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Posted on [9]February 10, 2020 by [10]admin

How the cancel culture was leveraged against RMS

Starting in August 2019, [11]MIT was being put on the spot for
accepting money from [12]Jeffrey Epstein and accusations against the
late [13]Marvin Minsky for having sex with one of his victims
resurfaced. In a call for protest, someone even wrote that Marvin
Minsky assaulted her. In reaction Richard Stallman replied in an email
that [14]“the word “assaulting” presumes that [Marvin Minsky] applied
force or violence, in some unspecified way, but the article itself says
no such thing”. The rise of the [15]“cancel culture” makes it very
hazardous to publicly say or write anything regarding sexism,
prostitution or racism. Despite this, Richard Stallman has published a
number of blog entries on those topics over the years, ignoring people
urging him to stop or become a target. But this time he caught the
attention of someone.

After reading Richard Stallman email, [16]Selam G. published an article
and commented: “[Richard Stallman] says that an enslaved child could,
somehow, be “entirely willing””. What Richard Stallman actually wrote
is: “We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is
that she presented herself to him as entirely willing. Assuming she was
being coerced by Epstein, he would have had every reason to tell her to
conceal that from most of his associates”. More tabloid articles
followed, further mischaracterising Richard Stallman statements. A
[17]photo of Richard Stallman office door at MIT labeled “Richard
Stallman: Knight for Justice (also: hot ladies)” was also included in
Selam G.’s article as a proof against Richard Stallman.

In response, Richard Stallman commented on his blog: [18]“headlines say
that I defended Epstein. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve
called him a “serial rapist”, and said he deserved to be imprisoned.”
As for the label on Richard Stallman office door, it was added by an
unknown person, over a decade ago. In a [19]documentary shot in
2017/2018, it only reads “Richard Stallman: Knight for Justice” (at
6:22) because Richard Stallman removed the ending: (also: hot ladies).
The content and the tone of Selam G.’s article is archetypal of the
cancel culture and she was joined by [20]people sharing the same faith
to demand the resignation of Richard Stallman.

Any effort to establish the truth was a loss of time: Richard Stallman
participating in a discussion about rape and prostitution was
blasphemy. He was not attacked for what he wrote, he was attacked for
writing on a forbidden topic. Another similar and well documented
instance is [21]what happened to Bret W. in 2017 at the Evergreen
College when he wrote [22]“one’s right to speak –or to be– must never
be based on skin color” in an email. In both cases there were many
witness who did not intervene for fear of being the next target. I also
stayed silent and horrified while Richard Stallman was shamed publicly.
I wanted to believe it would blow over after a few days. I trusted the
Free Software community to be rational and eventually disregard this
episode. I was sorely mistaken.

Two days after Selam G. article was published, Software Freedom
Conservancy who is run by some of the most influential people in the
Free Software movement, published a statement [23]demanding Richard
Stallman’s resignation from the FSF. Neil McGovern, executive director
of GNOME, also [24]asked for Richard Stallman resignation and links to
a tabloid article grossly mischaracterising Richard Stallman. They
endorsed the attacks and [25]legitimized them in the eye of the Free
Software community. The next day [26]Richard Stallman resigned from his
position as president of the FSF.

It all happened very quickly but the roots of Richard Stallman’s
dispute with other members of the Free Software community are deep.
Software Freedom Conservancy states that [27]“when considered with
other reprehensible comments [Richard Stallman] has published over the
years, these incidents form a pattern of behavior that is incompatible
with the goals of the free software movement” and Neil McGovern wrote
something similar. Although they did not reference any specific event,
there are some publicly available records of past disputes. For
instance, in September 2018, Richard Stallman wrote a [28]blog entry
very similar to the defense of Marvin Minsky. He rewrote it in the
following weeks because, in his own words: [29]“some people reading
earlier versions of this note seem to have got the idea that I condone
enslavement of prostitutes”.

I can only assume the respected members of the Free Software community
who leveraged the cancel culture and tabloid journalism felt justified
because of years of frustrating disputes with Richard Stallman. But
they made a terrible mistake. Richard Stallman was unjustly and
severely punished. He no longer has a position at the FSF, which he
founded 34 years ago, he also lost his position at MIT, his scheduled
talks could be canceled and he [30]lost his home.

History will remember that in 2019 Richard Stallman took a major hit
from the cancel culture and tabloid journalists. And also that
respected members of the Free Software community endorsed the cancel
culture and tabloid journalists. They sent an ominous message to all
their opponents: we fight dirty. They negated the benefit of dialog,
any sense of rational thinking and threw away years of debate with
Richard Stallman. Leveraging [31]someone who had no clue about the past
disputes to get rid of their opponent proved to be much more efficient.
We should now expect that some Free Software activists will use the
cancel culture as a mean to an end. But what they should do instead is
to ignore the furor, wait until it passes and resume a discussion based
on truth and logic. It takes longer but it is the only way to build a
safe and inclusive community.

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