cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1366662
Richard Stallman was right since the very beginning. Every warning, every prophecy realised. And, worst of all, he had the solution since the start. The problem is not Richard Stallman or the Free Software Foundation. The problem is us. The problem is that we didn’t listen.
I agree that free and open source is the only way forward.
However, RMS is quite extreme. He once told Bryan Lunduke on Linux Action Show that his children should starve instead of Bryan working on proprietary code.
He also believes necrophilia is a harmless crime and that it’s immoral to have children as they a large cost of global warming. And let’s not forget he didn’t think there was anything wrong with child sex thing, though he did apologize and later state he wasn’t versed on the science that shows major harm can be done mentally and emotionally from it. Not defending him in the least in this, just stating he apologized.
I’m not saying this to say he’s a terrible person, he’s not. But he’s a person and we need to remember to never put anyone on a pedastal as everyone has something we won’t agree with.
Yeah, he’s mostly got good views on tech stuff. But outside of that, it’s best to ignore him.
Yeah, he’s a weird dude, but he truly lived what he believed WRT free software, and that has a lot of value.
I’m not really on board with GPL everything, but I do think it makes a lot of sense in many cases.
As the article clearly states…
Disclaimer: I’m aware that Richard Stallman had some questionable or inadequate behaviours. I’m not defending those nor the man himself. I’m not defending blindly following that particular human (nor any particular human). I’m defending a philosophy, not the philosopher. I claim that his historical vision and his original ideas are still adequate today. Maybe more than ever.
There’s 2 things at play with a guy like Stallman or Musk or Gates etc etc.
- They’re smart, they know they’re smart, they’ve done smart things.
This leads to confidence/arrogance that they can think of a solution to pretty much anything, even if it’s outside of their acknoledged area of expertise. - When you concentrate/obsess on a singular topic to the exclusion of all else, it tends to have a detrimental effect on everything else.
This is normally first evident in grooming/social graces.
They’re not excuses, they’re explanations, and very general unscientific ones.
So as you say, everything with a grain of salt, no pedestals for our heros.
Because eventually they kill a twitter, or defent sleeping with dead people.- They’re smart, they know they’re smart, they’ve done smart things.
that’s a bad title when you actually know a little more about Stallman’s “ideas”
