Thread by @sarahmei

I've tweeted for many years about how awful Richard "RMS" Stallman is - the pedophilia, the ableism, the misogyny.

Inevitably, each time I do, dudes examine my receipts & then say "all those incidents are from years ago! he's changed now!"

NOPE. medium.com/@selamie/remov…

Stallman was the founder - and is STILL the President and Board Chair - of the Free Software Foundation. The FSF is enormously influential. Among other activities, it publishes the software licenses used by much of the 'copyleft' world - the GPL, LGPL, and AGPL licenses.

I've been a diehard free & open source software user, contributor, and backer since college in the 90s. But at this point, I would rather run proprietary software that I can NEVER see or change if the alternative is to run software licensed by the FSF.

I'm done. The free software community looks the other way while they build their empires on licenses that sustain Stallman's power.

Hey @fsf - fire your President and Board Chair. He just sent an email to the MIT computer science community claiming that sex with an underaged girl is not rape.

I know you know about him and his 'problematic' ideas already.

Just letting you know that WE KNOW.

@fsf And also, @fsf, while we're at it, lemme let you in on something else:

Your refusal to part ways with him - despite well-known incidents that have pushed women & others out of free software for decades - might have been ok 10 years ago. Maybe even 2 years ago.

It's not ok now.

@fsf Let's see - who's on the @fsf board of directors? Could we count on them to do the right thing?

Ok, first name on the list is Gerald J. Sussman....oh.

https://twitter.com/H0tdish/status/1166445162681249792?s=20

@fsf Second name on the list is Geoffrey Knauth - @gknauth - who retweeted a hideous Bret Stephens NYT editorial about how all this 'liberalism' is eroding 'excellence' nytimes.com/2019/08/02/opi…

Not holding my breath for either of these gents.

@fsf @gknauth Ok third name on the list is @HenryPoole - seems to be friends with child rapist apologist @lessig - also tweeted this approvingly

https://twitter.com/jgbarah/status/832282512818741248

It's not looking good

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @lessig The fourth @fsf board member is Benjamin Mako Hill - @makoshark - seems super involved with Wikipedia, which is also known as an extremely hostile community towards women

I guess I shouldn't continue to be surprised but I keep hoping 😬

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @lessig @makoshark Who else is on the board of the @fsf? Let's see - Bradley M. Kuhn @bkuhn_ebb_org, Kat Walsh @mindspillage, and Alexandre Oliva fsf.org/news/alexandre….

Not much info on them. But who knows?! Maybe these folks will do the right thing and get rid of Stallman.

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @lessig @makoshark @bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage It's up to you, folks - you're the board of the @fsf. You can keep Stallman and alienate everyone else, or you can do your job.
#cancelstallman

@bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage @makoshark @gknauth @HenryPoole

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @lessig @makoshark @bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage Like clockwork, a @fsf board member, @gknauth is up in my mentions demanding "proof."

YOU are on the board. YOU are responsible for investigating. Yet YOU are in my mentions making other people do your homework for you.

Dear dudes in my mentions,

“Well in MY country it’s perfectly legal for a 45-year-old man to bang a 16-year-old girl”

...not the strong defense you think it is.

Dear @fsf board members,

If you cannot remove Stallman from your board, your only remaining option with any moral integrity is to resign.

We’re all waiting.
We see you.
And we’ll see what happens.

@bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage @makoshark @gknauth @HenryPoole

#cancelstallman

#cancelstallman

https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/994010501460865025

Once more for the folks in the back:

“FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IS NOT WORTH MORE THAN ACTUAL WOMEN AND GIRLS”

https://twitter.com/mandylibrary/status/1172308206917308419

For the record: I give zero fucks about Stallman’s gross personal habits.

I save all my fucks for the way he systematically and consistently acts to push women, girls, disabled people, and other folks from marginalized groups OUT of software.

#cancelstallman

https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/1078344548051345408

We shouldn’t #cancelstallman because his ideas are abhorrent.

We should do it because he has acted in abhorrent ways,

deliberately & consistently,
over 30 years,
despite repeated feedback,

& because in so doing he’s pushed countless women, girls, & others out of software.

Stallman’s response.

https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/1172913678426853376

Updates: Stallman posted what might be the worst non-apology I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a LOT of non-apologies).

https://twitter.com/theamyshim/status/1172946689553887232

The @fsf board remains silent.

Note what this apology includes:
- a laser-like focus on his OWN experience of the incident
- am attempt to shift blame to the media for “mischaracterizing” his words

Note also what it does NOT include:
- NO regret for having made the comments
- NO plan to do better next time

- NO empathy for the primary victims: people who were upset when they read the actual email
- NO hint, even, of awareness of those folks, despite one of them having written the medium post that kicked this all off

This is exactly the sort of bullshit he’s gotten away with for 30 years.

NOT THIS TIME.

Stallman has resigned from MIT, still claiming it was due to a “misunderstanding”

Dude, we understand you JUST fine. That’s the problem.

vice.com/en_us/article/…

Let’s not forget that he got that plum job at MIT due entirely to his position as @fsf founder, president and board chair.

That is his platform. That is the source of his power. Should the @fsf fail to remove him, he’ll use that platform to continue to poison our communities.

I started this thread four days ago.

The silence of the @fsf board has, at this point, become deafening.

Aaaaaaand seven minutes after I posted this, an official communique!

https://twitter.com/fsf/status/1173780935910797312?s=21

I want to take this moment to appreciate Selam Jie Gano, the MIT grad who wrote the medium post that set all this off.

medium.com/@selamie/remov…

Thanks for your courage, Selam. It gave me the push I needed to get this going.

We also owe an immense debt to all the people who’ve called this out since the 80s, usually in the face of individual and organizational indifference (or even hostility).

I see you. You set this up, it was just for us to push over the finish line. Thank you