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Richard M. Stallman resigns

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Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#261
post #254

I, as many others, never personally liked Dr. Stallman and didn’t agreed with many of his views. That being said, the way that that happened is absolutely terrifying. Fact, that people rather crucify someone instead of argue, explain or prove him wrong is the sign of our times. End of free speech is here. It’s free only if it doesn’t offend group powerful enough to destroy you, and it’s narrowing every single day. We…

“If you actively harass women at work for literally 30 years and do not stop any of the many, many times people to stop, and then also justify the sexual abuse of children as your job tries to distance itself from it’s collaboration with a know pedophile you might lose your job” doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a situation that will ever be relevant to my life, thank.

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#263

it's rather interesting how all the information technology (social media, etc...) is slowly moving our culture towards increasing self-censorship. One has to have the right opinion or stay quiet. Having the wrong opinion about certain topics is getting more expensive. Stay away from taboos or else... never mind the fact that what we regard as wrong changes across different societies over time. Weirdly all the informa…

Bollocks. Like Ricky Gervais said the other day actually you can say anything you like. People might not agree with you and that's fine.

If it was as simple as a disagreement, that would be fine. But it's not just simple disagreements anymore. It is costing people their livelihoods and futures because they're not toeing the ever shifting line.

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#264

There are so many judgements on both sides, both in these comments and in the articles on the subject that have been submitted, but very little quoting of what he said in context. Where can I find what he said? Why is everyone talking about what he meant without quoting what he said so I can decide what makes sense for myself?

I agree it's very confusing and to me sudden. Here are a couple of links to get you started anyway: vice article summary: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9ke3ke/famed-computer-sci... which has a link to this blog post (which is somehow central): https://medium.com/@selamie/remove-richard-stallman-fec6ec21... Doesn't anyone sleep on anything any more?

The pressure against him has been going for at least ten years, and his most recent comment was made last week. So yep, apparently they sleep on things for at least ten years.

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#265
post #254

I, as many others, never personally liked Dr. Stallman and didn’t agreed with many of his views. That being said, the way that that happened is absolutely terrifying. Fact, that people rather crucify someone instead of argue, explain or prove him wrong is the sign of our times. End of free speech is here. It’s free only if it doesn’t offend group powerful enough to destroy you, and it’s narrowing every single day. We…

Or be a comedian. Satire is practically immune. It’s hard to attack someone for something when they say something other than what they’re really talking about.

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#266

There are so many judgements on both sides, both in these comments and in the articles on the subject that have been submitted, but very little quoting of what he said in context. Where can I find what he said? Why is everyone talking about what he meant without quoting what he said so I can decide what makes sense for myself?

Here's a link to the redacted document so you don't have to click into Vice or Medium:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6405929-091320191420...

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#267

Why does this feel like such a witch hunt? It is clear RMS was stunningly clueless to write anything about this, but surely we all know of similar engineers that would make a similar error? If everyone were held up to the same moral standard, we wouldn't have many people left in power! Just to be clear: I'm definitely not supporting hurting children (directly or indirectly) - I hope I'm not falling into the same tar…

Possibly it seems sudden only because you aren’t on the CSAIL mailing list and haven’t had to read his messages for years.

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#268

it's rather interesting how all the information technology (social media, etc...) is slowly moving our culture towards increasing self-censorship. One has to have the right opinion or stay quiet. Having the wrong opinion about certain topics is getting more expensive. Stay away from taboos or else... never mind the fact that what we regard as wrong changes across different societies over time. Weirdly all the informa…

This has nothing to do with technology. If you start expressing opinions about how sex with a sex-trafficked child should be legal, won't your friends and family raise some questions about your character? Unless we're talking of morally flexible individuals. And at least parents should raise an eyebrow, since we have this natural reaction to protect our children. > information wants to be free Whomever said that was…

You are twisting what Stallman said.

-He argued that rape is no the same as having sex with a minor. He is right, that's not the definition of rape.

-A minor is not necessarily a child. You can be a minor and the next day be 18 in a porno movie.

-Never did Stallman said it was ok, He just raised the question whether Minsky knew She was being coerced by Epstein. Clearly not the same.

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#269

it's rather interesting how all the information technology (social media, etc...) is slowly moving our culture towards increasing self-censorship. One has to have the right opinion or stay quiet. Having the wrong opinion about certain topics is getting more expensive. Stay away from taboos or else... never mind the fact that what we regard as wrong changes across different societies over time. Weirdly all the informa…

I agree the internet is getting locked down, it'll end up like daytime tv if we're not careful. But I'm two clicks away from access to Nazi and extremist content right now. The internet still is the wild wild west version of a library, in terms of access to content, but now there's laws and archiving of everything typed and read applied on top of that too.

This Stallman case is edge-case fallout from a massive political movement. He could have probably discussed the age of consent in public pre-2013 and maybe get a few disgusted reactions but generally be fine. The political control of internet arguments is more obvious than ever, and the quest for advertising money.. but I'm fairly sure I can start and run a website/subreddit/blog for whatever niche idea and be left alone.

Re: Richard M. Stallman resigns

#270
post #159

I never much liked Richard Stallman. But he's a freethinker, and freethinkers necessarily exist outside the mainstream. So, despite not liking him, I also don't like this turn of events. It does seem arbitrary to me that the same sexual encounter is classified as rape in Arizona and not rape in Virginia. I suppose we have to draw that line somewhere arbitrary. But I wonder if it was a mistake to classify what is call…

> That said, to me, this doesn't seem like a hill worth dying on I don't think he saw it as a hill worth dying on, just a random hill he happened to be shot on. It's part of a random scattering of thoughts he makes public. Either way, I'm cancelling my FSF donations for caving into this witch hunt. It's long demise will be helmed by people that stand for nothing less they offend someone.

Doing the same. I will also make sure to let them know why. I'm disgusted by MIT, FSF and everyone who's entered this witch hunt asking for blood.
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