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A comment on Richard Stallman – The state of the Free Software movement. Parent comment

Re:Richard Stallman – The state of the Free Software movement by lolinder on Sunday April 17, 2022 @11:08PM (#31066907)
But if Stallman is actually pursuing the OP's idea of extending the Overton window, then he's specifically not trying to accomplish short-term goals. Other people can and should be working on those short-term goals. Stallman, meanwhile, is trying to stretch the playing field out far enough that the smaller goals seem very reasonable by comparison to the extreme that he creates.

I'm not sure that Stallman is intentionally positioning himself this way (he seems to sincerely believe his all-or-nothing stance), but I could see it actually working. The big problem with Stallman is that he has to be at least moderately credible in order to extend the Overton window, but he seems to perpetually be right on the edge of being completely dismissed. If that happens then the window snaps back shut.

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Re:Richard Stallman – The state of the Free Software movement by JamisonM on Sunday April 17, 2022 @11:49PM (#31067181)
"[Stallman] seems to sincerely believe his all-or-nothing stance"

Richard Stallman has largely been not averse to pragmatism, he is the sort that is willing to clearly articulate his stance as to what he thinks is right, but has also been willing to endorse all sorts of incrementalism. For example:

http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/icecast-dev/2001-February/00...

"In response to the change of license, Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation says, "I agree. It is wise to make some of the Ogg Vorbis code available for use in proprietary software, so that commercial companies doing proprietary software will use it, and help Vorbis succeed in competition with other formats that would be restricted against our use.""

(I am desperately trying to avoid inserting a Bernie Sanders analogy here..)

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