Hello everyone, I am an FSF member since a couple of years but have supported the free software ideals for much longer, having much respect for RMS as the founder of GNU and FSF.
Having read several different viewpoints about the current situation and discussed with people on different sides of the argument, I think I have at least some partial understanding of what has happened. Hopefully this can help people understand each other better. Please forgive me for simplifying a lot here, I am trying to get the key points across without getting too lengthy. The criticism against RMS comes in two parts: (1) "RMS defended Epstein" (2) RMS bad behavior (many examples of this) The above have often been presented together forming a kind of package of allegations against RMS. This is unfortunate because (1) is false, while (2) is true (at least to an extent, depending of course on what you mean by bad behavior). Many people have, via various social media platforms and an "open letter", expressed that RMS is a terrible person and that the FSF board must resign and so on, giving (1) and (2) together as basis for their stance. In response to that, many FSF supporters have noticed that (1) is false and they have understandably been upset that RMS was accused with the false (1) used as evidence. Although (2) was also included in the presented evidence, its credibility was harmed by being presented together with the false (1). This has resulted in some FSF supporters concluding that RMS was attacked "based on lies". At the same time, the persons who told their experiences of RMS bad behavior (2) had nothing to do with the false allegation (1), it is not their fault that their stories were later, by others, mixed up with the false (1) leading to so much confusion and anger. They, who told their experiences of RMS bad behavior, are understandably disappointed if everything is dismissed as "lies" by RMS supporters. So, in this way I think it is possible to understand both viewpoints. All this has been made worse and more divisive than it needed to be because of social media platforms that encourage quick careless clicking and namecalling rather than thoughtful, civil discussion. I hope the above is understandable, I thought for a while about how to express it and this was the best I could do. Hopefully it can help with figuring out this difficult situation. I wish you all well, and it is my hope and belief that if we work together the free software movement will in the future grow stronger with more people choosing to participate. Best regards, Elias _______________________________________________ libreplanet-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
