Belated New Article About Last Thursday's Lecture by Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Guest article by Dr. Andy Farnell: Finland, Finland, Finland… farewell to Finland, an occupied territory
Published moments ago: Richard Stallman vaatii Helsinkiä luopumaan ihmisten tunnistamisesta joukkoliikenteessä
Automated English translation:
Last night we said that Daniel "Pocock is being demonised for the same reasons" Richard Stallman is being demonised. A reader has since then told us that it would be "useful to reiterate those reasons, especially use of the F-word" (as in FREEDOM).
I particularly like it when bloggers don't just call Stallman a "Free software" person but instead focus on human rights aspects - i.e. things everyone can understand and relate to. Privacy is one example. Replacement of services with bots or "self-service" is another (an economic and social matter, not a "geeks' thing").
Those who keep attacking Mr. Pocock and Dr. Stallman are, in my experience, either jealous [1, 2] or afraid that people will listen to them and agree with what they say. To demonise them means to discourage folks from even listening to them, or sometimes merely dismiss (upfront, with prejudice) whatever they say, no matter what!
In political spheres this is known as "TDS". Just because something or someone is XYZ does not imply that everything uttered is also XYZ. The "Practice of Ritual Defamation" is a more "polite" version of Crucifixion.
Going back to the topic Stallman discussed in Finland (probably one of many topics, but this blogger latched onto one), there are good reasons to pay with cash, not limited to privacy. There are purely pragmatic reasons. About 90% of our purchases are made with cash; it's not difficult and it is generally safe.
Dr. Andy Farnell has already explained (see link at the very top) why the whole Helsinki area (suburbs too) gets it very wrong and repelled him some years ago. He won't go back there. He used to work there. It's like Helsinki basically abandoned human rights in favour of some pseudo-Utopia sold by Orwellian firms, many of which aren't Finnish and don't do technology; they do other things (like advertising) but wrap those up as "Tech" (with a capital T). █