You are giving the mob far too much credit. It is just the fall of the dice that made them come after Stallman for what he said this time and not another. Had he said "Have we seen evidence that Minsky himself engaged in illegal activity?" it would still have been a crapshoot. The quotes are so amazingly out of context that if they were in the same mood, Vice and friends would still have quoted this as "Stallman says rape not bad".

Media are trash. Cancel culture steamrolls everything, there is no way to avoid being their target other than complete submission. You can word what you say as carefully as you like, but if they perceive that you're a good target, it won't matter one bit.

It's not about what is said, this is simply a war.

Anyone who would talk about a mob is sure to place me among the pitchfork bearers, so I'm not surprised you'd think I'm giving us too much credit. Speaking for myself, I had nothing but positive feelings towards Stallman until today, and even today I gave him the benefit of the doubt until reading his actual emails. Even then I don't hate him; I just think he acted in a way that would be considered a justified cause for dismissal by many reasonable employers. I am also saddened to see that he appeals to science while having learned nothing about a subject he seems to speak so confidently about, while ignoring decades of scholarly work by those who've dedicated their lives to seriously studying the issue. I'm surprised to learn he's like that.

But I agree it's a war. It's a war that's been waged for centuries and even millennia between the hegemony and the margins, and it's a war we'll win, because we always have (well, it's complicated, but if you want to speak in those terms, that's fine by me).

As a European I find it difficult to follow this thread.

> about a mob is sure to place me among the pitchfork bearers

Who is the we and the them?

Since it was the “alt-right” Cernovich who took down Epstein and the “alt-right” who has been making noise about him for the better part of a decade I’m guessing you are “alt-right”? But what faction does that make doubleunplussed?

In my center-left country (by European standards - so “far-left” by American standards) a normal worker couldn’t be fired for making the comments Stallman made but a spokesman of the organisation probably could be?

> between the hegemony and the margins, and it's a war we'll win

Which side do you support? From an outsiders perspective it seems like Richard Stallman is in the margin of the margins?

I don't know who Cernovich is, but in every country a leading figure who makes such statements after decades of workplace problems with women (as it turns out) would be fired.