If You Attack Somebody Too Much You Legitimise and Strengthen That Somebody

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 10, 2025

Since Monday we've had another productive week (about 140 pages/articles) and next week ought to be the same. We don't lack topics as much as we lack time/capacity and our ability to produce material grows as a function of the attacks on us. The harsher the attacks on us, the more people can sympathise and recognise the importance of our work. I've long felt the same about Richard Stallman, who has faced far more attacks than Linus Torvalds ever faced.

Why?

Well, I think that deep inside many people know he was right for decades already and if they don't like what's happening or if they refuse to accept what's happening, then they start attacking the 'prophet'. But that just doesn't work; at the end those attacks add up to a "martyr" status.

There are several names for this phenomenon, which was studied in political spectra in particular. Why did Julian Assange get so widely feared and/or revered? What propelled him to fame? Think about it for a moment. From Wikipedia:

4 years ago Renata Avila (Mr. Assange's close friend and ally) wrote in relation to Dr. Stallman (RMS): "Some people taking part in the mob lynching RMS for sure hate his guts. Because he is “weird” and they think he is “creepy,” because he doesn't obey to any of the social conventions of our times, because he isn’t considerate towards them, etc. Anti-conformists, anarchists and neuro-divergent people often face this kind of hate. Some take part because they want to get the social credit of being on the side of “justice.” Maybe they fear that such lynching could happen to them as well, so they hope they are buying their place in “paradise” by encouraging and fueling the mob. (Historical examples may actually prove otherwise...) But most importantly, what many of the lynchers hate is Richard’s uncompromising way of defending Free/Libre software, therefore his way of pointing out their own contradictions."

For lack of an analogy: (comparing phenomena, not people)

The latest public talk from RMS (in Italy) was attended by almost 500 people despite it being announced at very short notice (a weekend) and scarcely advertised. The post below is hours old. RMS wrote to me, boasting that the room wasn't even big enough and many people waited for him outside (after the talk). Mob tactics may have unintended consequences. █

This past week:

1. 2025-08-04 ^03:27 Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Qubes OS and Curious crypto case of certificates (CCCC)
2. 2025-08-04 ^03:28 IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 03, 2025
3. 2025-08-04 ^03:29 Over at Tux Machines...
4. 2025-08-04 ^03:46 It Looks Like Managers at Oracle Now Use LLM Slop to Write Blog Posts
5. 2025-08-04 ^04:37 Protecting GNU/Linux-Centric Journalism From Serial Sloppers
6. 2025-08-04 ^04:53 In Spain, Microsoft's Search Engine Market Share Fell to 2%
7. 2025-08-04 ^05:40 "For Five decades; For freedoms; For all users" (Original EMACS Turns 50 Next Year)
8. 2025-08-04 ^05:53 Groklaw Static Site Relaunches With New Theme, But Many Pages and All the Comments Are Missing
9. 2025-08-04 ^06:14 Links 04/08/2025: 80 Years Since Last Nuclear War, IPv6 in China
10. 2025-08-04 ^06:40 Microsoft's Stock is Like a Religion, Microsoft Goes Into 'Hiding' (From Shareholders)
11. 2025-08-04 ^15:49 Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Misiamisia and Mobile Linux
12. 2025-08-04 ^15:50 Links 04/08/2025: Very Bad Weather and Travel Restrictions in China
13. 2025-08-04 ^16:35 Flagging or Tagging Slop That We Find Online
14. 2025-08-04 ^17:24 Microsofters' Lawyers Are Name-calling and Insulting Microsoft Critics, Even Their Spouses
15. 2025-08-04 ^17:32 In Many Countries Vista 11 Adoption Stalled or Became Negative
16. 2025-08-04 ^19:17 Microsoft and Windows Have Many Back Doors, But LLM Slop Keep Claiming That Linux Has "Backdoor"
17. 2025-08-05 ^01:19 Microsoft Layoffs Continue in August 2025
18. 2025-08-05 ^01:37 Dr. Andy Farnell Explains How Google Turned From "Librarian" Into "Oracle", Telling Us What to Think Instead of Where to Look
19. 2025-08-05 ^01:46 The Register MS Links to the Wrong statCounter Page
20. 2025-08-05 ^01:59 ChatGPT in Trouble
21. 2025-08-05 ^02:05 IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 04, 2025
22. 2025-08-05 ^02:06 Over at Tux Machines...
23. 2025-08-05 ^02:12 Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Zombie Threat and Switching to NixOS
24. 2025-08-05 ^02:30 About a Quarter of Today's "linux" News in Google News Came From One Domain and It's a Slopfarm
25. 2025-08-05 ^04:41 Mongolia: Microsoft Windows at All-Time Low
26. 2025-08-05 ^04:53 Shouting is an Indication of a Lack of Convincing Argument
27. 2025-08-05 ^05:00 Why We Also Include Gopher Links in Our Gemini (Protocol) Links
28. 2025-08-05 ^05:15 Microsoft Windows Fell to 19% "Market Share" in Montenegro
29. 2025-08-05 ^05:42 When The Register MS Says "Linux Backdoor" It Actually Talks About Malware
30. 2025-08-05 ^06:24 Tesla's Debt More Than Doubled in 2 Years and the Company Will Operate in the Red (at a Loss) Quite Soon
31. 2025-08-05 ^06:27 The Debian Language Police Department (PD)
32. 2025-08-05 ^06:51 IBM is Shutting Down (Piecewise)
33. 2025-08-05 ^07:08 Rumours of Mass Layoffs at Red Hat Next Week (August 11th, 2025)
34. 2025-08-05 ^09:06 Links 05/08/2025: Samsung and Microsoft Layoffs
35. 2025-08-05 ^12:31 Links 05/08/2025: Hey Hi (AI) Passing Fads and GAFAM "Embracing the Military"
36. 2025-08-05 ^15:00 Slopwatch: WebProNews, LinuxSecurity, and Some Success Stories
37. 2025-08-05 ^15:16 Introducing Mission:Libre and FreeXR (and BreakXR)
38. 2025-08-05 ^15:20 Some Cola Formulas Aren't Secret, But the Barrier is the Branding
39. 2025-08-05 ^16:14 The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register [updated]
40. 2025-08-05 ^16:23 The Register's Editor in Chief (Who Left for Google) Told Me "AI" Was a Bubble, But Now The Register Gets Paid to Participate in Inflating This Bubble
41. 2025-08-05 ^16:34 Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Lagrange v1.18.6, No Stagnation in Geminispace, and Fake Coding (Slop)
42. 2025-08-05 ^17:05 Microsoft's Washington Layoffs Aren't Everything, They're Definitely Not Happening in Just One State in the US
43. 2025-08-05 ^17:23 Zimbabweans Aren't Into Windows or Microsoft
44. 2025-08-05 ^17:42 Geminispace Promises Simplicity But Also Provides a "bunch of forums that get flood-filled by agitation against the very essence of Gemini itself"
45. 2025-08-05 ^17:58 Calling Plagiarism "Intelligence" is Pure Genius, Brilliance!
46. 2025-08-05 ^18:16 Stricter Enforcement of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is Sorely Needed
47. 2025-08-05 ^18:33 Shortly After a Microsofter Took Over The Register as Editor in Chief Microsoft Tim (Tim Anderson) is Back and It's Still Microsoft Propaganda, Sometimes Funded by Microsoft
48. 2025-08-05 ^18:57 IRC Turns 37
49. 2025-08-05 ^20:43 Microsoft v Planet Earth
50. 2025-08-05 ^20:53 The Inflammatory Influence of Social Control Media Giants
51. 2025-08-05 ^21:05 Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Opel Zoo near Frankfurt and Alhena 5.2.5
52. 2025-08-05 ^21:16 On "Tragedy of the Commons in the Production of Digital Artifacts"
53. 2025-08-05 ^21:31 Openwashing Slop... Using Slop!
54. 2025-08-06 ^02:19 IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 05, 2025
55. 2025-08-06 ^02:22 Over at Tux Machines...
56. 2025-08-06 ^02:42 Windows All-Time Lows, Android All-Time Highs in Kuwait
57. 2025-08-06 ^03:04 Gemini Links 06/08/2025: BitTorrent and Feedly Bots
58. 2025-08-06 ^03:32 Richard M. Stallman Has Published AI Memos Since 1980 (45 Years Ago)
59. 2025-08-06 ^04:07 Microsoft is Apparently Sending Gag Orders or NDAs to Staff That Got Laid Off (“We were told not to post on LinkedIn. Not to say anything.”)
60. 2025-08-06 ^04:21 New "US Editor for The Register" is 80% Microsoft and Windows
61. 2025-08-06 ^04:34 The Mainstream Media Talks About Spotify Share Price and Price Hikes, Not Its Debt Increasing by About 33% in Just 12 Months
62. 2025-08-06 ^05:11 Apple's iOS Bigger Than Microsoft Windows in Many Countries
63. 2025-08-06 ^05:27 66 Countries Where More People Use iPhones (or iPads) Than Microsoft Windows, According to statCounter Data
64. 2025-08-06 ^05:51 A Blow for Patent Ambitions of Bill Epsteingate
65. 2025-08-06 ^05:58 Staying Productive
66. 2025-08-06 ^06:19 How to Quadruple Your "Goodwill" Value and Grow Your (Wall) Street "Value" From $152B to $4000B Without Producing a Single Successful Product/Service
67. 2025-08-06 ^06:34 They Want You To Talk About Trump or 'The Other Bill' in Relation to Trafficking of Underage Girls for Sexual Exploitation
68. 2025-08-06 ^06:50 Ask Google (Jeeves)
69. 2025-08-06 ^07:10 Microsoft's Favourite Pay-to-Say 'Analyst' Firm Has Just Collapsed
70. 2025-08-06 ^07:32 FOSSY 2025 Conference Safety
71. 2025-08-06 ^11:50 Links 06/08/2025: Faked Values of Slop Companies and Government Bailouts
72. 2025-08-06 ^18:54 Gemini Links 06/08/2025: Pinephone, Reverse-Engineering, and More
73. 2025-08-06 ^18:56 Links 06/08/2025: Substack in Trouble, Slop Sceptic Shira Perlmutter Seeks Emergency Injunction Pending Appeal
74. 2025-08-06 ^19:02 Red Hat Layoffs Expected in 5 Days (Monday)
75. 2025-08-06 ^19:35 Slopwatch: Slow Day for LLM Slop, Serial Sloppers Still at It in Their Slopfarms
76. 2025-08-06 ^20:04 August Hits Microsoft Hard: Dead Divisions, Dead Products, Layoffs Again (on Week 1)
77. 2025-08-07 ^02:41 IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 06, 2025
78. 2025-08-07 ^02:42 Over at Tux Machines...
79. 2025-08-07 ^05:14 IBM is Obliterating Fedora
80. 2025-08-07 ^05:38 Microsoft, Already Borrowing 3 Billion Dollars a Month, is Trying to Cause Many People to Resign
81. 2025-08-07 ^05:58 Gemini Links 06/08/2025: Replacing a Pocket Watch and Buying in Bulk
82. 2025-08-07 ^06:12 Slopfarms Are Typically Fake News
83. 2025-08-07 ^06:36 Non-Free JavaScript Programs in Banks Aren't Even the Biggest Problem
84. 2025-08-07 ^07:13 Criticising Social Control Media in Social Control Media
85. 2025-08-07 ^07:48 Quit Perpetuating the Narrative of Gemini Protocol 'Dying' (It's False)
86. 2025-08-07 ^08:10 They Want Activists to Just Barely Walk and Eat, Not Do Activism Anymore
87. 2025-08-07 ^09:31 The Register MS Does More Microsoft Sez or GitHub Sez (Says) Pieces
88. 2025-08-07 ^09:51 OSS Didn't Always Mean Open Source Software
89. 2025-08-07 ^11:30 Links 07/08/2025: Apple Makes False Promises, More Trouble for Microsoft
90. 2025-08-07 ^13:42 GAFAM 'Says' is Front Page "News"
91. 2025-08-07 ^14:25 For the First Time in a Month OSI's "OpenSource.org" Blogs and It's Basically a Microsoft Blog Post (Microsoft Controls OSI)
92. 2025-08-07 ^15:05 Gemini Links 07/08/2025: "Right To Manage" and LoRa Analysis
93. 2025-08-07 ^15:06 Links 07/08/2025: Hardware Wars, Mass Recall of Colgate Total Clean Mint, More Microsoft Holes Found
94. 2025-08-07 ^18:11 Once a Site About BSD and GNU/Linux, and After Months of Silence, LinuxBSDos.com Comes Back Only as a Slopfarm
95. 2025-08-07 ^18:21 Read Us in Geminispace as Well
96. 2025-08-07 ^19:35 Links 07/08/2025: US Punishes India Instead of Russia, Attacks Law Firms to Prevent Scrutiny
97. 2025-08-08 ^00:53 Gemini Links 08/08/2025: KDE/Qt Development and What's Missing From "Retro"
98. 2025-08-08 ^01:13 The Register MS Promotes Microsoft Slop, Assumes All Readers Use Microsoft Windows
99. 2025-08-08 ^01:22 When Google's Googlebombing of "Gemini" Was Not Enough; They Now Also Googlebomb "Gemini Space"?
100. 2025-08-08 ^01:26 Fake 'Linux' Articles, Written by Bots to Take Traffic Away From Real Articles
101. 2025-08-08 ^01:47 IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 07, 2025
102. 2025-08-08 ^01:49 Over at Tux Machines...
103. 2025-08-08 ^02:32 Struggling to Cut Costs, Microsoft Continues Shutting Down and Cancelling Stuff This Month
104. 2025-08-08 ^02:38 Censorship Regarding Red Hat Layoffs
105. 2025-08-08 ^02:54 Microsofters Filed Two SLAPPs Against Us, Now They Cannot Keep Up With Judges' Orders
106. 2025-08-08 ^03:29 It's a Lot Easier to Participate in the Unethical System Than to Oppose Injustices in It
107. 2025-08-08 ^03:49 Why Gemini Protocol Has a Bright Future
108. 2025-08-08 ^06:45 Good Morning, Readers of The Register MS
109. 2025-08-08 ^07:59 Links 08/08/2025: "Quit Facebook" and High Cost of Microsoft/Windows Shown Again ("BlackSuit")
110. 2025-08-08 ^11:12 Red Hat's Latest Talent Hunt, Day Ahead of Mass Layoffs, is Yet Another Microsoft Executive
111. 2025-08-08 ^15:32 Gemini Links 08/08/2025: Cracking a Family Member's Password and Overdose of Slop
112. 2025-08-08 ^16:36 Links 08/08/2025: China King of Plastics and US Dictator Plans to Meet Russian Dictator
113. 2025-08-08 ^17:10 Slopwatch: LLM Sloppers in Google News, LinuxSecurity, and More
114. 2025-08-09 ^00:35 Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
115. 2025-08-09 ^01:49 IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
116. 2025-08-09 ^01:50 Over at Tux Machines...
117. 2025-08-09 ^02:13 Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
118. 2025-08-09 ^02:26 Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
119. 2025-08-09 ^02:58 Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
120. 2025-08-09 ^03:21 Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
121. 2025-08-09 ^05:25 There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
122. 2025-08-09 ^05:55 The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
123. 2025-08-09 ^06:41 Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
124. 2025-08-09 ^07:06 Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
125. 2025-08-09 ^08:06 After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
126. 2025-08-09 ^10:21 Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
127. 2025-08-09 ^13:27 Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
128. 2025-08-09 ^15:40 Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
129. 2025-08-09 ^16:36 Slopwatch: Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, and Google News With Its Slopfarms of Choice
130. 2025-08-09 ^17:02 Seductive Mirage or Allure of Complex, Proprietary Coffee Machines (or Similar White Elephants)
131. 2025-08-09 ^17:51 Links 09/08/2025: Putin Allegedly to Visit Alaska (Which He Deems Part of Russia), Mike Tyson Sued for Copyright Infringement
132. 2025-08-09 ^18:31 The Goal of Coopetition Assumes You're Friends
133. 2025-08-09 ^18:57 The Hype That Microsoft and The Register MS (Among Others) Promote Helps Stage DDoS Attacks on Free Software Sites
134. 2025-08-09 ^19:21 Sales of Windows on PCs (Windows Licences) Go Down
135. 2025-08-09 ^19:55 Is Red Hat About to Give the Boot to GNOME People Who Helped Microsoft 'Secure' (Monopolised) Boot?
136. 2025-08-09 ^20:37 The Register MS (Microsoft) or The Register AI (Slop)?