Hello Carsten,
I think RMS is a brilliant mind when he talks about Free Software. No
question. Unfortunately he is not so brilliant in other topics. And it's
not an excuse that he is a child of the decade he was born in. [1][2]
Sure, he makes big contributions to the Free Software movement. But I
have a problem with the personality cult around him. I think there
should be more people in the FSF besides RMS talking at conferences.
More people in the FSF who make their contributions. We need more
diversity in the Free Software movement, because it means respecting
people as they are, without prejudice. Diversity brings solutions to
complex problems of the present and the future we can not handle with
solutions from the past. This requires people who see the world with
different eyes. People have to be able to contribute to the Free
Software movement with their whole personality as they are.
Best
Christian
[1] https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/994010501460865025
[2]
https://web.archive.org/web/20190520093716/https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
Am 19.05.2019 17:19 schrieb Carsten Agger:
On 5/13/19 11:57 AM, Christian Imhorst wrote:
Hi,
I support FSFE and not FSF - among other things - because of
Stallman. No question RMS did much good for the Free Software
movement. After all, he founded it and he is one of the reasons why
Free Software even exists. But I don't think he should stay any
longer the figurehead of the Free Software movement. Seems the
longer he has any say, the longer he will poison the well. He hurts
his mission with statements about sexual abuse, dehumanizing
disabled people and denigrating women.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean, except that I know RMS has been
criticized for his "Saint Ignucius" stick. I also don't agree on his
position of preferred pronouns for transgender people.
One should note, however, that Stallman is a child of the decade he
was born in and also seems to be quite rigid in his points of view, to
the point where one might suspect a mild degree of autism. If the
latter were to be the case, your comment - and the comments of all of
those people who seemingly like to denigrate, ridicule and bully
Stallman on Reddit - could be construed as ableist.
I have no illusions as to Stallman being any sort of perfect person,
yet I want to note that _not __only_ did he found the Free Software
Movement and contribute s mzignificantly to it through the creation of
the GNU project, he continues to spend all his time travelling the
world and advocating software freedom - and not only that, he still
occasionally comes up with important new contributions.
The most recent example I can think of is this article from The
Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/03/facebook-abusing-data-law-privacy-big-tech-surveillance
[1]
in which he advocates ending the abusive surveillance by the tech
giants by introducing a very simple law: No system is allowed to
record data that are not necessary for its _primary_ purpose.
Such a law could be implemented in the EU and could be enforced with
mandatory, unenforced inspections and draconian, GDPR-style fines.
That would be the end of Google's and Facebook's surveillance, since
it would simply become illegal.
I currently believe that such regulations are the _only_ possible way
of defeating the surveillance regime. Stopping NSA surveillance might
be a good thing, but it's rather immaterial, because the governments
are likely to gain access to the tech giants' data troves anyway, as
they have in China. I'd _love_ to see the FSFE adopt such a proposal
and see it through the EU Parliament.
And while Stallman is still capable of coming up with this kind of
thing I honestly don't think we should ostracize him from the
movement. I've supported the FSF before, and while I currently am
supporting the FSFE and continue to do so, I might easily support the
FSF again if I e.g. had more money.
Best
Carsten
Links:
------
[1]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/03/facebook-abusing-data-law-privacy-big-tech-surveillance
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