4 ms·

And Stallman is very off-putting to many with how unabashed and unashamed he is about some of his more extreme progressive views. Unfortunately for him, that ex

And Stallman is very off-putting to many with how unabashed and unashamed he is about some of his more extreme progressive views. Unfortunately for him, that excludes almost half of the potential support he would receive.

pgcj_poster 7y ago
I don't think Stallman's political views are that extreme when you consider that a lot of free software advocates are actual communists.
- lowtolerance 7y ago
  I’ll take a commie over a pedophile apologist any day.
- Koshkin 7y ago
  I think deep down all people are communists - they all like things for free.
  - beatgammit 7y ago
    I disagree. Just because people like free stuff doesn't mean they want to force others (and themselves) to provide that free stuff. Some certainly do, but there are plenty who don't.
    - Koshkin 7y ago
      But people are "forced" to work anyway, free stuff or not.
      - lone_haxx0r 7y ago
        "Forced" by human nature (hunger, cold, etc), but not forced by other people.
lone_haxx0r 7y ago
I'm a right-wing libertarian, and I've never felt excluded or anything like that because of his leftist views. This for many reasons: 1) He's not a hypocrite in any way. He's honest and you can tell that he has truly thought about his opinions. 2) In my country, I get bombarded with a ralentless stream of leftist ideology. The worst kind of leftism: the lazy 'slogan' leftism, from people too stupid to realize the full implications of their discourse. In comparison to them, Stallman is a moderate, thoughtful, sweet person. 3) I see his leftism as orthogonal to his software freedom ideology. I use and support free software, and I'm more pro-capitalism than Milton Friedman.
- AmericanChopper 7y ago
  I don’t care about his views on those kind of politics at all. But when it comes to free software he is an ideological maximalist. Take a look at how he uses computers personally, his values (at least currently) don’t fit in with most users expectations of what personal computing should be. His contributions aren’t in question, and his voice is a valuable one to have in the choir, but he’s not a person willing to accept a middle ground, and as such the RMS way of doing things is never going to be widely accepted.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
    From my perspective, The RMS Way and Libertarianism have this in common: They aren't meant to be widely adopted, but mean, rather, as a critique of the status quo.
  - sifar 7y ago
    >> but he’s not a person willing to accept a middle ground You need somebody as guideposts to stand at the extreme ends. I am glad RMS stands at his end.
- thrwayxyz 7y ago
  To go to the nuclear option Stallman is pro voluntary pedophilia. This puts him so outside the mainstream of opinion that he might as well be shoving Jews into ovens himself. The honesty is extremely refreshing for a small subset of people who will be fanatically loyal to him. These people will also be some of the most talented and difficult to work with, much like Stallman himself. In my circle of friends technical competency is directly proportional to your agreement with Stallman.

pgcj_poster 7y ago

I don't think Stallman's political views are that extreme when you consider that a lot of free software advocates are actual communists.

lowtolerance 7y ago
I’ll take a commie over a pedophile apologist any day.
Koshkin 7y ago
I think deep down all people are communists - they all like things for free.
- beatgammit 7y ago
  I disagree. Just because people like free stuff doesn't mean they want to force others (and themselves) to provide that free stuff. Some certainly do, but there are plenty who don't.
  - Koshkin 7y ago
    But people are "forced" to work anyway, free stuff or not.
    - lone_haxx0r 7y ago
      "Forced" by human nature (hunger, cold, etc), but not forced by other people.

lone_haxx0r 7y ago

I'm a right-wing libertarian, and I've never felt excluded or anything like that because of his leftist views. This for many reasons: 1) He's not a hypocrite in any way. He's honest and you can tell that he has truly thought about his opinions. 2) In my country, I get bombarded with a ralentless stream of leftist ideology. The worst kind of leftism: the lazy 'slogan' leftism, from people too stupid to realize the full implications of their discourse. In comparison to them, Stallman is a moderate, thoughtful, sweet person. 3) I see his leftism as orthogonal to his software freedom ideology. I use and support free software, and I'm more pro-capitalism than Milton Friedman.

AmericanChopper 7y ago
I don’t care about his views on those kind of politics at all. But when it comes to free software he is an ideological maximalist. Take a look at how he uses computers personally, his values (at least currently) don’t fit in with most users expectations of what personal computing should be. His contributions aren’t in question, and his voice is a valuable one to have in the choir, but he’s not a person willing to accept a middle ground, and as such the RMS way of doing things is never going to be widely accepted.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
  From my perspective, The RMS Way and Libertarianism have this in common: They aren't meant to be widely adopted, but mean, rather, as a critique of the status quo.
- sifar 7y ago
  >> but he’s not a person willing to accept a middle ground You need somebody as guideposts to stand at the extreme ends. I am glad RMS stands at his end.
thrwayxyz 7y ago
To go to the nuclear option Stallman is pro voluntary pedophilia. This puts him so outside the mainstream of opinion that he might as well be shoving Jews into ovens himself. The honesty is extremely refreshing for a small subset of people who will be fanatically loyal to him. These people will also be some of the most talented and difficult to work with, much like Stallman himself. In my circle of friends technical competency is directly proportional to your agreement with Stallman.