to reverse that trend. So, people can form something similar to th…