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The stated reason for removing Stallman is the belief that he is "toxic". You may disagree with that but it has nothing to do with Stallman's political views.

gallier2 6y ago
Declaration of toxicity is purest politic rhetoric, you knob.
- dang 6y ago
  Swipes like that will get you banned on HN, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here. I took a quick look at your account history (standard moderation practice) and was pleased to see that most of your comments are excellent, so fortunately this shouldn't be difficult to fix.
dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
That's correct; what I mean is that in cases like these you are not allowed to sit on the fence. Orgs like FSF, Red Hat/IBM, GCC SC are under enormous pressure. They are being told that if they do nothing then it basically means they are supporting Stallman ("the defender of Epstein!" "pedophile apologist!"). So in a way they have no choice, they have to give in. Frankly, I've seen in my life several "coups" like this. There is a great rage, people feel fed up and overthrow the leader. There is a moment of excitement, then the dust settles and what remains is a bland void. The enthusiasm disappears, it turns out that charisma is not easy to replace, and the whole projects slowly withers into total insignificance.
finikytou 6y ago
yeah. you will see the first time you get fired from a job. they will surely give you a valid reason that make sense without any hidden agenda. Or maybe they will ask your colleagues and investigate to find anything they can use against you to remove you, call you toxic and make it a day
mopsi 6y ago
> The stated reason for removing Stallman is the belief that he is "toxic". A very similar pursuit of ideological purity (in name only; it was a power game) was a characteristic of daily life in the Soviet Union. Even until the very end, things like the fact that your grandfather used to own more than 10 cows before the revolution (a wealthy oppressor!) or that your family celebrates Christmas (unloyal to the party!) were used to morally judge you and deny things like an apartment allocation (there was no real estate market) or a permit to buy a car. The government had massive databases of personal histories of people (several generations deep, going back many decades) to assess their "morals", supplemented with characterizations people had to write about each other. Almost every hiring, foreign trip, university application etc was checked against these databases. Every organization of had a committee for this. All companies too (because they were all state-owned). Instead of "toxic", they used the phrase "ideologically unsound", and once you had been deemed as such, many doors in life remained closed for you. Kinda strange to see the free world slowly re-inventing this.
- pixl97 6y ago
  You mean the free world that made blacklists based upon peoples sexuality or potential membership of the communist party. We didn't reinvent anything, it's been here the whole time.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
    Current cancel culture activism is indistinguishable from 1950s McCarthyism which they like to condemn. It would seem that they have no sense of decency.
fmajid 6y ago
I don't know him (only ever saw him speak once at a Wordpress conference 10 years ago or so, where he was a caricature of himself), and I can easily believe he is hard to work with. That said, I believe he was diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome, which could explain his many personality quirks, and that makes the mention of "neurodiversity" as one of the many aspects of diversity they claim to protect rather disingenuous. "The GCC Steering Committee is committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disabilities, neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, age, religion, or similar personal characteristics."
- bjourne 6y ago
  Stallman has not been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and he doesn't believe that he has it. Also, please don't put an equivalence between "difficult to work with" and Asperger's. Propagating the false belief that people with Asperger's are inherently "difficult to work with" increases the amount of prejudice and discrimination people with Asperger's have to face.

gallier2 6y ago

Declaration of toxicity is purest politic rhetoric, you knob.

dang 6y ago
Swipes like that will get you banned on HN, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here. I took a quick look at your account history (standard moderation practice) and was pleased to see that most of your comments are excellent, so fortunately this shouldn't be difficult to fix.

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago

That's correct; what I mean is that in cases like these you are not allowed to sit on the fence. Orgs like FSF, Red Hat/IBM, GCC SC are under enormous pressure. They are being told that if they do nothing then it basically means they are supporting Stallman ("the defender of Epstein!" "pedophile apologist!"). So in a way they have no choice, they have to give in. Frankly, I've seen in my life several "coups" like this. There is a great rage, people feel fed up and overthrow the leader. There is a moment of excitement, then the dust settles and what remains is a bland void. The enthusiasm disappears, it turns out that charisma is not easy to replace, and the whole projects slowly withers into total insignificance.

finikytou 6y ago

yeah. you will see the first time you get fired from a job. they will surely give you a valid reason that make sense without any hidden agenda. Or maybe they will ask your colleagues and investigate to find anything they can use against you to remove you, call you toxic and make it a day

mopsi 6y ago

> The stated reason for removing Stallman is the belief that he is "toxic". A very similar pursuit of ideological purity (in name only; it was a power game) was a characteristic of daily life in the Soviet Union. Even until the very end, things like the fact that your grandfather used to own more than 10 cows before the revolution (a wealthy oppressor!) or that your family celebrates Christmas (unloyal to the party!) were used to morally judge you and deny things like an apartment allocation (there was no real estate market) or a permit to buy a car. The government had massive databases of personal histories of people (several generations deep, going back many decades) to assess their "morals", supplemented with characterizations people had to write about each other. Almost every hiring, foreign trip, university application etc was checked against these databases. Every organization of had a committee for this. All companies too (because they were all state-owned). Instead of "toxic", they used the phrase "ideologically unsound", and once you had been deemed as such, many doors in life remained closed for you. Kinda strange to see the free world slowly re-inventing this.

pixl97 6y ago
You mean the free world that made blacklists based upon peoples sexuality or potential membership of the communist party. We didn't reinvent anything, it's been here the whole time.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  Current cancel culture activism is indistinguishable from 1950s McCarthyism which they like to condemn. It would seem that they have no sense of decency.

fmajid 6y ago

I don't know him (only ever saw him speak once at a Wordpress conference 10 years ago or so, where he was a caricature of himself), and I can easily believe he is hard to work with. That said, I believe he was diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome, which could explain his many personality quirks, and that makes the mention of "neurodiversity" as one of the many aspects of diversity they claim to protect rather disingenuous. "The GCC Steering Committee is committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disabilities, neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, age, religion, or similar personal characteristics."

bjourne 6y ago
Stallman has not been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and he doesn't believe that he has it. Also, please don't put an equivalence between "difficult to work with" and Asperger's. Propagating the false belief that people with Asperger's are inherently "difficult to work with" increases the amount of prejudice and discrimination people with Asperger's have to face.