
Richard Stallman Resigns as FSF President - Boulth
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#16_September_2019_
======
DoreenMichele
Dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20990583](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20990583)

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CJefferson
While some will think this is about a single recent event, Stallman has
consistently said and done inapprotiate things for years. Most people I know
who have spent extensive time with him say it has put them off working with
the FSF, and he is the reason many people have resigned.

While he did start a great movement, at this point he hurts the FSF much more
then he helps it.

(I'm on my phone, so won't put a huge list of references here, but such things
aren't hard to find. For example, see
[https://mobile.twitter.com/mjg59](https://mobile.twitter.com/mjg59) for a
major open source contributor who has been discussing the problems with
Stallman for years)

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
This is a decades-long story; actually the whole "Open Source" name appeared
because some people believed that Stallman and "Free Software" puts other off.
But in the end you can satisfy everybody and there will always be people put
off by someone or something.

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sascha_sl
I'm baffled it took a twitter critical mass of people for this to happen.
Stallman has been detrimental to the image of the FSF for years.

Someone you have to explain the concept of coercive consent to (in recent
"entirely willing" comments, and whenever he argues for pedophilia) should not
be in a position of power. Then again it seems like nobody managed to do so
even now.

~~~
jarfil
It took a mass of people who just ignored the "presented herself as" part, and
don't want to listen to an explanation.

Was bound to happen sooner or later, he was never much of a political
correctness guy.

~~~
sascha_sl
Intent matters. What do you think was the intent behind these comments?

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
The intent was that before we collectively declare the dead man a rapist and
pedophile, let us at least make a minimal effort to find out what really
happened.

~~~
sascha_sl
Making the one hypothetical you express the most favourable for the accused is
not a neutral action.

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
If I consider one of the options the most probable, should I be afraid to
express it because someone will judge me just like you did and I will lose my
job? Yes, I think it's not only a neutral action, but a positive one, because
you value seeking the truth more than social conformity.

By the way, the sad joke here is that Minsky was not even accused of anything.
What we know by now is that Epstein asked the girl and a witness says he
refused:

[https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/339725/](https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/339725/)

~~~
sascha_sl
Good source, definitely not one of the most biased things you could be pulling
out.

[https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pajamas_Media](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pajamas_Media)

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HugoDaniel
I have no opinion on Stallman, he could very well be that awful person.

The twitter discussion[0] seemed to me to be very polarized and targeting rage
with all the common traits of typical fake news/mass hysteria communication.
Maybe it is just the way these things naturally come to daylight.

[0]
[https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/1172283772428906496](https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/1172283772428906496)

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ggm
Introspection may be a strong point of lisp, but it has never been a strong
point of Stallman's

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anyzen
I am having trouble finding this news - all I see is this:

\------

To the MIT community,

I am resigning effective immediately from my position in CSAIL at MIT. I am
doing this due to pressure on MIT and me over a series of misunderstandings
and mischaracterizations.

Richard Stallman

\------

Is this somehow connected to his role as FSF president?

(edit: formatting)

~~~
thefz
[https://itsfoss.com/richard-stallman-
controversy/](https://itsfoss.com/richard-stallman-controversy/)

~~~
r_c_a_d
I think the lesson here is, if you are a scientist or engineer (i.e typically
not a people person), then never say anything publicly about anything non-
technical... ever.

Which is sad.

~~~
thefz
And if you really have to, express yourself in the less ambiguous way possible
because nowadays the public feels first, and understands later.

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aap_
That makes me sad.

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seunosewa
— deleted —

~~~
thefz
It's about a comment he made on the Minsky case.

~~~
kaens
It's about a long string of behavior like the comment he made on the Minsky
case over the course of like 15 years. If this was the first time he had done
something that he'd be called out for "being inappropriate" for I doubt it
would have led to his resignation.

It's not as obvious to people who haven't been in/around FSF/GNU circles for a
while I don't think, and the sort of semantic picking he's doing here is
honestly kind of his whole thing.

I have my doubts as to whether he really gets what people are pissed about,
but this same sort of thing has happened enough from him for people to have
had enough.

~~~
DATACOMMANDER
If the other “incidents” are like this one, then the problem isn’t him, it’s
the community’s puritanical streak.

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DATACOMMANDER
This is a travesty.

