Re: [libreplanet-discuss] FSF should defend RMS and reject his resignation!

[Aaron Wolf]

It seems the public haranguing is so good at drawing emotion and
attention that anything that doesn't fit the narrative gets ignored too
often.

And defending the accused in this bold public campaign way *does* fit
the narrative.

But I'm trying to keep pushing a different direction. I agree with much
of what I've seen from folks like Adrienne. I agree that the call-out
and cancel culture and mob justice is dangerous and often misguided.

However, the solution is not to just take the opposing partisan side in
the argument. That simply plays into the same narrative set up by the
mob in the first place.

One good answer is to actually have a more reasoned, open, (perhaps)
facilitated, discussion about what to do.

Don't take a pro-RMS or anti-RMS stance. Reject the premise of such
stances. Don't call on the FSF to reject his resignation, participate as
a member of the FSF community in working on the difficult challenges of
what to do now. Do that with lots of listening along with proposing.

The broader social political reality we now have in the age of
Zuckerberg et al is horrific, but we can't deny it. The FSF has to
survive in this world, and we need to work together to figure out how to
do that. Martyrdom for the whole org may not be the best tactic for the
mission. We also don't want to send the signal that we can be bullied
and will always give in to mob vigilante justice.

None of this is easy, and it doesn't help to draw dividing lines in the
sand between different factions in the free software movement.


On 2019-09-19 12:07 p.m., al3xu5 / dotcommon wrote:
> Those who here have clear how the statements of RMS have been misunderstood,
> distorted and in some cases even manipulated - more or less consciously, often
> with superficiality and hypocrisy - should manifest it, asking FSF to reject
> the resignation of RMS.
> 
> In the progressive encirclement to the ethics and principles of FSF, which has
> been going on for many years now, these forced resignations appear to me as 
> the
> most serious fall of one of the most important defensive bastions left; with
> the likely perspective that even FSF can now easily fall into the hands of
> those who are drastically eroding, even from within, the principles and
> freedoms they represent.
> 
> Rejecting the resignation of RMS, FSF today has the opportunity to prove 
> itself
> to be a truly free entity, driven by ethical principles in favor of freedom 
> and
> of people, and not by personalistic interests and motivations or, worse still,
> by those who in substance are against what FSF has so far defended and
> represented.
> 
> I am a member since March 2009, and I wish I could continue to trust FSF. But
> if FSF does not defend R and does not reject his resignation, I will no longer
> be able to trust in FSF and I will be forced to stop renewing my memership.
> This is really very sad.
> 
> Please, those who think like me, make your voice heard!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> libreplanet-discuss mailing list
> libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
> https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
>

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature