Re:Richard Stallman Has Been Vilified by Those Who Don’t Kno...
by kelnos on Monday October 07, 2019 @07:32PM
(#21187113)
> First of all, as a lay person, I don't take the FSF seriously anymore because of this move.
I get that, but you're just one person (as am I). If we take all of the people who previously had some respect for the FSF, my guess would be that more than half of them will continue to respect them after this, or actually respect them more (as I will). If all of this had come to light and the FSF have done nothing, I'd respect them less and take them less seriously. I suspect that's true for a lot of other people as well.
Of course, I don't know this for sure, it's just what I think. But that's all we're doing here anyway: just throwing around our opinions.
And that's why I think this argument:
> a) let RMS continue to do his usual thing without repercussions and become a less-relevant organization that people don't take seriously
doesn't hold any water. First of all, as a lay person, I don't take the FSF seriously anymore because of this move. How can an organization defend our liberties when it's not willing to stand up to a witch-hunt targeting it's founding member? Second and more importantly, I think the people who do matter don't care: they have the reference point to know that this culture shift is fleeting and that, more importantly, FSF wouldn't even exist without someone who stubbornly, aggressively defends digital civil liberties. You can't _have_ the FSF without a Stallman behind it, and my bet would be this is the start of the FSF's slow fade into obscurity.