Let's see:
- judged by angry mob -- yes,
- no ability to defend oneself -- yes,
- killed -- no (though seeing polarization and level of anger here it's possible that he'll be eventually physically assulted),
- person demolished, life ruined -- yes (Stallman got removed from the org he created, got fired from his work. Another poster here written that his friend got accused, defended in court with hard evidence, life is still ruined).
Comparison with lynching seems fair to me.
All of this got me thinking about creating, you know, accepting tech community where everyone is free to express their own opinions. I'm personally fine with my code being called shit and me being called dumbass for a good measure, just tell me what you really think and we'll sort things out faster instead sugar-coating stuff to not hurt my ego.
Lynching has a specific context in the United States; it has the history and connotation of racist terrorism.
No one dislikes Stallman on the basis of the color of his skin, and no one is murdering him. The use is a grossly inappropriate metaphor that diminishes the real meaning of the word.
Well racism connotations permeat everything in US, it's overheated/taboo topic there. Not so much in the rest of the world, see two top dictionary definitions from google:
To punish (a person) without legal process or authority, especially by hanging, for a perceived offense or as an act of bigotry.
(Law) (tr) (of a mob) to punish (a person) for some supposed offence by hanging without a trial.
Nothing about racism here. The only thing that doesn't apply to Stallman is that he has not been hanged. That's quite important one. Though words are sometimes used not in their literary meaning (like "I'm killing it" -- well hopefully not).
BTW from what I've gathered this entire thing happened because Stallman was pedantic and has written something along "let's be precise with words, I think what happened was not rape, but statuatory rape because of such and such".
