> On Sunday, 20. March 2022 14:36, murph [/webmail/[email protected]]
wrote:
At the previous LibrePlanet, Richard was invited to speak, and spoke about
staffing changes that were not intended to be public yet, and caused a big
controversy. He was still reinstated as a member of the board, so he still has
access to that sort of information.
He didn't speak about "staffing changes", he announced his return to the board.
That said, there is no evidence that he had ever revealed things not supposed to
be public. So no, I don't think the reason for not letting him speak was fear
that he would disclose some highly sensitive information.
There were two things he could do at LP 2021:
1. Stay silent, deliver his speech as usual and wait for the official
announcement, which the FSF would make _well after_ the event. This would've
required him to fake it, an ability he clearly doesn't have, let alone lie to
his audience (he looks quite naive, too honest). Once announced, he would've
taken the blame for lying and be the target of an enraged so-called community.
2. Disclose the "secret" and tell the truth, which is what he did. And for the
sin of telling the truth he took the hate not only from the so-called community,
but also from the organizers of the event, i.e. ED and staff.
In other words, he was placed into a trap. He had no way out. Either way, he was
condemned to be the scapegoat.
Note that the only scope of this maneuver was to "save" the event. In fact, 80%
of the speakers signed the hate letter, meaning if they had known Stallman was
among them as a fellow speaker, they would've most probably refused to speak
(remember 2018?)
Note also that Stallman was readmitted to the board by a regular voting
procedure, which clearly must have taken place well in advance, probably before
or during the call for speakers. This means the organizers had lied to the
applicants, thus demanded secrecy to save their asses.
Finally, note that when Stallman announces his return to the board he mentions a
video that had been prepared to break the news, which clearly means the decision
had been taken to do it by showing that video at LP. This makes me think the
decision was reversed at the last minute. Stallman said the video had some sort
of problem, but I don't think the problem was technical, it must have been
something more substantial.
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