Richard #Stallman a.k.a. #RMS is the founder of the Free Software Foundation (#FSF), author of the original versions of gcc and Emacs, and perhaps best known for his creation of the GNU Public Licence a.k.a. #GPL.
Thanks to the pioneering work of Richard Stallman, Android has a freely available kernel that can boot it, and companies like Samsung are forced to release their augmented kernel source code to us every month, so that we can build — using Stallman’s compiler — a working custom recovery like TWRP.
Richard Stallman is currently under coordinated attack by the cancel culture mob. They have him firmly in their sights and have set their hearts on trying to get him removed from the board of the organisation he founded in 1985, and which has been his life’s work.
The reason for the attack is that Stallman is alleged to hold views that are “problematic” in the eyes of his detractors.
My own stance is that to even engage in debate of Stallman’s views would be to lend credence to the notion that they are somehow germane to the work that Stallman does in support of free software. I contend that they are not, which is not to imply that the accusations leveled at Stallman would otherwise require intellectual or moral contortion to refute. They would not. Stallman’s views, even if they were relevant, have been grossly misrepresented.
The attempted silencing of free speech is always painful to behold, but this ill-conceived attack on Stallman is particularly stomach-turning, given how much of his life he has devoted to the freedom of others, including those who accuse him now.
His contributions to free software and his consistent, uncompromising commitment to his beliefs regarding software freedom have made millionaires of others, including many among his accusers now, while Stallman himself continues to lead a life of subsistence.
#Android would not exist if it hadn’t been for Stallman.
Without Stallman, we would not have the assurance that important software like #Magisk will continue to exist long after the project’s creator has moved on.
Without Stallman, #TWRP would not now exist.
Were it not for Richard Stallman, most of the cheap electronic appliances and gadgets in your home would simply not exist.
Without Richard Stallman’s groundbreaking work, the world would be a different and much worse place.
Now you can do something in return. Richard Stallman needs your support.
Please consider signing the petition below:
https://github.com/rms-support-letter/rms-support-letter.github.io
If you need more background before signing, please take the time to do your own research and reach your own conclusions.
@ianmacd I think the crucial point in such cases is that whether these allegations are supported by objective facts or merely from someone’s unfalsifiable account. The problem with cancel culture is that If all that matters are someone’s lived experiences or someone’s perceived feelings of offense that can be claimed by anyone, yet are unable to be proven by evidence, then anyone can be criminalized. I think we should assume one’s innocence until he’s proven guilty , instead of criminalizing everyone for the possible harm he might have done until he’s proven innocent.
Moreover, even the allegations made against him, in this case Richard Stallman are true (e.g. leering at a woman’s chest, asking a woman for a dinner by saying he’d kill him self if he was refused), I don’t think they would be sufficient reasons to “remove” him from his job and his membership from FSF, for he didn’t use his power and position to force anyone to have dinner with him or force them to show their chest in front of him.(prove me if I’m wrong)
What I do sense in the attempt to cancel him is a tendency towards authoritarianism, that is, if someone makes you uncomfortable, hurts your feelings, then even if they didn’t cause harms that are obvious to all, you should have the power to remove him, deplatfom him, make him lose the job. Given what’s been done by identity politics and woke movements, and given that the foucauldian idea underlying much of the broad Critical Social Justice movement, that all that matters is power. It’s doubtful whether this is a sincere effort to improve the condition of Free software, or simply another attempt to infect yet another field with their woke politics, to capture Foss communities in the same way they took over the Campus, the Media, and organizations such as the ACLU.