Re: Moving Forward

[Aaron Wolf <wolftune@riseup.net>]

On 2019-09-23 4:39 p.m., A. Mani wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 6:11 PM Matt Ivie <m0dese7en@mykolab.com> wrote:
>> This is not the first attack to ever take place on a community or the
>> figurehead of a movement. I think we all know that other important
>> social movements have had their share of media-driven scandal. What is
>> most important here is how we move forward.
> 
> +1
> 
>> What RMS said is being misquoted and misstated everywhere around the
>> web. Those that were already overly critical of him just went
>> supernova. This situation has made it hard to keep perspective of
>> what's going on.
> 
> The misinterpretation part is hardly the problem. The bigger problem
> is the number of reports on
> RMS's misogyny, anti-feminist position and doings that have
> accumulated over time. These were not so well-known before even within
> the free software community before -- at most people invoked various
> disorders to explain RMS's behavior. In one keynote, RMS's response to
> a question was
> "Oh wait you're a woman! I don't answer questions from women."
> Furthermore there are ill-informed statements on feminism in RMS's
> blog -- they mean RMS is still a slave of the patriarchy.
> 

Apologies for language pickiness, but I think what you're describing is
more like sexism than misogyny. RMS is a product of a particularly
male-dominated sexist tech culture within an overall sexist society.
Combine that with social awkwardness, and that's a pretty parsimonious
explanation for RMS' behavior.

The claim that he holds overall anti-feminist positions seems inaccurate
to me from all I've seen of his stated views.

That question response quote is so extreme, the most reasonable
assumption is that it was said as a facetious joke. I have never
encountered that anecdote before, so I have no context. But taking it at
pure face value makes no sense to me whatsoever.

RMS may indeed disagree with several aspects of various schools of
feminism, but that's quite tangential to the FSF, with the exception
that it's indeed a liability to have a leader who expresses
controversial opinions on unrelated topics, even if that's done separately.

> FSF will do well to highlight its commitment to gender equality and
> feminist practices.
> 

Sure, I support that completely. To make this appropriate, however, it
should emphasize the ways in which software freedom align. Non-free
software is one tool that the patriarchal power structures use to
maintain their power and the status quo. We can and should talk about
how real software freedom needs to focus on getting the freedoms as
downstream as possible so that they aren't the privilege of trained
tech/hacker/programmers (a group that happens to be male dominated).

>>
>> There are some things in this situation that are not totally clear to
>> me:
>>
>> 1) Is RMS still going to have any kind of interaction with the FSF?
> 
> Should FSF impose conditions on those who are associated with them?
> 
>> 2) I am unclear as to the motivation for his resignation. I'd like to
>> know if he voluntarily resigned or if he was urged or forced to
>> "voluntarily" resign?
>>
> 
> Apparently it is voluntary. It is really a good thing.
> The image of FSF would have been severely tarnished otherwise.
> 
> 
> 
> Best
> 
> A Mani
> 
> Prof.Dr.(Miss) A Mani
> CU, ASL, AMS, ISRS, CLC, CMS, IEEE
> Senior Member, International Rough Set Society
> Homepage: http://www.logicamani.in
> Blog: https://logicamani.blogspot.in/
> Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mani_A
> sip:girlprofessor@ekiga.net
> 
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