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Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

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Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#161

Post by alayne »

jscn wrote: post #154
Lockyy wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you oppose automated hell-banning here? It has lead to people being hell-banned for inoffensive things, the worst I've seen is someone hell-banned because their double post got such a large amount of down-votes.

HN is owned privately and everyone's ability to use it is at pg's discretion. pg has no duty, implied or otherwise, to provide a platform on which the principles of free speech hold. This is not true of society at large. You seem to be conflating the two.

Nearly every website is owned privately. That doesn't mean we still shouldn't seek free speech as a moral goal. What if Google censored your Gmail messages? You're using it at their discretion, right?

Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#162

Post by ktizo »

jahewson wrote: post #127
Tichy wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the same in all European countries. I think in the UK it is like you describe. I was quite shocked, however, when I heard about the typical wait times for things like broken teeth or bones (weeks - that was 18 years ago, though, don't know the current state). In Germany there are specific health insurances you have to pick. However it has become mandatory to have health insurance a couple of years ago, and t…

No the UK does not make you wait weeks for broken bones. That would never make sense, because the bone would have healed in that time in the incorrect position, and then require expensive surgery to re-set it. It's so obviously nonsense.

In the UK for serious broken bones is about half an hour to an hour, in my experience. Broken wrist, ribs, elbow, skull, pelvis and ankle, so far. I'd be broke or dead in many other countries by now. The inpatient care can be a bit hit and miss, but A&E is generally awesome.

Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#164

Post by etfb »

"Stallman, conocido por sus excentricidades..."

The wonderful thing about having a smattering of French and Latin is that I can recognise "damned with faint praise" even in a language I don't know.

(Hint for the mono-lingual: http://translate.google.com/#auto|en|Stallman%2C%20conocido%...)

Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#165

Post by [deleted] »

lumberjack wrote: post #147
redthrowaway wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not rms, and I don't speak for him, but his opposition to non-free software is predicated upon the claim that it harms the user. As death is arguably a greater harm than any non-free software could inflict, I suspect he would say that it is not wrong to use non-free software to save a life if no free alternative is readily available. You can ask him yourself, if you want: rms@fsf.org He replies to almost all emai…

To continue with the above comment, I'd like to point out that RMS has valid concerns regarding non-free software running inside your body. You don't want to have a buggy pacemaker with unencrypted unprotected wireless access. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/27/buggy_pacemaker_code... https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2010/transparent-m... Moreover I don't feel comfortable using a technology that is owne…

[deleted]

Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#166

Post by olalonde »

skrebbel wrote: post #59
raganwald wrote: post #32

Social/Moral question: Is it acceptable to wish Mr. Stallman well in light of allegations that he has advocated for truly awful practices? e.g. Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization. I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. http://stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html

There, you're doing it. It is all right for someone to be skeptical about any commonly held view, except when it's about sex with minors. In any discussion about any kind of sex with anyone under 18 whatsoever, if you're not 100% fully completely convincedly against it, then you're a bad person!!1 Why can't we just discuss this? Like we can discuss anything else? Especially in the US, where the norm appears to be tha…

You can be skeptical about paedophilia just like you can be skeptical about evolution. The thing is that there is a lot of science and solid arguments why voluntary paedophilia is a bad idea.

Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#167

Post by ars »

aerique wrote: post #134
alwillis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Boston, Massachusetts, where we have universal health care and some of the best doctors and hospitals in the world. They don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Why doesn't the rest of the US use Boston's approach?

Massachusetts, not Boston. The way the US is setup each state is different - if you want that kind of health care, you move to Massachusetts. If you want fierce independence there are states that do that, there are states that heavily promote gun ownership, and those that discourage it. Some places have high income taxes, some property taxes, some no taxes, etc.

You can pick where you want to live based on what you like. A state in the US is almost as big as many countries, so you can think of the US as a conglomerate of many countries.

However Massachusetts is having some adverse selection going on as people who otherwise could not afford health care are going there and putting a drain on the system. They are also having a shortage of family doctors.

What is making the states very upset at the current federal plan is that they loose the opportunity to decide for themself how they want the state to run.

Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#168

Post by mindcrime »

icebraining wrote: post #128
mindcrime wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real world / hypothetical world / thought-experiment aside, the point stands: treating a service as an entitlement entails imposing an obligation on somebody else to provide that service, OR to pay for that service, etc. If granting one person a "right" means violating someone else's rights (that is, their right to choose how to direct their energy and the fruits of their labor) then it's unjust.

I don't think it's unjust to make people contribute to society through taxes if they want to live in it. They're free to opt-out from that implicit contract by going to live elsewhere. There's plenty of inhabited places on Earth still. In any case, rights can and are sometimes eclipsed by others. The idea of natural, absolute rights is just ridiculous.

I respectfully disagree, but this really isn't the forum for this discussion, so I'll bow out here.

Re: Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference

#169

Post by jorgeortiz85 »

raganwald wrote: post #44
jsprinkles wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bold comment. Privately, I was disappointed that he was fine after reading the news; I suspect that you're not alone in your views based on that and I had a similar moral debate internally. I'm proud of you for lending your username on HN to remind everybody how truly awful of a person he can be, but I fear that even your clout cannot save this comment from people that love him.

Actually, my comment on the situation was "My thoughts are with RMS, an important voice and pioneer:” https://twitter.com/#!/raganwald/status/200664134960939008 I got an earful about him from other people both publicly and privately, and I also recall a thread right here on HN a while back where there were allegations of (and spirited discussion about) his interest in getting young men into his hotel room at conferen…

Do you have a link for those spirited discussions about getting young men into his hotel room?

After a cursory search, the only such discussion I could find was about John Draper, not Stallman. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1914498

From what I understand, Stallman doesn't even stay in hotel rooms.

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