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An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

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Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anybody else find it a little scary to comment on this topic in case they get called out and targeted as well? The well written link posted to “wetheweb” discusses this a bit. Some quotes: > According to the Atlantic, a full 80 percent of Americans believe that “political correctness is a problem in our country.” While today some smear the free speech movement as a “racist dog-whistle” or a “far-right talking po…

It's definitely double standards for this to be flagged when the exact opposite of this was posted yesterday without a flag.

It would only be double standards if the same people who didn't flag one, did flag the other. It's entirely possible that it's entirely different people. Besides which, yesterday's _was_ flagged.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely double standards for this to be flagged when the exact opposite of this was posted yesterday without a flag.

It totally shows that 'HN admins' are exactly the type of people that support cancel culture. Not really an eye opening.

You realise that regular users flag things, not admins?

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#63

Shame on everyone who signs this letter. I personally know two women who've been sexually harassed by this creep. He has no place in leadership.

I personally know fifteen women who've been sexually harassed by you. Shame on hackernews dot com for giving you a platform, shame on your employer, shame on everyone around you.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#64
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It totally shows that 'HN admins' are exactly the type of people that support cancel culture. Not really an eye opening.

You realise that regular users flag things, not admins?

You realize it has quotes ? And besides, don't be naive.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://dev.to/baweaver/the-myth-of-the-autistic-jerk-3kjl

I agree with a lot of the stuff being said here, but it's entirely tangential to what I talked about. Our "cancel culture" is more focused on zooming-in on the minutia than the big-picture. I love my autistic friends, and never once would I describe their behavior as mean-spirited or "jerk-like". I treat them with patient respect, and they reciprocate the sentiment. I personally know that 2 of those 3 friends love RM…

It's not a matter of his political or personal opinions, it's about behaviour. It's about whether the FSF wants to be welcoming to either people who behave like rms or women.

rms, if you by any chance read this: you're supposed to make the ladies laugh. If you talk to women (and talk only, leering is verboten), and make smile and laugh, sometimes a brassiere comes off and noone is unhappy afterwards.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#66
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to fight my own bias here, but.. I really don't know what to think. On one hand I'm totally against cancel culture for things like: - How you voted(e.g. Trump/Biden) - Your political views on any subject On the other hand, Stallman has called for the killing of babies with Down Syndrome. So, could I associate with someone like that? Could I comfortably work with someone that(for example) calls for the kill…

> On the other hand, Stallman has called for the killing of babies with Down Syndrome. Has he though? Has he actioned this idea, or was it just something he blogged about amongst 1000's of other thoughts that floated through his head? One of my life lessons I think is worth pointing out, is that people's actions are far more important than what they say. And this is the problem with modern western society: someone sa…

Advocating for eugenics is doing something terrible.

Edit: I don't have an opinion either way, just clarifying that I believe advocacy is action.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#67
post #58

As little as I like to do this, I think it's important to bring up the "autism" topic, because I see way too many autistic programmers being thrown under the bus for stuff like this. To start, the three smartest programmers I personally know are autistic, and all of them struggle to make sound judgement calls at the drop of a hat. I've seen them lambasted in IRC channels for saying stupid things or slipping up a func…

I'm trying to fight my own bias here, but.. I really don't know what to think. On one hand I'm totally against cancel culture for things like: - How you voted(e.g. Trump/Biden) - Your political views on any subject On the other hand, Stallman has called for the killing of babies with Down Syndrome. So, could I associate with someone like that? Could I comfortably work with someone that(for example) calls for the kill…

>calls for the killing of babies if they where jewish, black etc.

How is this in any way equivalent? Being jewish or black are not disabilities. Downs syndrome is a horrible condition that greatly impacts your quality of life.

I personally think abortion is horrible, but aborting babies who are going to enter life with awful disabilities is the least objectionable form of abortion there is.

You should be outraged at the millions of perfectly healthy babies that are aborted every year just for convenience. Not this.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#68
post #58

As little as I like to do this, I think it's important to bring up the "autism" topic, because I see way too many autistic programmers being thrown under the bus for stuff like this. To start, the three smartest programmers I personally know are autistic, and all of them struggle to make sound judgement calls at the drop of a hat. I've seen them lambasted in IRC channels for saying stupid things or slipping up a func…

I'm trying to fight my own bias here, but.. I really don't know what to think. On one hand I'm totally against cancel culture for things like: - How you voted(e.g. Trump/Biden) - Your political views on any subject On the other hand, Stallman has called for the killing of babies with Down Syndrome. So, could I associate with someone like that? Could I comfortably work with someone that(for example) calls for the kill…

> Stallman has called for the killing of babies with Down Syndrome.

I've been in OSS for decades. I've actually argued with RMS personally on certain subject (he called me evil, which I disagree with, but that's not the point). I've read a lot of his writings and a lot of writings about him. I never heard about this until today. I have no idea what RMS actually said on the subject (you didn't provide a quote, as it usually happens) but whatever he said, it's clearly wasn't something very important among all his body of work, if mostly nobody heard or cared about this so far.

In fact, I can't bring myself to care about RMS's views on the subject right now - even if your most uncharitable interpretation is completely correct (I am 99% sure it's not, but even in unlikely case it is) it's completely immaterial. RMS has never been and never will be in a position that such an opinion would matter for anything, he has never killed any babies and has never contributed or influenced anything that mattered in this area. He did, however, contributed a lot and mattered a lot in other areas.

One of the most idiotic and toxic features of cancel culture is reducing the immense complexity of the person's life to one - almost always distorted and misinterpreted - statement and focusing on it as if it were the only point ever. There's no "someone like that". "Someone like that" is a bullshit - no one is "like that", and "like that" is an insanely awful criteria to guide your actions. Literally everybody has done something in their life some people may not like. One can disagree with somebody on some subject and still agree with them on other subjects. That's how human society works. People can not be reduced to a single "like that", and shouldn't be. Get out of Twitter and purge it out of your system, for the benefit of yourself and humanity.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#69
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to fight my own bias here, but.. I really don't know what to think. On one hand I'm totally against cancel culture for things like: - How you voted(e.g. Trump/Biden) - Your political views on any subject On the other hand, Stallman has called for the killing of babies with Down Syndrome. So, could I associate with someone like that? Could I comfortably work with someone that(for example) calls for the kill…

>calls for the killing of babies if they where jewish, black etc. How is this in any way equivalent? Being jewish or black are not disabilities. Downs syndrome is a horrible condition that greatly impacts your quality of life. I personally think abortion is horrible, but aborting babies who are going to enter life with awful disabilities is the least objectionable form of abortion there is. You should be outraged at…

>Downs syndrome is a horrible condition that greatly impacts your quality of life.

I disagree. Have you ever met one person with that condition?

The ones I've met, are happier than 99% of the people I know.

Re: An open letter in support of RMS being reinstated by the FSF

#70
post #20
post #2

I fully support RMS being on the FSF board for life. (I also think he would be fantastic making a cameo in a bit part in Disney's Mandalorian series, bitching about "damned proprietary code" used in imperial droids that makes them hard to reprogram but that's another topic for another message board...)

Something tells me RMS would never in a million years work with Disney... He's been quite vocal against them for years. * https://stallman.org/notes/2020-jul-oct.html#23_September_20... * https://www.stallman.org/archives/2021-jan-apr.html#18_Febru... * https://www.stallman.org/archives/2018-mar-jun.html#4_March_...

Yes, and him being in Disney movie earning money for Disney would only tarnish his image. But one can dream, that in an alternate universe, where pop culture is not wholly owned by reptiloid corporations, there could be the Mandalorian where RMS could play a droid technician muttering about damn proprietary code... and that'd be awesome.
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