[kwlug-disc] Richard Stallman announcing his return to the FSF's Board of Directors

[Mikalai Birukou]

<snip>
> People who value freedom, in the sense that RMS does, will also see the
> necessity of whole freedom.

This includes freedom of other people, like FSF staff to voice their 
grievances.


<snip>

> Kuhn also writes:
>
> 	"In short, the radical message of software freedom became
> 	overshadowed by RMS' radical views about sexual morality."
>
> Did it?  It didn't for me.  A thinking person should be able to deal
> with separate topics.

Letter from staffers asks precisely this. They ask us to separate the 
software liberty and organizational parts, because they can't handle 
abuse in the org part. Staffers ask your merci, in their desire to have 
better work environment. RMS has already enjoyed staying as their boss 
for more than a decade, despite his behaviour and thanks to his founder 
status.

A thinking person should be able to deal with separate topics. Right?

>   Just because I disagree with RMS on abortion
> (I believe it is wrong, he believes it is a right) doesn't mean that
> I can't agree with him on software.  And I can easily ignore his blog
> in my day-to-day life.  Not sure why others can't.

Neural diversity. We are all very different, but somehow we still should 
live on this planet. And we are doing it much better than in the past.

>   Why then do we all
> have to agree with regard to general sexual morality in order to promote
> free software?

We don't. Why have you come to this conclusion? What manipulative figure 
pushes your reasoning into this direction, opportunistiacally following 
"divide and rule" approach?

Staffers didn't like some RMS behaviour. Behaviour happens to be related 
to sexual sphere, which happens to be most infuriating to these 
hominids. Staffers don't ask anyone to agree on anything. Staffers claim 
their right to not take that which they don't like.

>   That is fear based authoritarianism which is the very
> core of cancel culture, and I am against it.

When a single figure can do anything, and others are not allowed to 
exercise their freedoms, is the actual binary of authoritarianism. The 
wonder is for how long FSF was able to operate in this mode.

> Just imagine if a large Christian majority tried to get the CEO of a
> software company to step down because he merely talked about his beliefs
> that he should be able to have sex with his girlfriend before marriage.
> This is the world we live in, but with a different morality.

Since religion is mentioned (note how human mind interconnects things), 
can I just plug in Joscha's words: "genesis is child memories of a god" 
-- I'd say starting at t=1300: https://youtu.be/p4MK8mBtL7k?t=1300

> I'll repeat my earlier point on cooperation. If we all must be in
> lockstep regarding our politics, we'll get very little done.  I hope
> that I can work with people on tech-politics issues without having to
> agree with them on sex-politics issues.  And I hope people working
> on their own sex-politics issues will not destroy the tech-politics
> movements (or the people) that have done us so much good.

All will be fine. Let's look at facts. RMS was out in 2019. This 
LibrePlanet had most number of participants in 2021. And staffers are 
hopeful.