Re: [Womeninfreesoftware] Hello, and a Question

[Lefty (石鏡 )]

On 9/28/09 10:31 AM, "Chris Ball" <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> In any case, see the discussion starting at:
> 
> http://lwn.net/Articles/348662/

Oh, yes, please _do_ see that discussion. I'm interested in any other
reactions to Bruce Perens' contributions there. Mine are in my blog. They're
not happy.

In any case, I heard the "explanation" that Mr. Stallman suffers from
Asperger's Syndrome probably within five minutes of my posting my original
dismay with the GCDS keynote on my blog, and scores of times since then. I
don't know if it's factual--I've likewise seen no citation for it, although
I've seen the claim made by third parties in numerous places--but it is not,
as people have noted, an excuse. There seems to be, however, a serious
attempt--and again, I commend Mr. Perens' efforts to your attention--to make
it serve as one. Mr. Perens is only one such example.

I'm wondering--since it's _not_ an excuse--why we're wandering off on an
excursion of diagnosis, rather than addressing the questions I raised.

Mary-Anne writes
>
> I do not confuse Stallman's personal peculiarities with my opinion of FSF
> as an organization.

As Dorothy Parker noted when she was told that Calvin Coolidge had died,
"How can they tell?" He _was_ introduced at Gran Canaria as the "president
of the FSF". At no point did he distinguish his "personal peculiarities"
from any peculiarities which might be attributed to the FSF.

Christian writes:
>
> The Free Software community is losing the valuable contributions of women
> because of inappropriate behavior, so we need to craft successful strategies
> for curtailing inappropriate behavior toward them.

I might suggest that actually identifying such behavior and doing something
about it might be a start. Or not. For all I know, Matt Aimonetti has
Asperger's Syndrome, too.

> IMHO, one successful strategy is persistent, focused, individualized, explicit
> discussions with these men to explain to them why their behavior is not
> acceptable.  Men who are not Asperger's patients need to offer their help in
> curtailing the behavior of Asperger's patients.

I attempted to point out the problem in email to Mr. Stallman, to no
particular avail. My efforts were evidently not appreciated. So, do we have
a few more years of "EMACS virgins" to look forward to, while we hold
persistent, focused, etc., etc., discussions? Maybe those persistent and
focused folks will discover one day that they're "enemies", too...

> The best way of dealing with trolls is to ostracize them.

Evidently, according to the FSF (or perhaps just Mr. Stallman, again, "How
can they tell?"), the troll is me. =/ Am I the only one detecting a subtle
sort of cognitive dissonance here...?

I completely agree with what Leigh has quoted from Matthew Garrett: "I do
think that the community expects its leaders to be willing to accept that
they've fucked up and do better in future. If they're unwilling to do that
then they don't deserve to be the community's leaders, regardless of what
else they've accomplished. Implying that people with Asperger's are unable
to tell the difference between these two situations is a significantly
further stretch than I'd take. The response to 'I'm offended, please don't
do that again' does not require empathy."