Re: Richard Stallman should be reinstated to President of the FSF

[Jean Louis]

* Kaz Kylheku (gnu-misc-discuss) <936-846-2769@kylheku.com> [2020-02-16 23:17]:
> On 2020-02-16 11:42, Ruben Safir wrote:
> > Richard Stallman was bullied from his position at MIT and FSF and the
> > FSF should take the couragous move of reinstating Richard as President
> > of the FSF
> 
> The FSF minus Stallman is a rotten organization; simply adding Stallman
> back is not enough. It could use a good old-fashioned
> house-cleaning.

I cannot agree on this, as the FSF was already in place and its
founder is RMS, and FSF is doing its job to help in distribution of
free software and fights for free software politics.

When founder sets up a foundation, the foundation runs by itself,
Founder need not be president, this is not necessarily and one can
realistically see that since RMS left as President, that FSF continues
doing its business, and that both GNU and FSF work hand in hand
together.

Thus the activities of the FSF are same activities as before the
event. Good people are running the FSF, and I have no worries about
that.

There are so many various GNU systems around, some containing
proprietary software, but they are in existence, so everybody is free
to take a GNU OS and improve it in such a way that it is fully free
software, by removing the proprietary parts. Some of FSF endorsed GNU
distributions are already doing that. There is Purism, Hyperbola,
Parabola, GuixSD and so on.

Even if there is no financial support and team support by the FSF,
there is still plethora of people who would be helping in creation of
fully free software.

What really does matter is not the FSF alone, but the foundational
philosophy of free software.

> Everyone behind that heinous, cowardly move should in fact be
> ousted.

That is not so, and if you have specific case, that anybody did
something against the Articles of Organization or By-Laws, you should
then speak to them, to FSF. However, it is not a public organization
and they are not in obligation to even consider your requests or
complaints. It is Foundation, Non-Profit Corporation, that has its
founding documents and uses such and free software philosophy for its
management and activities.

> It actually boggles the mind how such leftist nonsense is tolerated
> in country that elected Trump, on a platform consisting of material
> such as "grab `em by the pussy", against the reproaches of which
> throngs of people chanted "we don't care", and who might just give
> him a second term.

Other politics should not be subject in this mailing list. No other
politics but free software politics is subject in GNU operating system
projects, including in discussions.

That is exactly the problem with the anti-social contract (Ludovic
Courtès and few others) as well, they are from the extreme political
direction that is opposed to behavior of people and have expressed it
so on chat and in emails, when I asked them. It is their effort to
"rule" and "govern" the group by some new rules. Yet GNU project was
liberal since its inception and does not accept it.

Just in the same manner that GNU does not promote nor endorse no other
politics, because it is bringing people together, then introducing
Trump as subject is also introducing "other politics". Myself I am
apolitical, but my friend nearby me is respecting Trump, so it really
does not matter, we are together.

Introducing politics in GNU is dividing people, which is what was
demonstrated by their public shamings of RMS and other actions.

> The average American will absolutely not condemn Stallman for some remarks
> made in defense of Minsky (perfectly understandable and well within his
> right), or some comments he wrote on mailing lists on this topic or that
> that were actually well-reasoned and rationally defensible.

It does not matter what average American would do or not, what matters
really is what is just.

Jean