What do you think of Richard Stallman? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 months ago by gnutard@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 70 points 4 months ago

His comments about women are inexcusable, but the fact he convinced Linus to adopt GPL is paying dividends to billions of people globally, and most of us don't know it.

[-] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 12 points 4 months ago

What comments about women?

[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 months ago

https://geekfeminism.fandom.com/wiki/Richard_Stallman

[-] 30p87@feddit.de 12 points 4 months ago

what may appear whimsical to men who receive them may seem creepy to women.

Isn't this site supposed to - yk - support the equality of all genders?

[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 0 points 4 months ago

I don't really know what the site stands for or their agenda, but the list is a comprehensive list of things Richard Stallman has done to discomfort women in the field

[-] SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 months ago

discomfort women

Stallman has made many posts sympathizing with efforts to legalize some forms of child pornography. Among other things, they stated that he was "skeptical of the claim that voluntarily [sic] pedophilia harms children". These comments were defended by his supporters on Slashdot. As of 2016, there are reports of Stallman changing his views on the matter within the previous few years.[2] However, in 2018 he defended Cody Wilson, who later pled guilty to sex with an underage girl, with Stallman saying that the girl likely had "entirely willing sex with him." Stallman changed his original post but nevertheless still said it is "normal for adults to be physically attracted to adolescents" and that adults using trafficked children shouldn't be legally responsible. In 2019, Stallman posted an email to an MIT listserv about the allegation that MIT professor Marvin Minsky raped a 17-year-old girl, and due to public outcry he resigned from both MIT and the Free Software Foundation.

Women are just so sensitive!

[-] stopit@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

Minsky never raped anyone. The 17 year old girl was sent to him and politely refused. She has even confirmed this. I feel as if he goes to great lengths to speak clearly and people never seem to listen.

I do agree, however, his early views on pedophilia are creepy. I have never heard him support cp, so I won't argue either way.

[-] SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 months ago

I am not a lawyer or a judge.

But "early views" nothing. The guy knows where he stands, it's just that now he knows that being open about those views will get him in trouble.

[-] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 months ago

Ugh. God damn. 🤢

Somehow I'm not surprised. He seems pretty eccentric. In a socially awkward way that makes you uncomfortable.

[-] steeznson@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

He seems to have no filter whatsoever. His comments are inexcusable but he seemed to set himself up to broadcast every single thought that ever goes through his head to the entire world. I suspect there would be some clangers in there if I - or anyone else - spewed all of their halfbaked thoughts out all the time like that.

Personally I'm never going to meet the guy and my opinion of him doesn't particularly matter. That provides an opportunity to pick out the bits of his thoughts that I find interesting and leave out the bits that are crass. Appreciate not everyone has that luxury though, especially if they have been personally affected by one of the issues he's crashed into like a bull in a china shop.

this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024

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