04.08.21
The Hate Letter Which Backfired
Summary: The FSF is more closely aligned with its founder’s vision, his antagonists have left or are leaving, and that old hate letter turned out to be a loud minority (made to appear louder by biased media) emboldened by a gish gallop of lies
THE corporations and the corporate media that told us FSF was doomed, FSF must shun its founder, and that this founder is some sort of abhorrent individual (like a leper!) — so abhorrent he must never again show his face in public, ever again! — are suddenly quiet. They didn’t quite expect it to end up this way. The petition in support of the FSF’s decision so far massively exceeds the hate letter (still growing steadily, without any signs of plateauing, so it can massively exceed the hate letter, maybe 3-4 times over!), which was largely fueled by the media that rallied irrational decisions (some people who signed already express remorse; there’s work underway to make more such remorse).
“They didn’t quite expect it to end up this way.”Today, more than a fortnight later, I look back at what happened and what can be expected when starting a campaign based on lies, outright libel in fact. It backfires spectacularly and helps reaffirm the views long held by Techrights (about the OSI, the GNOME Foundation, IBM and so on). Much damage or self-harm has been done over the past 2.5 weeks, both for organisations and for individual signers. We will be able to refer back to that infamous letter and point out what certain organisations and individuals really stand for. █
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