In defence of Richard Stallman

Posted Sep 24, 2019 16:17 UTC (Tue) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239)
In reply to: In defence of Richard Stallman by xophos
Parent article: Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

Why? Community standards and legal standards aren't the same thing.

In defence of Richard Stallman

Posted Sep 24, 2019 19:42 UTC (Tue) by donbarry (guest, #10485) [Link] (3 responses)

Classic argument of witch-hunters, who argue that rumor and gossip should be a sufficient standard to cashier someone based on a personal, political, or professional grudge and strenuously confine free speech to the smallest formal box as it suits their prejudices.

In defence of Richard Stallman

Posted Sep 24, 2019 19:46 UTC (Tue) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239) [Link] (1 responses)

Treatment of women doesn't need to reach the threshold of criminality to have an impact on someone's suitability for a job. We're talking about a situation where multiple people have described their personal experiences, not "rumor and gossip".

In defence of Richard Stallman

Posted Sep 24, 2019 22:27 UTC (Tue) by nilsmeyer (guest, #122604) [Link]

His reign of terror is over now, so I expected women to take over.

In defence of Richard Stallman

Posted Sep 24, 2019 20:16 UTC (Tue) by rodgerd (guest, #58896) [Link]

It is unclear to me whether your contention is that the numerous independent attestations of Stallman's harassment of women are by liars - something of a defamatory claim by you - or whether you simply don't care that your hero is a creep who has made the environment at MIT and the FSF unbearable for many women.