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Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 18, 2019 15:19 UTC (Wed) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582)
In reply to: Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF by pv
Parent article: Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Wow, that's one of the most instructive responses I've ever seen on LWN.

I'd just like to add: other comments suggest RMS is autistic/aspie. Autistic people have difficulty intuiting social rules -- but for that reason, when the rules are explained to them, they follow the rules totally. RMS, when told those cards are inappropriate at a conference (and I'm very sure someone somewhere told him exactly why, in terms similar to what you said), hands them out across the road. That's not autism. That's entitlement. And worse.


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Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 18, 2019 18:46 UTC (Wed) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link]

Side comment, I don't agree all of them follow the rules when provided, but I agree it is the majority. I don't have any numbers but these are more experiences, and not as the one "providing rules" which is presumably sensitive.

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 18, 2019 21:39 UTC (Wed) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (1 responses)

And that must be the stupidest comment on this page.

So you think someone can explain to Greta Thunberg the reasons for most people's inaction on climate change, and then she'll "follow along totally"? She won't. Her unusual actions are because she looks at what people are doing and it makes no sense to her, not because she's waiting for you to explain to her the normal way to behave.

I'm not commenting on whether Richard has this or any kind of syndrome. But I do know that you can't just tell him "stop being direct" or "don't ask women on dates" and expect your words to change him.

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 19, 2019 3:12 UTC (Thu) by roc (subscriber, #30627) [Link]

> I do know that you can't just tell him "stop being direct" or "don't ask women on dates" and expect your words to change him.

That is a good reason to isolate him.

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 19, 2019 21:05 UTC (Thu) by HenrikH (subscriber, #31152) [Link] (1 responses)

I have an autistic son so here are an anecdote: They do not blindly follow rules that are explained to them. It's just that they have a strong tendency to make up rules and follow those to the letter, my son for example can make up some rule all by himself (that can be completely illogical for the rest of us) and once that happens nothing in the world can change his mind of that rule, it's set in stone.

For things where he has no interest or haven't made up his mind you can tell him that "the rules for Y is X" and then he will follow those rules just like you wrote but this does not work if he already have invented an internal rule by himself or if the rule requires him to break something else that he likes to do or not to do.

So e.g he very much likes to play games and watch Youtube videos, there is no rule in the world that I could create that he would follow that in any way would prohibit him from playing games or watching videos when he wants to. Aka I cannot create a new rule that says that for every 10 videos you have to go outside for 10 minutes, even implying something like that would just make him mad.

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 20, 2019 14:58 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

> I have an autistic son so here are an anecdote: They do not blindly follow rules that are explained to them. It's just that they have a strong tendency to make up rules and follow those to the letter, my son for example can make up some rule all by himself (that can be completely illogical for the rest of us) and once that happens nothing in the world can change his mind of that rule, it's set in stone.

As an actual aspie the rules I make up are very much modifiable, but I don't do so just because people say so. The replacements need to satisfy the internal need that led to the creation of the original rules, and those needs may well not be needs I understand. It was a very long time -- decades -- before I figured out the stuff I mention in this comment, but the needs and even many of the same coping mechanisms were present from about the age of five, and if you'd tried to take them away I would have been epically unhappy and quite unable to explain why. Autistics have very poor visibility into our own internal states. Equally, he'd probably be able to express this himself in a few decades. But this is my guess! :)

Of course, part of that need is for control of a chaotic world, and rules qua rules provide that control in and of themselves, as long as they are not rules imposed from outside: i.e. it is quite possible that a rule your son made up would be acceptable to him where *exactly the same rule* would not be acceptable coming from anyone else, because a key part of it was that the rule was not externally imposed!

> So e.g he very much likes to play games and watch Youtube videos, there is no rule in the world that I could create that he would follow that in any way would prohibit him from playing games or watching videos when he wants to. Aka I cannot create a new rule that says that for every 10 videos you have to go outside for 10 minutes, even implying something like that would just make him mad.

And there's a good reason for that. If this stuff serves the same purpose as reading and hacking does for me -- and I very much suspect it does, it feels exactly the same and I use gameplaying for the same purpose sometimes -- this is not *optional* or even exactly fun: it's an essential cooldown method, a way to shut out the chaotic outside world and restrict sensory input to something you control completely (even a youtube video -- you have control of pause and rewind, so it's a controlled sensory feed: and computer games are something you can redo without real-world consequences until you get it right, which might take *far* longer than for anyone else), until the chaos of your far-too-intense emotions recedes back to something no longer overwhelming. Ripping yourself out of that every ten videos or every half hour or whatever and hurling yourself back into the uncontrolled, glaring, noisy outside would feel very much like... well, I don't know what the world is like to people without sensory filtration problems. Being torn out of a classical music concert every half hour and having your head shut in a tin can that is repeatedly hammered by maddened giants, perhaps?

You might find he's happier if you suggest alternating with something else with similarly self-controlled content and sensory input. Reading? Music? I'm not sure: I am after all 40+ and thus out of touch with what the young do these days! But not other people and not outside and not uncontrolled input. :)

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 26, 2019 20:24 UTC (Thu) by rodgerd (guest, #58896) [Link] (1 responses)

> other comments suggest RMS is autistic/aspie.

An ironic defence, given rms is a long-standing proponent of eugenics who agues allowing the disabled to live is a form of cruelty and likens the disabled to pets.

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 26, 2019 20:56 UTC (Thu) by karkhaz (subscriber, #99844) [Link]

Umm...citation needed?? Searching the web turns up nothing like what you're talking about

Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Posted Sep 29, 2019 12:01 UTC (Sun) by immibis (subscriber, #105511) [Link]

FWIW, I am aspie and I have *no problem* understanding why this is inappropriate behaviour.


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