On Feb 4, 2022, at 14:30, Brennen Bearnes bbearnes@p1k3.com wrote:
On 2/4/22 14:07, Tom Scott wrote:
-- GNU Hacker. stallmansupport.org - Disinformation succeeds because so many people care deeply about injustice but do not take the time to check the facts. https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org
I missed this bit earlier, but I think my main response is, you know, fuck off.
If this dude's presence is tolerated on this list, I'm out.
https://fossforce.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/RMSleisure.jpg
What, do you not enjoy tender embraces? :D
It's also amazing to me that rms is still tolerated, given the massive failure of the organization he founded. Then again, most of us free software enthusiasts have a habit of tolerating the intolerable, so perhaps it shouldn't be that much of a shock.
His views aren't actually that bad, if you read what he actually wrote, for what it's worth. It's subtle, and he's trash (for other reasons!) but it's all too easy to lump him into "wrongthinkers" because the current culture war is very, very black-and-white. Stallman is too personally consistent for anyone to assign him to one of the factions without committing, for lack of a better term, a grave inaccuracy.
I encourage you to actually read his website. There are *far* more objectionable things he's said than the stuff he posted to the MIT list that caused the latest kerfuffle, for example. His website is a gem, even if you couldn't pay me to be in a room with the guy. You can call out any specific things you perceive as misbehavior, of course, without giving an implicit ultimatum to the list operators.
Remember also that he's a 'sperg, and if you are not, you should take note to read what he wrote *very*, *very* carefully. What is unsaid is as important as what is said, and many many people read his writing too quickly or uncarefully, and they read something different than what he wrote. I've myself written before about the dangers of the modern American mode of communication, which is saying-without-saying, and the trouble that direct speakers have when communicating to listeners so tuned.
https://sneak.berlin/20191201/american-communication/
Note this is not a defense of Stallman or anything he said: just an observation that most people so aligned against him are unfamiliar with the *facts* of what he did and did not say, even though they think they are familiar.
Anyway, the "him or me" move is lame and authoritarian. Don't go looking for fights simply because of sports-teamism, there are sufficient stupid people in the world doing stupid things (such as rms) that you can simply wait until you have a legitimate cause for grievance to Complain About Others. (Hell, it's my favorite pastime, I should know.)
Best, -sneak