02.27.20
Inside the Free Software Foundation (FSF) – Part I: Year Zero
Helping the FSF succeed or just another Year Zero?
The image at the top is this (in)famous one from the Library of Congress
Summary: People behind the ousting of Richard Stallman (or ‘leaders of the coup’ as some call them) want a fresh start; but they aren’t starting what most FSF supporters have been led to believe
THE other day we began preparing a carefully fact-checked analysis of FSF affairs. We had been hearing all sorts of stories, similar to the ones nowadays told by Alex [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
“Remember what happens to technical people just because they wear a red hat with the wrong slogan instead of a company’s logo.”I myself experienced similar things and heard similar things for months. For months. Maybe I did not mention them, partly for diplomatic reason.
I’ve had feminists shun me (refuse to even reply to my mail after they had contacted me) because, according to them, my articles defended Richard Stallman. Everything was fine and they offered us help… until they found out about our stance on Stallman. Maybe one day I will publish some carefully redacted E-mails (for privacy purposes alone) just to show how they treat people who merely support Stallman on issues pertaining to software…
Yes, software.
“Maybe one day I will publish some carefully redacted E-mails (for privacy purposes alone) just to show how they treat people who merely support Stallman on issues pertaining to software…”Some of these activists, who may be perfectly well-meaning at heart, respect not diversity of views and they are tolerant as long as you’re not blind or obese or have some physical defect that’s not actually your fault. So perhaps ethics isn’t their true motivation (only subconsciously). They purge. They eliminate. They cancel. Year Zero. Look up the political reference. And there’s little room for negotiation with them (I’ve tried, but they’re so stubborn that if you defended Stallman at some point in the past, then you’re a non-person to them).
Now let’s talk about the FSF. The FSF never called me names, at least not in public. But we recently learned that the ‘leaders of the coup’ (FSF coup) “perceive you [...] and shared friends as attackers whose opinions are of little relevance and had better be dismissed, and also as unfriendly journalists [FSF] shouldn’t be talking to.”
How nice of them.
“Are those people even there to promote the mission statement of the FSF, as per the original objectives?”So after 13+ years defending and promoting the FSF’s true cause in this site this is what we get? At least from people who want to purge Stallman and his legacy at the FSF?
Are those people even there to promote the mission statement of the FSF, as per the original objectives? I doubt it.
I wasn’t born yesterday. I already saw the OSDL collapsing (in conjunction with its Microsoft flirtations) and it is happening again in the Linux Foundation. Let’s not allow the same to happen to the FSF. █
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