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Re: Bill Gates in the news: Deja vu
From: |
Ali Reza Hayati |
Subject: |
Re: Bill Gates in the news: Deja vu |
Date: |
Wed, 19 May 2021 04:29:14 +0430 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.8.1 |
Akira, I think you're confused. Let me answer your message part by part
so you don't cause confusion or misunderstanding for others.
On 19/05/2021 03:38, Akira Urushibata wrote:
Reports about the personal life of Microsoft founder Bill Gates are
appearing in the mainstream media. Some charges sound familiar -
nearly identical ones were cast upon a different person a couple
years ago.
I wonder why this is happening. I see expressions like this:
"Bill Gates Had Reputation for Questionable Behavior"
- New York Times
"... pursued women who worked for him at Microsoft and at the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, creating what were described as
uncomfortable work environments" - NBC News
Bill Gates met Jeffrey Epstein several times. He does not deny that
the meetings happened. His spokesman, however, seems concerned that
the nature of these encounters is misunderstood.
This is true. However, RMS never had any encounter with Epstein for any
reason and he called Epstein a serial rapist many times. The
controversial comments were also not about the nature of the crimes but
how they were put in words.
So while Gates may be asked about the intentions behind those meetings,
RMS is clear that he never met and supported anybody n that case, what
RMS did was to describe the meaning behind the words, not anything else.
So there's no need to be concerned about the nature of relationship
between RMS and Epstein, as there's no relationship.
One thing that has become clear is that Microsoft's board has
investigated the founder's relation with a female employee and
concluded that it had been inappropriate.
This true. However, the case, specially the hate letter, against RMS is
not about RMS' relationship with any FSF employees as there were no
relationship in the matter. None of the ones who "claimed" they were
hurt by RMS did have relationship in the term of
girlfriend/boyfriend/partner/etc. with RMS.
What was the case was that RMS asked some people out and insisted on
that. Now, maybe the insisting part made them uncomfortable but that's
no crime. Not for RMS, not for Gates, not for anybody.
Has the FSF board investigated the widely held claim that Richard
Stallman "defended" Jeffrey Epstein? I don't think they have
investigated anything. As a consequence they have allowed rumors
of their founder's "bad behavior" run out of control and cause
unnecessary confusion and damage to personal reputation.
FSF board did investigate that. So did a large members of our great
community. Stallman actually never defended Epstein, he just explained
the meaning behind some words. You can read those comments and emails
yourself.
Bad behavior is relative. I'm comfortable with many stuff while some
people even consider jokes as bad behavior. But if you want to compare
Gates with Stallman, the difference is that Stallman never had any
relationship with those who claim are hurt, but Gates did have
relationship, as we see on news, I'm not judging or deciding anything.
I have a request: Do not do to Bill Gates what you would not like done
to yourself or Richard Stallman. It is possible that the stories that
are recently surfacing are not true. Do not turn your eyes away from
what may appear to be lame apology, for therein often lies the seeds
of truth.
I support this. Nobody should be punished for crime one didn't do. If
Gates is innocent, he shouldn't be punished.
However, you say, and I quote, "It is possible that the stories that are
recently surfacing are not true." This is a weird statement because it
is not impossible. All of the claims *can* be untrue.
About the apology, if you think what RMS wrote was a lame apology, you
should first prove that what was claimed against Stallman was true. I
don't expect someone who didn't commit a crime to be punished or to
apologize, I think you think so.
If you haven't read the claims or followed the actual story, I can
suggest https://stallmansupport.org/ with every detail needed and some
great articles that explain the matter.
I hope you haven't just followed some people's baseless claims and
believed them without really fact checking and analyzing. Check the
website I sent and please do ask if you had any question.
Best of all.
--
Ali Reza Hayati (https://alirezahayati.com)
Libre culture activist and privacy advocate
PGP: 88A5 BDB7 E07C 39D0 8132 6412 DCB8 F138 B865 1771
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