251–260 of 681 posts
I don't know RMS personally, but from what I've seen and read about him, he's a bit eccentric. There's nothing wrong with that, but people tend to dislike or distrust those whom are different from what society considers 'normal'. I suspect part of the 'witch hunt' was in part fueled by this eccentricity.
Diversity -- but no diversity of opinion... Inclusiveness -- but let's ostracize the non-conforming aspie... Fairness -- but let's fire people or make them resign from unrelated positions for their personal opinions, because obviously all of a person's life should serve as a big PR, and god forbid they don't play the role 24/7. Someone might call them for it on Twitter, and what could their employee/organization do o…
My impression is that we're experiencing a somewhat less brutal version of Mao's Cultural Revolution. But who knows, possibly "psychological and moral re-education centers" are just over the horizon. They pulled the same crap in China, with excitable young minds as useful idiots serving the hidden political agendas of actors behind the scene. It is informative to seriously review the Cultural Revolution, and the ensu…
I don't know RMS personally, but from what I've seen and read about him, he's a bit eccentric. There's nothing wrong with that, but people tend to dislike or distrust those whom are different from what society considers 'normal'. I suspect part of the 'witch hunt' was in part fueled by this eccentricity.
> I suspect part of the 'witch hunt' was in part fueled by this eccentricity. It seems to me that the exact opposite is happening here. He is "hunted" because of his uncompromising stance on freedom for software users. The eccentricity is just an excuse, useful to gather a horde of angry people, but inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It wasn't just awkward demeanor. He actively made women feel unwelcome in the workplace and behaved unprofessionally over and over again. Every episode I read about fell into the category of "socially awkward adult male". If we can't, as a group, tolerate awkwardness, we are very much down the rabbit hole of mandatory social conformity. By all means, point me to a real abuse scenario by Stallman. I like being prove…
> If we can't, as a group, tolerate awkwardness, we are very much down the rabbit hole of mandatory social conformity. There's a difference between tolerating it to a degree and letting leaders continue uncomfortable awkwardness. If it's enough to distance people, maybe they're not a great candidate for a leader. That doesn't remove anything from their achievements and abilities to contribute or to spread new ideas.…
As an observer from the outside i have to say, that i am as an "privileged white male" will pay much attention to what i will say in the future. This is my conclusion about what happened here and happened to Linus. The feeling that you have to be super sensitive will close more doors then before - prove me wrong.
At what point in your working life have you ever wanted to say "child sexual abuse is okay"? Is this really something you feel that you want to say but now can't?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well there were also those posts about having sex with children sometimes being quite fine. Edit: The downvotes are interesting given that this is how Stallman himself characterized those posts: "Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it."
What posts are you talking about? He didn't state anything related to child sex, plus, Eptein wasn't only offering that so it is unclear that Minsk had sex with minors. It's obvious that Stallman condemn that, but to his eyes, nothing is crystal clear and he is not the kind of person who will fall so easily in any logic fallacy. I think people is mob lawing him without any reason more than "he just stated some facts"…
“There is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children.“
I'm not sure someone with such bizarre views on consent should be in a leadership position or be a teacher. I usually agree with articles like this but then I read stallmans views and they are probably disqualifying.
You are underestimating, radically, the diversity of thought amongst humans. And particularly on the margins of leadership where the people who come up with new ideas are - obviously they aren't guided by social proof because they are working on new ideas. They have to be very experimental, and probably believe all sorts of weird and wonderful things.
If Stallman was the sort of person who only held mainstream views he would not be in the FSF. Which was a point addressed in this article.
I don't know which views in particular you are talking about, but many of them are much more mainstream than his critics are admitting to. Particularly the 17-or-18 comment; in Australia consent is age 16 so he had a point there.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well there were also those posts about having sex with children sometimes being quite fine. Edit: The downvotes are interesting given that this is how Stallman himself characterized those posts: "Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it."
Not trying to be pedantic, but we're not exactly talking about children here. I believe the girl was 17 and probably gave the impression (when put in a group with other girls) to be older. And 17 is not illegal in most countries, so morally that age by itself is and should not be a major issue.
“I am sceptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”
“There is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children.“