Re: Support RMS

[Alexandre Oliva <lxoliva@fsfla.org>]

On Apr 15, 2021, Aaron Wolf <wolftune@riseup.net> wrote:

> That RMS turns some people away is not debatable.

I'm willing to accept that as a premise.  It would take more than a
saint (which he is ;-) to not turn anyone whatsoever away.

Now let's look into the effects of defaming him, shall we?


False accusations as the ones that have been made are not taken
lightly.

People who believe them are likely to be turned away not just from the
FSF, but from any public appearance by RMS as leader or regular
participant in the movement he founded.

If we accept the premise that RMS's misbehavior drives people away, then
attributing far worse misbehavior to him drives more people away from
the movement.


Conversely, people who do NOT believe the false accusations perceive
intolerance and a toxic atmosphere being supported by a significant
fraction of the movement.

If we accept the premise that misbehavior attributed to RMS drives
people away, then it's hard to dispute that the displays of intolerance
and toxic atmosphere will also drive people away, probably in a larger
magnitude.


That's why I find it so hard to believe that the poeple carrying out
these actions are acting out of love for the Free Software movement.
Even if they were sure their actions would manage to deprive the whole
movement from RMS's alleged negative influence, getting him to commit
suicide or somesuch, we'd lose the "stallman was right" wisdom, and get
the negative publicity of being such a toxic environment that the
founder was driven to suicide.  And since their actions have failed,
we're left with a defamed leader, a divided community, and a large
number of lying and toxic participants who purport to have acted in good
faith for the movement, but that were only competent enough to have
caused great damage :-(


RMS is forever associated with the movement.  The best those who love
the movement have to do is to restore his defamed image.

Those who don't wish to be associated with him, but that support the
ideas behind the movement, are better off finding ways to support the
ideas without interacting with him, but also without defaming him.  As
for those who wish to destroy the movement...  I don't really want to
give them any useful advice.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker  https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/
   Free Software Activist         GNU Toolchain Engineer
        Vim, Vi, Voltei pro Emacs -- GNUlius Caesar

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