Refute the open letter's claims of discrimination

[CrazyPython]

Stallman asked women out in a way we consider creepy. The letter phrases this by saying Stallman has sexually harassed women for decades. The letter seeks to group him in the same category as gropers and actual rapists.
In 1993, he defined pedophilia slightly differently. He made a genuine apology. This is the basis of the "pedo apologist." https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September_2019_(Sex_between_an_adult_and_a_child_is_wrong)
After condemning the rape of a 17 year old girl in the Epstein case, Marvin Minksy would have had sex with the girl, unaware the girl was being coerced by Epstein. In accordance with the law of Canada and most U.S. states, it is legal to have sex with a 16 year old girl. Nonetheless, we believe these leaked private discussions make him equivalent to a rapist. However, Marvin Minsky never had sex with the girl. https://geoff.greer.fm/2019/09/30/in-defense-of-richard-stallman/
The original open letter's Appendix has two additional false claims of sexual harassment:

• In 1999, he had a mattress in his office which he slept on. This made
  some women avoid RMS because they considered it abnormal and creepy.

Stallman did not. The man the students saw was not RMS. Stallman regrets failing to check how he used the room.

• In 1985, he told a woman he'd kill himself if he didn't date her.

Stallman did not say that, though she interpreted it that way. RMS was not trying to persuade her to do anything. RMS was simply despairing based on many facts he could not change. The lack of any romantic potential between her and RMS was one of those facts.

RMS was unaware of her misunderstanding at the time.

The "hot ladies" nametag was fake; it was vandalized from a third party. https://blog.dachary.org/2020/02/10/how-the-cancel-culture-was-leveraged-against-rms/#post-4297:~:text=As%20for%20the%20label%20on%20Richard,removed%20the%20ending%3A%20(also%3A%20hot%20ladies)
He has never been accused of groping or sexual assault.
Stallman has hundreds of posts on his personal blog condemning rape, and they cherry-pick the one post where he argued for a different definition of rape. https://web.archive.org/web/20210325013942/https://stallman.org/archives/2018-may-aug.html
The GNU Kind Communication Guidelines ask you to honor gender identity. The letter says it is "still transphobic" and accuses him of "thinly disguised transphobia," possibly because it includes calling someone via only gender-neutral pronouns such as "they."

---

I hastily wrote this. Still needs some copyediting. But the information is there.

[appetrosyan]

Alleging misconduct based on false information is grounds for a defamation lawsuit. If they include even one instance of a false or inflated accusation, they're on the hook. RMS isn't too Rich, but I'm sure that with the free will he has amassed here, raising the money to win the lawsuit wouldn't be too difficult.

[M-i-k-o-t-o]

There are two more issues about this

#1338
#1637

[6r1d]

There is yet another complaint in my post about the support letter.

[Tw1ddle]

Marvin Minksy had sex with the girl, unaware the girl was being coerced by Epstein.

Marvin Minsky's Wikipedia page says "There has been no allegation that sex between them took place nor a lawsuit against Minsky's estate." - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marvin_Minsky&oldid=1011820349#Association_with_Jeffrey_Epstein

[ghost]

Or donʼt.

It is unfortunate that Stallman is being misrepresented, but thatʼs not the point.
The FSF should not elect people based on their popularity, or on their actions and opinions unrelated to free software.
To counter the “open letter” on these grounds suggests that Richard Stallman is unfit for his position because he is unfashionable. That shouldnʼt be the case.

Iʼm not saying that defending people against slander or correcting misinformation are bad things to do.
But our focus should be in issues of policy, not of character.

[gorshunovr]

Low grade "journalists" and internet mob attack RMS with lies. In-depth review. - in-depth article from 2019 on the subject. Author is undisclosed, but probably it is Prof. Dr. Guilherme José da Silva e Sá (Department of Antropology, The University of Brasília).

[pastk]

Some trans people do not agree with the accusation of RMS as a transphobic person: https://lwn.net/Articles/850530/

[Huy-Ngo]

I suggest adding these articles too:

• Leah Rowe's defense regarding the accusation of him being transphobic
• We The Web's defense backed by feminist activist
• Jorge Morais's defense regarding RMS defending Minsky.

[6r1d]

I suggest adding these articles too:

Thank you, the same articles from this issue, it's great to see them spreading! :-)

#245

[Tw1ddle]

@6r1d Keep in mind that the open letter to remove Stallman and the FSF board does not even mention this stuff. I think it is better to focus on refuting the claims in the letter.

Stallman is not perfect and has missed things and made some bad decisions on a technical level.

[6r1d]

Stallman is not perfect and has missed things and made some bad decisions on a technical level.

It's not about "not being perfect". I think we all admit he's human. It's about "what happened so nobody cared to tell him at all?!". And if he was actually told, what happened then? It's a very nuanced topic.

I think it is better to focus on refuting the claims in the letter.

Alright, I'll move notes on GCC politics for staff discussion.

[Tw1ddle]

@6r1d Agreed, it seems odd to put all the blame on Stallman for failures of that kind. That the remove letter does not mention these sorts of reasons is interesting by itself... perhaps it just wasn't on their list of priorities.

[secretrix]

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard&diff=727727586&oldid=727703442

[6r1d]

Citing a link above, which details an update at June 2016:

Right now, the only way it could included would be to directly quote and attribute Stallman's blog, which really just leaves it hanging, so I think pedophile apologists would perceive it as confirming their biases and I truly think it would have more of backfire effect than anything else.

I've just written to Stallman and he explained that his views have changed significantly since the time he wrote these things. I have changed my opinion on this. It wouldn't be fair to include this in the article. I would like to recommend that this be closed now.

[shenlebantongying]

Leah Rowe seems has been working on this page, and it looks pretty cool

https://stallmansupport.org/index.html

[6r1d]

There's yet another article: "A Critique of the Open Letter Calling for the Removal of RMS".

Note: haven't read this one, opinions on it are welcome.