[kwlug-disc] Richard Stallman announcing his return to the FSF's Board of Directors

[Chris Frey]

On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 02:47:07PM -0400, Mikalai Birukou via kwlug-disc wrote:
> > Kuhn also writes:
> > 
> > 	"In short, the radical message of software freedom became
> > 	overshadowed by RMS' radical views about sexual morality."
> > 
> > Did it?  It didn't for me.  A thinking person should be able to deal
> > with separate topics.
> 
> Letter from staffers asks precisely this. They ask us to separate the
> software liberty and organizational parts, because they can't handle abuse
> in the org part. Staffers ask your merci, in their desire to have better
> work environment. RMS has already enjoyed staying as their boss for more
> than a decade, despite his behaviour and thanks to his founder status.
> 
> A thinking person should be able to deal with separate topics. Right?

I can only repeat what I said in the previous email.  What you quoted
from my statements above was related to RMS's words.  Yet your response
talks about abuse, which is actions.

That may be true, but as I said before, I have no direct knowledge of
it, and to speak for or against it would be wrong, and to judge it would
be wrong.  It is also why I have not signed either letter, because there
could be other discussions beyond his free speech that need addressing
before we can all agree on his rejoining the board.  Regardless, that
has nothing to do with me, as I have nothing I could possibly add.
The board itself is much closer to these facts than I am.

Even so, people seem to conflate the actions and the words.  If we say
we believe in free speech, then we have to take the words out of the
equation.  Even words that are offensive.  And the resignation in 2019,
as I understand it, was due to the words he wrote in email.  Words that
proved correct in the long run.

If we have stopped believing in free speech, that's another matter.
But that will lead to division, in my opinion, and the cracks in those
divides have some really sharp edges.

- Chris