[GTALUG] Surveillance Capitalism [was another thread]

[Russell Reiter]

On Fri, Apr 2, 2021, 4:38 PM Dhaval Giani, <dhaval.giani at gmail.com> wrote:

> >
> >> are all aware of. Many women were uncomfortable around RMS and avoided
> >> him. Many refused to participate in our community because of
> >> interactions with him. Do you think RMS is more important than a
> >> community of developers he is pushing away?
> >
> >
> > See all the stuff you say we are all aware in this message is just
> rumors and innuendo to me.
> >
>
> Wait, so all these women saying those words are rumours and innuendo?
>

You know what, thats exactly what innuendo is, saying "all these women"
without even a link to a personal quote from them, not a one.

You choose to disbelieve them? After a pattern of behaviour that
> multiple people have confirmed and talked about?
>

I can't disbelieve that which I can find no record of. What multiple people
are you talking about?

What I can do is check some facts, to the best of my abilities. This link I
came across in my opinion has a more balanced view than yours.

https://sterling-archermedes.github.io/


> > What are not rumors and innuendo are the historical facts on IBM, their
> influence, their power and powerful friends and most importantly their big
> ball of money which they spend on influenceing the influencers.
> >
> >>
> >> I want to explicitly state this. RMS is a major reason free software
> >> is where it is. RMS's contributions to free software are gigantic.
> >> However, RMS cannot be a leader of our community if he continues to
> >> isolate a significant population of prospective developers. RMS the
> >> contributor - YES. RMS the leader - NO.
> >>
> >> RMS cannot be the poster child of our community if it is going to be
> >> relevant in the future.
> >
> >
> > This is where being the willing poster child of a charitable
> institution, used to raise funds, diverges from the science of truth and
> innovation.
> >
> > In the legal science of truth, a person is innocent until proven guilty
> in a court of law. However, media and the media barons in conteol, crucify
> persons and their personas daily, just to make a buck.
> >
>
> And no one has charged RMS with a crime. All we are saying is, he is
> not representative of a majority of us, and we don't want him to
> represent us. Some of us are minorities who have heard racist
> statements being made by prominent folks in the community and have
> made us feel our contributions are not valued. It is not hard to
> believe after that experience that other prominent folks can be
> sexist. RMS has not stepped up and owned up to his actions and
> apologized. I have no problem with people growing. We all make
> mistakes. But doubling down like this, well I don't want to be a part
> of that community. And the reality is, there are tons of "other"
> people who will not join in and we will never know. So yes, if the
> choice is between thousands of those people, having a diverse
> community, growing and being relevant to the world, I would rather RMS
> step down than us lose this community. And I would rather you leave
> the community if you think being more welcoming to other voices is not
> important. We don't need your contributions at the risk of alienating
> many more people.


Wow that last paragraph was a completely off the wall projection of
negative personal attributes towards RMS without a shred of evidence. I
wasnt aware that Stallman was a deemed racist by association.

Its bad enough that someone on this list deemed him to be an incel. Just
type incel into google and you can see the links to terrorisim.


> Again, I restate this. RMS as a contributor - yes. RMS as a leader -
> no. He doesn't represent me, and he certainly doesn't represent the
> community of foss developers. This is a discussion about RMS, not the
> conspiracy theories you are throwing about.


I first came across evidence of survelance capitalisim at a tlug meeting in
2003 or so. So its not a theory to me, it is a fact of the corporation and
its predatory nature in order to make profits for the investors.

>
What conspiracy theories are you talking about.

Survelance capitalisim is a real thing, funded by real corporations.
Stallman is aware of this and pissed lots of people off by talking about it
in public.

Or are you saying IBM didn't develop software and market it to both sides
of the conflict in WW2. Thats not a conspiracy its business as usual for a
global corporation like them.

Just to be clear, IBM weren't the only ones who made money from the
holocost. You should read the quote about remembering the past on this site.

https://www.holocaustcentre.com/HEW

Coca Cola sold its german equipment to a company now known as Fanta.

Ford motors provided truck engines and parts to germany.

Through a blind company Standard Oil provided their propritarey additive
for gasoline to the Luftwaffe for their planes so they performed better at
altitude.

So let me phrase this issue a little differently once again.

What part of the money which IBM used to purchase Red Hat, that came from
investments made by IBM, after they obscenely profited by trading with the
Nazis, is the amount you would be willing to use to fund your work,
voluntarily or paid at Red Hat today.


> Dhaval
>
Russell

“Th’ newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’
banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ ligislachure, baptizes th’ young,
marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable,
buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward.” F. P. Dunne
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