---------------------------------------- Stallman March 26th, 2021 ---------------------------------------- Richard Stallman is back on the board of directors at the Free Software Foundation (FSF) after having resigned eighteen months ago under mounting public pressure for him to be removed for his controversial comments about consent in reference to Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking charges. Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a 17 year old victim of Epstein who in her deposition stated that she was directed to have sex with Marvin Minsky, a member of the MIT faculty. In response to an MIT CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) email thread planning a protest at MIT over the institution's relationship with Epstein, Stallman raised issues with the term "assaulting", stating, "The word 'assaulting' presumes that he applied force or violence, in some unspecified way, but the article itself did say no such thing. Only that they had sex." In addition to the immediate backlash, statements from Stallman's blog added fuel to the flames. I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily [sic] pedophilia harms children." (Stallman, 2006) In 2019 he later amended, "Through personal conversations in recent years, I've learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why." Though often accused of defending Epstein, Stallman has made it clear that he sees the man as a serial-rapist and condemns his acts. It is instead these statements surrounding the ideas of consent and sexual violence that have sparked the majority of the outrage. Many people feel it is appropriate to separate Stallman from the FSF and other libre software movements as these personal statements and views reflects negatively on that community and their efforts. Others see in him a champion unmatched in calling for libre software engagement and adoption. Many groups in the field have been forced to make a public stance in favor or against his involvement, such as Mozilla and the Tor Project [0]. (HTM) [0] Mozilla and Tor join calls to oust ... - - - So what do I think? I think the man is a mixture of good ideas and bad. I think he's naturally brusque and his elevated position in his narrow community has fed his ego dangerously, as any power is wont to do. I am also guilty of having been wrong in the past. I'm thankful that most of my wrongness isn't in permanent written form and I don't have enemies who seek out my own poor behavior in the past to drag it into the light today. It's hard enough to change your mind without being anchored to those past decisions through constant reminder. Stallman has lived his life in a tech world with tech solutions, logic, and a type of pseudo-logical rhetoric that can make his statements seem detached or disingenuous. It's something I see commonly in communities dominated by autistic people, though it's not limited to those or necessarily present among all autistics. Whatever the case, it doesn't mesh well with the highly emotional topics such as sexual predation. The tone itself harms, which is something I suspect Stallman is both unaware of and incapable of addressing. Coming from a white man in position of power adds to the harm and further alienates those who hear what he says. All this harm comes separate from and in addition to the comments themselves. He was rightfully argued against in that email list and I think the escalation of the issue into a public forum was necessary to balance the scales of power. Unfortunately in an institution like MIT and in a group like CSAIL the opinions of Richard Stallman are not in balance with the others speaking. We do not currently have a mechanism in our society to address these public social grievances of powerful people beyond seeking punishment through their employment, platform, sponsorship, and other mechanisms that enable their power. Our public speech is unbalanced in power in favor of the rich and powerful, and so some measures will necessarily be taken to counter it. Is it right? Is it just? It is literally our only recourse. It's hard to make an ethical judgement without alternatives. I would love a world where there were other means of public censor. History doesn't provide us many options without blood to model after, though. Perhaps getting someone removed from a board of directors isn't such a bad course. And now that he has returned, just 18 months after the incident of note and without much change in public opinion, what are we to think? Is his short statement on his blog about learning that pedophilia is wrong sufficient to let him off the hook for his statements minimizing sexual abuse? No, I don't think so. That may address his 2006 statements, but not those regarding Virginia Roberts Giuffre. - - - But what of the FSF and libre software in general? Without Stallman at the helm will that effort fail? Here first I will make an ethical statement that libre software is not important when juxtaposed by the physical safety of a human being. It is not important when juxtaposed with the safety of minors, of women, or in relation to sexual abuse. If Richard Stallman was the one and only human being who could make libre software succeed or fail it is still not worth giving the man power if it leads toward the increase in actual harm to actual human beings. Thankfully Stallman isn't that important. He has done quite a bit of work in the field. That is unarguable. In political theory there is the idea of the Overton window [1]. There is a spectrum of political discourse from far extreme to moderate to far extreme in the other direction. The Overton window represents the scope along this spectrum of politically acceptable policies. Notably, though, is the need for actors that exceed the boundaries of this window to widen it in their given direction. For instance, an extreme leftist view allows for a more moderate leftist view to be politically acceptable. Without that extremist view the window will shift to the right and the moderate practice will seem extreme. (TXT) [1] Overton window I think this idea is applicable to more than politics, or perhaps more than traditional politics. The politics of technology and thir place in the world has extremists and Richard Stallman is one. The idea that all software and hardware on a user's system must fit his libre definition is one such view. It enables us to have more reasonable discussions about the importance of the open source community, of public access to code, and intellectual property in general. For this reason I appreciate the Stallmans in the world, but not enough to give him a pass on other behavior. Thankfully we still have plenty more assholes expanding our Overton window. We don't need Stallman for that anymore. In some cases it is difficult to separate art from artist when the artist does something heinous. This is most often if the art represents a substantial and important cultural work, or if, as is more often the case, it is not an individual work but the work of many people. Take the Cosby Show as an example here. Do we write-off that television series because of the acts of Bill Cosby? That unjustly punishes all of the other actors, staff, and production crews that put their work into a very good program to spite one man. This is a difficult ethical choice. In the case of Richard Stallman it was fairly simple to punish the man and ignore the FSF itself 18 months ago. The choice of the board to reinstate him, however, now stains the rest of them with the conscious choice to value him over the harm his statements cause. So that's my extremely long-winded way of saying I agree with Mozilla and the Tor Project. We must censor Stallman and the FSF board of directors. The means of doing so is their removal from that position. Let it be done and done peacefully. Let them learn from it as Stallman learned that his 2006 statements were dangerous and damaging. Maybe by removing them from power others will learn as well. These ideas they're arguing are widening an Overton window around sexual consent that doesn't need widening. Lets quiet the extremists and bring that window to a healthier place.