Hello all,
I would like to re-frame the discussion a little bit into terms we may
all be more familiar with.
This letter we are being asked to sign is a lot like a controversial and
flawed merge request: it contains elements that probably all of us agree
with, elements that are controversial, and methods the address the
problem that are controversial.
Thus many people who agree with the goal or some of the claims cannot
approve the merge request (i.e. sign the letter) because of legitimate
concerns about the implementation. This is a situation many of us run
into daily, and we are familiar with the solution: revise the merge
request (letter) so that it is less controversial but still accomplishes
its stated aims. This way more people will be comfortable signing it and
the discussion doesn't become a referendum on people's personal views on
extremely sensitive subjects, which cannot end well.
So how would we revise this letter? We'd find the common ground that I
hope all of us can agree on:
1. RMS is polarizing figure with close to zero social skills who has
repeatedly put his foot in his mouth over a long period of time, making
him a terrible ambassador for the movement he created.
2. The FSF board has exercised poor judgment and acted inappropriately
both in reinstating RMS, and in even considering him for a public-facing
leadership position in the first place.
Thus, the real problem here is the FSF's institutional structure and the
judgment of its current members. A healthy body would have discarded RMS
long ago due to his total lack of fitness for a public-facing leadership
role. The fact that the opposite has happened shows that the FSF board
does not function properly. The details of RMS's objectionable
viewpoints are only relevant in that they serve to illustrate the
board's poor judgment.
Accordingly, I feel that this letter ought to be revised to target the
FSF board specifically, without so much of a focus on RMS himself or
calling for blanket boycotts of the FSF (what would this even entail?).
I think probably everyone could get behind that.
Nate
