4 ms·

There's a lot of room between "things that are crimes" and "things that alienate to wide swaths of the population, and therefore make you a poor choice for an a

by 542458 6y ago

There's a lot of room between "things that are crimes" and "things that alienate to wide swaths of the population, and therefore make you a poor choice for an ambassador".

mc32 6y ago
I bet IBM’s actions and decisions over the years which due to bean counting, cost cutting or managerial incompetence has resulted in poor life experiences for tons of fired employees. Do they get to call for the management to get fired? Maybe their competitors get to call them out. I mean the result of firings is measurably worse than being weirded out by an anti social guy.
- cskinner 6y ago
  Particularly when those firings were a biased process resulting in age discrimination [0]. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-finding-of-age-discrimination-against-ibm-signals-new-requisite-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-...
  - mc32 6y ago
    The only logical conclusion is that this is cheap performance because if they really thought about caring about their own workforce and took their newfound principles to heart, they’d resign en masse.
zozbot234 6y ago
There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. It's pretty much his idea in the first place, and he's been by far the most consistent in his advocacy for it, even as he has changed his mind on lots of unrelated things (including wrt. minors' autonony, minors' rights and how to best protect minors from potential harm to their rights). It's mind-boggling and hardly believable to me that people would fail to grok this point.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. I disagree. RMS is (much like Joseph Ratzinger, for a different religious movement) much better as a chief theologian, theorist of doctrine, and internal enforcer of and exhortationist to doctrinal purity within the Church than an ambassador or evangelist to those not already deeply committed.
  - DreamScatter 6y ago
    An ambassador is usually not a leader, but a subordinate to the leader.
- krapp 6y ago
  Really? Literally no person, anywhere, regardless of background, history, technical capability, history with free software, networking or speaking ability, is capable of acting as ambassador for the Free Software movment in the same capacity? Only RMS? You realize he's a mortal human, right? Because if your premise is that no one else can ever be worthy to replace him, your conclusion must be that the movement will die with him.
  - zozbot234 6y ago
    We will build a 100% free software virtual-RMS. We have the technology.
    - krapp 6y ago
      I've seen enough free software to know the UX would be even worse than with the real Stallman.
- plorkyeran 6y ago
  If RMS is really the best ambassador possible for the free software movement then I guess we might as well just give up on the whole idea, as he's done a pretty terrible job of it. Being the person who comes up with an idea doesn't have anything to do with being good at selling the idea to other people.

by 542458 6y ago

There's a lot of room between "things that are crimes" and "things that alienate to wide swaths of the population, and therefore make you a poor choice for an ambassador".

mc32 6y ago

I bet IBM’s actions and decisions over the years which due to bean counting, cost cutting or managerial incompetence has resulted in poor life experiences for tons of fired employees. Do they get to call for the management to get fired? Maybe their competitors get to call them out. I mean the result of firings is measurably worse than being weirded out by an anti social guy.

cskinner 6y ago
Particularly when those firings were a biased process resulting in age discrimination [0]. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-finding-of-age-discrimination-against-ibm-signals-new-requisite-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/09/20/eeoc-...
- mc32 6y ago
  The only logical conclusion is that this is cheap performance because if they really thought about caring about their own workforce and took their newfound principles to heart, they’d resign en masse.

zozbot234 6y ago

There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. It's pretty much his idea in the first place, and he's been by far the most consistent in his advocacy for it, even as he has changed his mind on lots of unrelated things (including wrt. minors' autonony, minors' rights and how to best protect minors from potential harm to their rights). It's mind-boggling and hardly believable to me that people would fail to grok this point.

dragonwriter 6y ago
> There's no better ambassador for the free software movement than RMS, full stop. I disagree. RMS is (much like Joseph Ratzinger, for a different religious movement) much better as a chief theologian, theorist of doctrine, and internal enforcer of and exhortationist to doctrinal purity within the Church than an ambassador or evangelist to those not already deeply committed.
- DreamScatter 6y ago
  An ambassador is usually not a leader, but a subordinate to the leader.
krapp 6y ago
Really? Literally no person, anywhere, regardless of background, history, technical capability, history with free software, networking or speaking ability, is capable of acting as ambassador for the Free Software movment in the same capacity? Only RMS? You realize he's a mortal human, right? Because if your premise is that no one else can ever be worthy to replace him, your conclusion must be that the movement will die with him.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  We will build a 100% free software virtual-RMS. We have the technology.
  - krapp 6y ago
    I've seen enough free software to know the UX would be even worse than with the real Stallman.
plorkyeran 6y ago
If RMS is really the best ambassador possible for the free software movement then I guess we might as well just give up on the whole idea, as he's done a pretty terrible job of it. Being the person who comes up with an idea doesn't have anything to do with being good at selling the idea to other people.