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A group of people including Drew DeVault are trying to cancel RMS again, basing their claims on ancient misinterpreted quotes. Stallman may be controversial, but these activists are just acid for the entire Free Software movement.

  • Masterkraft0r@discuss.tchncs.de
    48·
    1 month ago

    this is the attack on stallman

    seems prett damning to me

    also i’m going to let devault himself rebut this

    also no: stallman being under attack for credible accusations and even non-retracted public statements is not an “attack on free software” but a much needed clean up. call it a refactoring of legacy assets, if you want.

    • Nate Cox@programming.devEnglish
      31·
      1 month ago

      The cult of Stallman continues to baffle me. The man is venom in the veins of the free software community and people just adore him.

      I love the ideals of the free software movement but RMS is so toxic that I won’t associate myself with it while he’s tolerated.

      • Sub_dermal@beehaw.org
        11·
        1 month ago

        A lot of the ‘debunking’ here is very poor, it assumes Stallman’s innocence at every junction, argues that Stallman’s word is more important than his actions, fails to engage with the full complexity of arguments against him, and more than once uses “but he’s tender hearted, so he can’t be bad” as an argument.

        Certainly not “rational and objective” like it claims.

  • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgM
    34·
    1 month ago

    the only reason this is being kept up and locked and not deleted is to make it clear where Beehaw stands on Richard Stallman, which is: stop defending him, he is an awful person and he completely deserves to be put over the fire for his words and actions.

  • Naich@lemmings.world
    27·
    1 month ago

    He has said some fucked up shit to be fair. You can’t deny the amazing efforts he’s put into Free software, but as a person he’s pretty dubious and not a great figurehead for the movement. Basically, thanks for all you have done, but ewwww…

  • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org
    3·
    1 month ago

    Free Software and it’s communities should stay focused on Free Software topics only.

    It’s better not to mix software. RMS critiques should not be brought through the FS communities because then we lose the meaning of those communities.

    Critiques are okay, bring them in political communities. Don’t mix concepts.

    I know it’s hard to accept but someone political views does not affect their views on Free Software. Cancelling people in one topic does not implies that he is wrong in every other topic he is active.

    It’s stupid to think that choosing dubious ideas in one topic suddenly makes this individual not eligible for any other topic. That is a cross topic cancelation that does not have any sense.

    This cross topic cancelation is wrong. For example I may not agree with Lemmy devs about their political views, but yet I appreciate them for their Lemmy development, etc. I may critique them on political communities, but that doesn’t mean that they should be canceled from developing Lemmy or any free software project.

    For example Heisenberg and other scientific people were aligned with the Nazis in WWII. That doesn’t mean that their scientific development and image has to be canceled because of their political views. Yes it’s hard to accept, but it’s what is reasonable. Topics are separated naturally. If you knew Heisenberg only for his scientific development then you would think he is a great scientific. If you later knew what he did politically that wouldn’t change the fact that he is a great scientific.

    Do not try to mix topics that are not related.

    • Sub_dermal@beehaw.org
      8·
      1 month ago

      RMS is a huge figure head and representative of free software, so it matters what he says and does.

      I have seen no-one argue that everything RMS has said is bunk because of this, personally I think he has had some good ideas, sure; but that doesn’t mean I just ignore everything else because “its politics and not free Software related”.

      Free Software is in itself political, maybe the links between RMS’s words and actions, and Free Software are not direct or even close - but separating “politics” and Free Software just seems like burying your head in the sand.