I had no idea. With all of the things I have to follow on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis some things are just going to fall through the cracks. “Minor public figure holds reprehensible views” won’t generally hit my radar. “Major public figure did something reprehensible” may not hit my radar depending on how busy or drunk I am in a given week, which will leave me wondering why people hate them years later.
I’m not saying this as a criticism of you. You brought it up which is super valuable. There’s just so much shit to keep up with that I always appreciate context because I have other things going on and rarely have any idea what reprehensible thing a particular person has said or done.
Hey no sweat 🙂 I just happen to be old enough to have known / read about / heard about RMS for decades. Given enough time, if you’re at all interested in the free software movement, his less-than-savory traits naturally end up coming to your attention.
I’ve been using free software (both free as in freedom and free as in beer) off and on since I discovered slackware in the 90s, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m not plugged into the scene. I’m not plugged into most scenes except possibly rock and Americana music, and I know all the gross shit that happened there. Rock music especially. And that may actually be why I tend to avoid getting plugged in.
But I went through the whole report. I’m sad to find out someone with such lofty ideals in one area is so scummy. A lot of that just sounds like typical neckbeard idiocy dialed up to maximum. And if he were just any neckbeard or incel on the street everyone could just dismiss him. But he’s a prominent figure that represents a movement spouting gross and harmful shit. It has nothing to do with the validity of the movement, nor does it remove the value of free software, but him being a keynote speaker everywhere and being so involved makes things feel dirty.
I don’t know. I didn’t take my medication today so I’m scattered. I just hate when people doing important or influential work are gross people, especially if they have harmful attitudes towards minors.
I had no idea. With all of the things I have to follow on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis some things are just going to fall through the cracks. “Minor public figure holds reprehensible views” won’t generally hit my radar. “Major public figure did something reprehensible” may not hit my radar depending on how busy or drunk I am in a given week, which will leave me wondering why people hate them years later.
I’m not saying this as a criticism of you. You brought it up which is super valuable. There’s just so much shit to keep up with that I always appreciate context because I have other things going on and rarely have any idea what reprehensible thing a particular person has said or done.
Hey no sweat 🙂 I just happen to be old enough to have known / read about / heard about RMS for decades. Given enough time, if you’re at all interested in the free software movement, his less-than-savory traits naturally end up coming to your attention.
I’ve been using free software (both free as in freedom and free as in beer) off and on since I discovered slackware in the 90s, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m not plugged into the scene. I’m not plugged into most scenes except possibly rock and Americana music, and I know all the gross shit that happened there. Rock music especially. And that may actually be why I tend to avoid getting plugged in.
But I went through the whole report. I’m sad to find out someone with such lofty ideals in one area is so scummy. A lot of that just sounds like typical neckbeard idiocy dialed up to maximum. And if he were just any neckbeard or incel on the street everyone could just dismiss him. But he’s a prominent figure that represents a movement spouting gross and harmful shit. It has nothing to do with the validity of the movement, nor does it remove the value of free software, but him being a keynote speaker everywhere and being so involved makes things feel dirty.
I don’t know. I didn’t take my medication today so I’m scattered. I just hate when people doing important or influential work are gross people, especially if they have harmful attitudes towards minors.
Well they have now, damn. Thanks for the info