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Debian Votes to Issue No Statement on Stallman's Return to the FSF Board - Slashdot
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this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2021
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Debian values are also in the open: https://www.debian.org/social_contract One of the points is "No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups".
Imho, what's missing is the aritmetic that connects the dots and proves (or disproves) that any of the points of the Debian social contract are affected by "all that RMS did".
If the connection isn't clear, then I think the wise move is to not move in either direction. Making a move just because "Debian is political" would not be good, imho.
Sure, that is "missing" but it's nothing "in the dark" or "hidden that can be revealed". Like, all information is indeed on the table. It's up to the individual or the group to either recognise a libk if one exists or claim there is none.
There's nothing that could be revealed worth waiting for, is what I'm saying.
Because of Stallman's jarring directness and language pedantry, I am open to the idea that he may have some light autistic features. Therefore, I think it's reasonable to conclude that RMS had no malicious intent, simply a very pedantic way of expression, which does not make him guilty.
It should also be considered then, whether those who in fact say they fight against discrimination (disregarding RMS's actual intent) do not in fact discriminate, in a certain manner against him...
Is the point about guilt or being unfit for social leadership? Indeed it's completely irrelevant whether there's malicious intent, as the judgment is not about "should he be in hell or heaven" but "should he be leader of the FSF".
Furthermore, he completely rejects the idea of him being autistic. In fact, many of the signatories of the "reject him from the board" letter are autistic or part of autistic support groups. And what they say is: Being autistic is not an excuse for hurting other people. Somehow all the people who are not a relevant part of the autism community suddenly all pop up and try to protect the poor autistic RMS... .
Discrimination due to some people claiming him to be autistic is simply bullshit in this context. Even more so because accepting him to question other peoples very identity and existence in society is a far more basic discrimination on his part. Be it "in malicious intent" or not. If he indeed were autistic then measures can be found to still make him fit for leadership, there are many autistic people in high positions (also signatories of the reject-rms letter).
And this is completely disregarding that he's not only pedantic, but also, in many ways often literally wrong. Especially when it comes to meanings of words in languages. But that's just a side note.
His words are that he's neurodivergent, autistic's just my guess. Also, see https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html (this may be an odd thing to write an article about, but I don't see it rejecting the identities of other people).
He's also not the president, nor the leader of the FSF, just an advisor. It's interesting that these new facts are never taken into account when discussing his role. That is why I believe this is all unwarranted, if he shouldn't be the president, or the 'leader' of the FSF, ok, he literally isn't.
But now that's not enough. This is where I am questioning people's motivations more with regards to an attempt of blurring the line between free software, and open-source, regardless of what RMS does, regardless of what backseat position he takes, or whether he apologizes and explains himself (which he did).
Neurodivergent is a broad category. And it ain't a free pass for being an asshole, but anyway.
He's a major de-facto leader, the actual position does, in fact, not matter as it's the role he is perceived to be in. And yes, this perception matters because it is this that forms other peoples opinion on the FSF.
I agree that the line b/w Open Source and Free Software is already too blurry. Ironically though, the people who invented Open Source, like ESR, are supporters of RMS in the letter.
I think the best thing FSF/RMS could do, would be to properly address the -- well known -- problems, and half-hearted apologies don't fit the bill here. This would protect Free Software from malicious free riders on this letter (and there always will be some).