October 14th, 2024 Richard Stallman (aka “RMS”) is the founder of GNU and the Free Software Foundation and present-day voting member of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) board of directors and “Chief GNUisance” of the GNU project. He is responsible for innumerable contributions to the free software movement, setting its guiding principles, organizing political action, and directly contributing to a flourishing free software ecosystem. The majority of Stallman’s political activity has been of priceless value to society at large.
I skipped to the section on allegations of misconduct and stopped reading here. They just quoted Stallman saying he didn’t threaten suicide and then the (nameless, cowardly) authors immediately say “he threatened suicide”. Despicable. There is nobody to back up Betsy’s side. There’s no response from Betsy to Stallman’s recent comments on the incident. And yet this is the first “corroborated” example they come out with.
This site is another insidious hit piece full of holes. I pity the authors that they’re so twisted and power-hungry in their relentless attacking of a man who has clearly suffered for having a different mind to most and yet also contributed so much. Much more, I would guess, than these snakes will ever contribute.
This is not the first time I find people attacking Stallman without much evidence or by taking his words out of context. But his views as expressed by himself on his site are also pretty extreme, and I don’t find those good.
It would be better to discern allegations and facts, still.
I’ve always found Stallman’s views to be impeccably rational. To me, the extremity is instead in the irrationality of those who find Stallman’s views extreme. In general, people aren’t rational and find it difficult to cope when they come across a person who is. I think this is why so many people find Stallman’s notes distasteful.
Irrationality is also why I find this report to be so ugly: it’s full of non sequiturs. It’s a product of irrational, seemingly damaged minds.