[GTALUG] Surveillance Capitalism [was another thread]

[Giles Orr]

On Fri, 2 Apr 2021 at 16:38, Dhaval Giani via talk <talk at gtalug.org> 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 choose to disbelieve them? After a pattern of behaviour that
> multiple people have confirmed and talked about?
>
> > 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.
>
> 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've spent a lot of time thinking and reading about RMS since the
first thread started in TLUG.  I don't know if anyone has mentioned
this: Stallman founded the FSF (maybe most people know that, but I'd
forgotten).  Sometimes organizations grow beyond their founders.  As
Dhaval says: free software, and particularly the GNU project, would
never have achieved what it has without him.  That doesn't make him a
nice guy: he's influential, intelligent, and a good coder.  I've dealt
with him myself - 20 years ago, but it was a memorable experience and
not in a good way.  His utter inflexibility was on full display.  He
believes what he believes, and no compromises are acceptable.  That
kind of focus drove free software forward in its early years, but now
organizations like FSF are more about outreach than bulldozing a path
for a new way of doing things.  And I think multiple articles already
mentioned have shown that if there's one thing RMS is not, it's a
diplomat.  RMS should rightly be honoured for his contributions, but
he's not the person I want as the face of an organization that
represents my beliefs.  His attitudes and rigidity make him
unwelcoming to newcomers.  No, he hasn't done anything illegal: but he
doesn't have to to be a poor choice as a public representative.  What
Linux and free software need right now are leaders who can usher
people in rather than driving them away.

-- 
Giles
https://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr at gmail.com