Blogging Pioneer Dave Winer: Pleading for Richard Stallman

Guest Editorial Team

2021-05-18 23:51:31 UTC
Modified: 2021-05-18 23:51:31 UTC

Reprinted from the original

I feel so sad about what's happening to Stallman.#
He's 68. I know what that's like, I'm 65. #
He has fixed his whole existence on a single idea that software should be free. Not free of charge, but free to use and to adapt. It's not that far from the kind of openness I believe in, that I believe is an ethical responsiblity for developers. #
It's useful to have a person like Stallman around, consistently marking an extreme view. It's like knowing there's a North Star, you may not be going to it, exactly, but knowing where it is makes it possible to go other places. And some people agree with Stallman in total, and to them he's their leader.#
Now, if you step back and look at what's being said about him, basically people don't like things he says or the questions he asks. I read these things completely factoring out the non-factual stuff, where they tell you what his questions mean in some pure sense, when what they're really saying is what these questions mean to them. To a reasonable person imho they're just questions. Some people don't argue with questions, they just ask them. For the people who attack him, it's the opposite, their questions are accusations. #
I think Stallman is actually a naive innocent, almost child-like harmless person. That's based on years of observing him, being connected through communities. Maybe he did terrible things I don't know about. But maybe you have too. Is this how we're going to coexist? All of us worrying about who's going to make a credible case for destroying each others' lives? This isn't about Stallman, it's about your sense of justice and how far it extends, and how unfair that is for the rest of us who fear being judged by you. #
PS: A quote from a 1994 blog post: "I try not to get offended on principle." I was quoting someone else, but I've remembered that. Just because I should be offended, doesn't mean, if I'm not actually offended, that I have to pretend I was. #
PPS: If you still think Stallman should be destroyed, go see Lives of Others, a wonderful film about intellectuals in East Germany during the Cold War. #

Brigading Against Women - Part VII - 'Trolling' Courts and Legal Systems in America and in the UK (Europe) Costs a Lot to Taxpayers: They only attend hearings after being arrested
Dejan Panovski Outs linuxize.com as a Slopfarm, Another Site That Sold Out and Became LLM Garbage: From what we can gather, both images and text are slop
A Microsoft Lunduke OS (LCOS) is Not Even in Top 100 in DistroWatch, Microsoft Lunduke Just Games the Numbers Like Linspire Did (and Got 'Banned' for It): Linspire used to send people to 'its' DistroWatch page to make the illusion of popularity
Microsoft's Attacks on Courts in the Netherlands Result in GNU/Linux Growing to About 10% There: One core issue that justified this and led to this outcome is Microsoft's interference with the administration of justice
They Create the Conditions for People to Leave, This Way They Don't Call it "Layoffs": We keep seeing many stories like these
Gemini Links 28/09/2026: Wildfire, DOS, and Backups: Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Portuguese Talent For Bureaucratic Empire Building: Portugal’s success in securing senior executive appointments at the EUIPO and the EPO is a notable example of how countries seek to strengthen their influence within European intergovernmental institutions
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 27, 2026: IRC logs for Sunday, September 27, 2026
Gemini Links 27/09/2026: Writing Well, Productivity, and a Relaunch in Geminispace: Links for the day
Making This Site More Useful to More People: Search engines (as a concept) are under attack
Exposing Crimes of Americans (From the UK): We must ensure UK prisons are never misused to punish/silence people who expose crimes in America
Spam and Chatbot Spam in Internet Relay Chat (IRC): Maintaining one's own IRC network requires some housekeeping, but it's simpler than outsourcing to malicious companies
Search Engine of Techrights Improved for Better Signal-to-Noise Ratio: Our growing community needs more search facilities
Microsoft: We Love Layoffs, We Do Silent Layoffs, More Microsoft Projects/Teams/Studios Confirmed to be Shutting Down: XBox is dying. Piece by piece.
Brigading Against Women - Part VI - On Garrett and Lozza, Defamation, Attempts to Crack My Wife's Accounts, Social Engineering to Try to Take Sites Offline, Subscribing Us to Mountains of SPAM: tried swatting us
Links 27/09/2026: "Provost of Dartmouth Busted Using Hey Hi (AI) Slop for His Own Writing in Newspapers and Academic Journals" and "UK Government Enforcement Reform": Links for the day
People and Sites Wish a Happy 43th Birthday to GNU (Today): We've collected some examples
Links 27/09/2026: Microsoft Fired People a Day After Promotion, "Fragility of Online Journalism": Links for the day
Brigading Against Women - Part V - SWATTING, Extortion Against Webhosts, and Lawfare Under Sworn Oath (Perjury Also): Matthew Garrett has no qualm about still collaborating with Lozza
20 Years Later: There's a strong anti-democracy movement brewing in many places
Gemini Links 27/09/2026: Telescopes/Gskyer, Writing for Writing's Sake, and Writing Tools: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 26, 2026: IRC logs for Saturday, September 26, 2026
Gemini Links 26/09/2026: Computer Cases Dreary, Web Drowning in Botspam: Links for the day
Reform UK auditor: Electoral Commission accounts, Companies House accounts, a going concern or not?: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Temporary Public Office or Permanent Personal Feather-Bed?: there are no visible signs that the Administrative Council has the slightest interest in contemplating a change in leadership at the EPO
Brigading Against Women - Part IV - Death Threats, Threats to Women, and Threats for Pointing Out, Correctly and Based on Hard Evidence, That Garrett and Lozza Talk to Each Other About Me Every Year (for 4 Years): Brett Wilson LLP too is a toxic manosphere
More GAFAM Layoffs at Apple, Second Time in Weeks (Silent Layoffs Silently Target Older and "More Expensive" Staff): How many layoffs happen at Apple silently and go unreported or very scarcely reported?
Gemini Links 26/09/2026: Rant About Slop Ruining Crafts (Drowning the Signal With Plagiarism) and "Going Mechanical": Links for the day
Links 26/09/2026: Microsoft Says Notification Data Breach/Surveillance Hole There by Design, EU Rapidly Dumping Microsoft for Digital Sovereignty: Links for the day
The Former Linux News Site ostechnix.com is LLM Slop: Please do not link to sites that promote and/or spread slop
Links 26/09/2026: Volkswagen Recalling ~50,000 Cars, US Attacks Its Own Media: Links for the day
Making Oneself Obsolete With Slop: Dr. Lemire also puts on display a degree of hypocrisy
Brigading Against Women - Part III - Racism Looms Large, Not Just Sexism: threats from a racist
Microsoft CEO Calls Layoffs "Streamlining" and Says Microsoft Layoffs Are "Great to See": The lack of honesty here is only to be expected from Microsoft
Media silence deafening as Reform UK on brink of administration: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 26/09/2026: Travel, Group Insurance Death Spiral, Stargazing, and Lagrange Meets LLM Slop: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 25, 2026: IRC logs for Friday, September 25, 2026

Blogging Pioneer Dave Winer: Pleading for Richard Stallman

Recent Techrights' Posts