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I would be heartbroken if he killed himself, but it sounds like you're invoking the specter of suicide as a form of rhetoric, which is just awful. I don't think
by happytoexplain 7y ago
I would be heartbroken if he killed himself, but it sounds like you're invoking the specter of suicide as a form of rhetoric, which is just awful. I don't think the social consequences he's experienced are comparable to Swartz's legal consequences, nor do I think it's fair to use the contextless term "homeless", which conjures the image of a person living and sleeping on the streets of a city, to describe RMS's position of needing a place to stay, which is something he's equipped for and experienced with anyway.
- bitL 7y agoI know RMS, I met him in person and heard how much he had to suffer to bring his vision to life. Constant travel, begging people to let him sleep on their couches, being understood by maybe 1% of people he interacted with, most treating him as a weird celebrity without understanding his motives and dangers he wanted to prevent in the future etc. Now he is getting his life's work taken away basically because he's a "weirdo" and "had it long coming". This is quite often a situation that breaks humans; seeing it happening to him now it prompted me to express what I consider human solidarity instead of "a form of rhetoric" or "concern trolling". Similar worries were expressed on /r/linux as well; I don't think any of us who were concerned about his well-being were doing that for other reasons than empathy.