Richard Stallman

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Stallman in 2019

Richard Matthew Stallman (1953–) also known as RMS, is an American free software advocate and programmer. Stallman is associated with the GNU Project, the GNU Public License (GPL), and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), as well as developing the GNU Emacs text editor. Stallman is considered to have founded the free software movement when he began the FSF in 1983. He has struggled against private interests in the software industry for forty years and continues to advocate for his views.

Stallman's political beliefs could be characterized as idiosyncratically left-libertarian; in addition to his support for user freedoms, Stallman is a frequent critic of right-libertarianism[1] and modern bourgeois democracy,[2] maintaining that modern social issues stem from capitalistic ("plutocratic") influence over the state rather than from the state form itself. However, Stallman has also stated that "profit is not wrong in itself" and "free software combines some capitalist ideas, some socialist ideas and some anarchist ideas. So it doesn’t fit into the usual political spectrum."[3] On his personal blog, Stallman insistently refers to police as "thugs". Stallman is an associate and advocate of journalist Julian Assange.

Views

Controversy

Stallman has been well known for decades to have a tendency to use pedantic language, often in a tactless manner. Many who have known Stallman personally have described his behavior as "borderline autistic" or akin to Asperger's syndrome.[4][5][6] Stallman himself has acknowledged the similarities but disputes this informal diagnosis.[4] In any case, his social ineptitude has been used against him to create controversy, particularly by his opponents in the tech industry.[5]

Alleged defense of Jeffery Epstein

In September 2019, Stallman resigned from MIT and the Free Software Foundation after leaked emails he sent were publicized which contained apologia towards the associates of bourgeois sex-trafficker and pedophile Jeffery Epstein and also downplaying the extent of the scandal.[7] The scandal reopened discussion around previous controversies.

Pronouns

Stallman has been criticized by multiple groups for his erratic stance on pronoun use. However, as Stallman has made clear, his actual statements are unrelated to gender identity or expression and instead stem from his obsession with language use and precision in order to avoid confusion in writing:

I respect a person's choice of gender identification by using the pronouns and words that go with it. "Person" (or "perse"), "per", and "pers" [Stallman's proposed neo-pronouns] are gender-neutral; they respect any gender identification, just as completely as singular "they" would do. I would not presume to dictate to other people what pronouns they should use in their speech, but we can all state our preferences and the reasons behind them. As for "they", if you are plural by nature — for instance, if you are a colonial organism or a group mind, or if you wish to be known for having multiple personalities — I will use that plural pronoun to refer to you.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Glossary: Laissez-mourir". Richard Stallman's Personal Page. 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  2. ↑ "Why We Need A State". Richard Stallman's Personal Page. 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  3. ↑ Srinivasan, Sriram (2012-02-13). "The Stallman philosophy". Economic Times Blog. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Tennant, Don (6 Oct 2008). "Asperger's Oxymoron". Computerworld. Retrieved 3 Apr 2024.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Page 2". PCLinuxOS Magazine. 16 Sep 2019. Retrieved 3 Apr 2024.
  6. ↑ "Free as in Freedom (2002)/Chapter 5". Wikisource, the free online library. 26 May 2000. Retrieved 3 Apr 2024.
  7. ↑ Victoria Bekiempis (September 17, 2019). "MIT scientist resigns over emails discussing academic linked to Epstein" The Guardian
  8. ↑ "Better Genderless Pronouns in English: We can make English gender-neutral while respecting agreement of number". Richard Stallman's Personal Page. Retrieved 2024-04-03.

External links

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