Thread by @sarahmei

This is really important. Stallman is gone, but the house he built remains. The @fsf board is still stacked with his supporters.

As we look towards what the future of free software COULD be, we need to dismantle that twisted structure and rebuild something better.

https://twitter.com/cra/status/1174327879955562501

@fsf The acting President of the @fsf board, Alexandre Olive, had these comments on Stallman's departure:

#cancelstallman

@fsf Useful to note here is Oliva's complete lack of consideration for Stallman's victims. Like Stallman, he believes his 'dear friend' has done nothing wrong.

[re-posted to correct Oliva's last name]

@fsf Where is Oliva's 'solidarity' with the hundreds of women Stallman sexually harassed at MIT and at conferences?

@fsf Where is Oliva's 'solidarity' with all the women Stallman leered at, targeted with "pleasure cards," denigrated, and pushed out of the free software movement?

@fsf Where is Oliva's 'solidarity' with CHILDREN who cannot consent to a sexual relationship with an adult? Where is his 'solidarity' with the adult survivors of that abuse, who had to read Stallman's defense of it REPEATEDLY over the course of DECADES?

@fsf Where is Oliva's 'solidarity' with disabled people, whom Stallman likened to 'pets,' and wrote on his blog that they should have been aborted?

@fsf Stallman deserves neither gratitude nor solidarity.

His enablers, like Oliva, don't either.

#cancelstallman

@fsf After the Jacob Applebaum incident in 2016, the board of directors for the Tor project ALL resigned.

The structure they'd built & perpetuated was what allowed the problem to happen. Tor would never recover without a fresh start.

The @fsf won't either.

@fsf Similarly: just firing Travis K. didn't magically make Uber more ethical or inclusive. Like the @fsf, Uber was built as a monoculture - a cult of personality - from the start.

@fsf Uber remains a deeply unethical and untrustworthy company _precisely because_ they lopped off the head without dismantling the structure it built.

@fsf If the remaining board members of @fsf truly care about advancing the cause of free software, they will resign.

Let the organization rebuild.

Gerald J. Sussman
@gknauth
@HenryPoole
@makoshark
@bkuhn_ebb_org
@mindspillage
Alexandre Oliva

#cancelstallman

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @makoshark @bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage Let me add here some comments from current @fsf board member @gknauth about my original thread from last week, listing 30 years of Stallman-related incidents.

First, he calls my previous threads "slanderous accusations" (despite the IN-THREAD receipts).

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @makoshark @bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage He goes on to insinuate that the accusations against Stallman amount to "high school gossip."

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @makoshark @bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage He then uses the word "slander" again to characterize my statements of fact about a public figure, and defends Stallman for having done "great good."

@fsf @gknauth @HenryPoole @makoshark @bkuhn_ebb_org @mindspillage None of the other board members have made public statements. Based on the two we have, though, I see no indication that the @fsf is recoverable in its current state.

#cancelstallman