Re: [libreplanet-discuss] No, Stallman isn't "nuts" nor does he deserve less freedom of speech

[Ole Aamot]

I've met and hosted Richard M. Stallman in Oslo, Norway in 1998, and made
two short documentary films on free software/open source movements in
Norway since 1998.

According to
https://www.cnet.com/news/computer-scientist-richard-stallman-resigns-from-mit-after-defending-jeffrey-epstein/
Richard M. Stallman resigned from M.I.T. after defending Jeffrey Epstein
who died August 10, 2019 on csail-related.

GIRL (http://download.gnome.org/sources/girl/) was never a part of GNU,
allthough Richard M. Stallman requested it several times.

GNOME Internet Radio Locator (
http://www.gnome.org/~ole/gnome-internet-radio-locator/gnome-internet-radio-locator.html)
was never part of GNU.  It was actually rejected by the GNU Project itself.

GNOME Radio (http://www.gnomeradio.org/) is a new free software/open source
software project, but will never have anything to do with Richard M.
Stallman or the GNU Project who seeks to dictate and take credit for the
work done by the many volunteers in the free software/open source community
which is a good, international community of both good women and good men
who cooperate on writing, maintaining and documenting free
software/open-source software.

Richard M. Stallman resigned from M.I.T. in 1983 to work on GCC and Emacs,
he became important in the software community, and resigned from M.I.T. and
Free Software Foundation in 2019.

A good book on Stallman's views is Sam Williams' Free as in Freedom:
Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software (ISBN 0-596-00287-4).

Best,
Ole Aamot

On Mon, Sep 16, 2019, 4:42 PM Eric Schultz <wwahammy@gmail.com> wrote:

> None of this anything to do with free software. It has nothing to do with
> the practical response to the PR crisis caused by RMS' continued refusal to
> act like a responsible human being.
>
> This entire discussion today proved the worst of the FSF to be completely
> true. I'm pretty much done with this organization since it's rotten from
> the President, a majority of the board down to seemingly a major portion of
> it's supporters. It's proof that a large portion of the FSF supporters are
> in the RMS worship movement a lot more than they're in the free software
> movement.
>
> FSF, GNU and sadly the GPL are likely doomed unless there is massive change
> immediately. Based on just this discussion, it seems there's no chance of
> that change. Once the free software movement is fatally wounded, I hope
> many of the people here can take comfort that they got a chance to debate
> the finer points of what is child sexual assault and to parse in
> excruciating detail the reprehensible statements of RMS.
>
> Eric
>
> PS: if you disagree, don't contact me. You and I aren't in the same
> movement; you're not in the free software movement, you're in the RMS
> worship movement.
>
> On Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 7:53 PM J.B. Nicholson <jbn@forestfield.org> wrote:
>
> > Adrienne G. Thompson wrote:
> > > The record on Richard Stallman underscores that he is driven by ethical
> > > sensibilities. He's not about to approve of rape anytime soon. So let's
> > > just tell rms to shut up about the Epstein matter, not to attempt to
> > > defend his idols (some of which I, *personally*, know are not worth
> > > defending) and to get a female FSF colleague to censor all his comments
> > > pertaining to women before these comments go public.
> >
> > Or you could choose to not tell him or anyone else to "shut up" or accept
> > a
> > censorship regime. And you could also reject virtue signaling, sexism,
> and
> > identity politics (regarding the "get a female FSF colleague"). After
> all,
> > for all you know he could select a woman who doesn't agree with your take
> > and you'll have nowhere to go because he met your sexist and identity
> > politics-driven request.
> >
> > You could understand that he too gets freedom of speech to say things you
> > don't agree with (that's what freedom of speech is for, after all). You
> > could choose to continue to use your freedom of speech as you've done
> > while
> > also respecting his. Counterspeech seems far more appropriate for this
> > situation where Stallman hasn't done anything more wrong than possibly
> > hold, share, and change views some others don't like.
> >
> > His comments across some posts to his personal blog make me think I'm
> > getting a poorly-explained half story from others on this topic.
> > Considering what he wrote in
> >
> >
> https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September_2019_(Statements_about_Epstein)
> >
> > > I want to respond to the misleading media coverage of messages I posted
> > > about Marvin Minsky's association with Jeffrey Epstein. The coverage
> > > totally mischaracterised my statements.
> > >
> > > Headlines say that I defended Epstein. Nothing could be further from
> the
> > > truth. I've called him a "serial rapist", and said he deserved to be
> > > imprisoned. But many people now believe I defended him — and other
> > > inaccurate claims — and feel a real hurt because of what they believe I
> > > said.
> > >
> > > I'm sorry for that hurt. I wish I could have prevented the
> > > misunderstanding.
> >
> >
> https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September_2019_(Sex_between_an_adult_and_a_child_is_wrong)
> >
> > > 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.
> > >
> > > Through personal conversations in recent years, I've learned to
> > > understand how sex with a child can harm per psychologically. This
> > > changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I
> > > am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why.
> >
> >
> >
> https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#13_September_2019_(Epstein_donations)
> >
> > > Media Lab Director Joi Ito confessed that he had secretly accepted
> > > donations from Epstein after MIT had decided not to do so.
> > >
> > > He also accepted funds for some personal activities of his own.
> > >
> > > That dishonesty, and conflict of interest, make his resignation
> > > obligatory.
> > >
> > > But I fear for the effect on the Media Lab. Under Negroponte, the lab
> > > was notoriously stingy and proprietary. Ito corrected that. I fear that
> > > the next director will undo some of Ito's changes.
> >
> >
> >
> https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#11_August_2019_(Jeffrey_Epstein_committed_suicide)
> >
> > > Jeffrey Epstein appears to have committed suicide in his cell. Or
> > > perhaps he was murdered — it is not unusual for prisoners to murder
> > > prisoners accused of sexual crimes.
> > >
> > > Epstein was accused of trafficking: bringing people long distances on
> > > false pretenses and then pressured them into sex or prostitution. He
> > > also reportedly raped some of those people. I believe those
> accusations,
> > > and I think he deserved to be imprisoned.
> > >
> > > Some of his victims were legally adult. Some were teenage minors. I
> > > don't think that makes any moral difference. I don't think rape is less
> > > wrong if the victim is over 16.
> >
> > as well as other posts on that same webpage, I see a consistent objection
> > to rape regardless of the age of the victim, and I see public contrition
> > for changing a view he held which he now views as wrong. Had we followed
> > your censorious recommendations back then (to either "shut up" or to "get
> > a
> > female FSF colleague to censor all his comments pertaining to women
> before
> > these comments go public") we might not have been able to read
> >
> >
> https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September_2019_(Sex_between_an_adult_and_a_child_is_wrong)
> > today and we'd lack any principled claim on free speech.
> >
> > Those who choose to conflate Stallman's views with those of the FSF or
> the
> > GNU Project seem to me to be either making a mistake in that conflation
> or
> > be opportunistic (possibly virtue signaling).
> >
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