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.
  • Lvxferre
    25•22 days ago

    There are a few things that Stallman really does not get.

    1. Power over an individual reduces their ability to consent, and adults have considerable power over teens.
    2. The discussion about having those teens accessing pornography should be handled separately. It’s simply not the same matter.
    3. Pornography and nudity are not the same thing.
    4. No matter how bad witch hunters are, this should not be used as a defence for the alleged target of their witch hunts.
    5. “Normal” or “natural” are not the same as “should be taken as morally, ethically, or legally acceptable”.

    Once you take those things into account, you notice that most of the things that Stallman talks about the topic aren’t just immoral, they’re outright idiotic.

      • Lvxferre
        5•22 days ago

        Agreed.

        And that’s extremely shitty because it stains all his views over freedom of speech and libre software, even the sensible ones.

          • Lvxferre
            6•22 days ago

            what can we do?

            The link itself offers a good first step: Stallman himself should be encouraged to step down, and if he doesn’t the FSF should remove him from its board.

            Furthermore we should be backing up both things and, in their failure, backing up a competing entity.

            This should be done in a subtle way, though - without causing unnecessary drama. I know, easier said than done.

            A silver lining on everything here is that his saner views are likely to be backed up by other people in the libre software movement.