Richard Stallman's Talk at Georgia Tech is Just 2 Days Away
Days ago: Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk at Georgia Tech This Week
11 hours ago:
Christine Hall's latest story raises awareness of the upcoming talk by RMS, his first public talk in an American college since 2018 (when IBM bought Red Hat). She said: "While Richard Stallman has been making sporadic public appearances in recent years, you might easily think he’s in hiding unless you read Techrights, which never quit supporting Stallman. Other than that, even the Free Software Foundation, the organization Stallman founded — and where he remains a board member — has been mum."
Unlike the FSF, we don't side when the aggressors when it's 'convenient' (to save face, groupthink, ritualism). Money isn't a priority, principles are. Freedom and justice are expensive, they're never free.
She further wrote: "This wasn’t the first we’d heard of the event. The first report we saw on this was on Techrights on December 21, and on a Reddit post by rockenman1234, who said that this will be Stallman’s first official appearance in Atlanta since the 1990s..."
It speaks of his "subsequent recovery" from cancer, and having asked around yesterday, I'm not sure it can be called a recovery. He still has cancer. As per his own homepage: "Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19."
That's why he will wear a mask and ask others (the audience) to do the same. Some people like to spin or twist or distort his use of a mask (and asking others to wear one, likewise) as some sort of idealogical zealotry and an unreasonable stance. No, he's just trying not to fall ill, as it can prove fatal to an immunocompromised person. Don't mock a person for wanting to survive.
We're still curious to see how malicious people (or trolls) in social control media controlled and curated by broligarchs will try to slant his talk as "bad" - likely by attacking the person himself, not refuting or questioning his message.
An organiser has since commented: "Thank you for covering us and our event! RMS is also very excited, for more info please visit https://ltc.gtorg.gatech.edu/. Event space is first come first serve, but the official room capacity is ~380." █