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Stallman | |
March 26th, 2021 | |
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Richard Stallman is back on the board of directors at the Free | |
Software Foundation (FSF) after having resigned eighteen months | |
ago under mounting public pressure for him to be removed for his | |
controversial comments about consent in reference to Jeffrey | |
Epstein sex-trafficking charges. | |
Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a 17 year old victim of Epstein who | |
in her deposition stated that she was directed to have sex with | |
Marvin Minsky, a member of the MIT faculty. In response to an MIT | |
CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) | |
email thread planning a protest at MIT over the institution's | |
relationship with Epstein, Stallman raised issues with the term | |
"assaulting", stating, "The word 'assaulting' presumes that he | |
applied force or violence, in some unspecified way, but the | |
article itself did say no such thing. Only that they had sex." | |
In addition to the immediate backlash, statements from Stallman's | |
blog added fuel to the flames. I am skeptical of the claim that | |
voluntarily [sic] pedophilia harms children." (Stallman, 2006) | |
In 2019 he later amended, "Through personal conversations in | |
recent years, I've learned to understand how sex with a child can | |
harm per psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: | |
I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the | |
conversations that enabled me to understand why." | |
Though often accused of defending Epstein, Stallman has made it | |
clear that he sees the man as a serial-rapist and condemns his | |
acts. It is instead these statements surrounding the ideas of | |
consent and sexual violence that have sparked the majority of the | |
outrage. | |
Many people feel it is appropriate to separate Stallman from the | |
FSF and other libre software movements as these personal | |
statements and views reflects negatively on that community and | |
their efforts. Others see in him a champion unmatched in calling | |
for libre software engagement and adoption. Many groups in the | |
field have been forced to make a public stance in favor or against | |
his involvement, such as Mozilla and the Tor Project [0]. | |
[0] Mozilla and Tor join calls to oust ... | |
- - - | |
So what do I think? I think the man is a mixture of good ideas and | |
bad. I think he's naturally brusque and his elevated position in | |
his narrow community has fed his ego dangerously, as any power is | |
wont to do. | |
I am also guilty of having been wrong in the past. I'm thankful | |
that most of my wrongness isn't in permanent written form and | |
I don't have enemies who seek out my own poor behavior in the past | |
to drag it into the light today. It's hard enough to change your | |
mind without being anchored to those past decisions through | |
constant reminder. | |
Stallman has lived his life in a tech world with tech solutions, | |
logic, and a type of pseudo-logical rhetoric that can make his | |
statements seem detached or disingenuous. It's something I see | |
commonly in communities dominated by autistic people, though it's | |
not limited to those or necessarily present among all autistics. | |
Whatever the case, it doesn't mesh well with the highly emotional | |
topics such as sexual predation. The tone itself harms, which is | |
something I suspect Stallman is both unaware of and incapable of | |
addressing. Coming from a white man in position of power adds to | |
the harm and further alienates those who hear what he says. All | |
this harm comes separate from and in addition to the comments | |
themselves. He was rightfully argued against in that email list | |
and I think the escalation of the issue into a public forum was | |
necessary to balance the scales of power. Unfortunately in an | |
institution like MIT and in a group like CSAIL the opinions of | |
Richard Stallman are not in balance with the others speaking. | |
We do not currently have a mechanism in our society to address | |
these public social grievances of powerful people beyond seeking | |
punishment through their employment, platform, sponsorship, and | |
other mechanisms that enable their power. Our public speech is | |
unbalanced in power in favor of the rich and powerful, and so some | |
measures will necessarily be taken to counter it. | |
Is it right? Is it just? It is literally our only recourse. It's | |
hard to make an ethical judgement without alternatives. I would | |
love a world where there were other means of public censor. | |
History doesn't provide us many options without blood to model | |
after, though. Perhaps getting someone removed from a board of | |
directors isn't such a bad course. | |
And now that he has returned, just 18 months after the incident of | |
note and without much change in public opinion, what are we to | |
think? Is his short statement on his blog about learning that | |
pedophilia is wrong sufficient to let him off the hook for his | |
statements minimizing sexual abuse? No, I don't think so. That may | |
address his 2006 statements, but not those regarding Virginia | |
Roberts Giuffre. | |
- - - | |
But what of the FSF and libre software in general? Without | |
Stallman at the helm will that effort fail? | |
Here first I will make an ethical statement that libre software is | |
not important when juxtaposed by the physical safety of a human | |
being. It is not important when juxtaposed with the safety of | |
minors, of women, or in relation to sexual abuse. If Richard | |
Stallman was the one and only human being who could make libre | |
software succeed or fail it is still not worth giving the man | |
power if it leads toward the increase in actual harm to actual | |
human beings. | |
Thankfully Stallman isn't that important. He has done quite a bit | |
of work in the field. That is unarguable. | |
In political theory there is the idea of the Overton window [1]. | |
There is a spectrum of political discourse from far extreme to | |
moderate to far extreme in the other direction. The Overton window | |
represents the scope along this spectrum of politically acceptable | |
policies. Notably, though, is the need for actors that exceed the | |
boundaries of this window to widen it in their given direction. | |
For instance, an extreme leftist view allows for a more moderate | |
leftist view to be politically acceptable. Without that extremist | |
view the window will shift to the right and the moderate practice | |
will seem extreme. | |
[1] Overton window | |
I think this idea is applicable to more than politics, or perhaps | |
more than traditional politics. The politics of technology and | |
thir place in the world has extremists and Richard Stallman is | |
one. The idea that all software and hardware on a user's system | |
must fit his libre definition is one such view. It enables us to | |
have more reasonable discussions about the importance of the open | |
source community, of public access to code, and intellectual | |
property in general. | |
For this reason I appreciate the Stallmans in the world, but not | |
enough to give him a pass on other behavior. Thankfully we still | |
have plenty more assholes expanding our Overton window. We don't | |
need Stallman for that anymore. | |
In some cases it is difficult to separate art from artist when the | |
artist does something heinous. This is most often if the art | |
represents a substantial and important cultural work, or if, as is | |
more often the case, it is not an individual work but the work of | |
many people. Take the Cosby Show as an example here. Do we | |
write-off that television series because of the acts of Bill | |
Cosby? That unjustly punishes all of the other actors, staff, and | |
production crews that put their work into a very good program to | |
spite one man. This is a difficult ethical choice. In the case of | |
Richard Stallman it was fairly simple to punish the man and ignore | |
the FSF itself 18 months ago. The choice of the board to reinstate | |
him, however, now stains the rest of them with the conscious | |
choice to value him over the harm his statements cause. | |
So that's my extremely long-winded way of saying I agree with | |
Mozilla and the Tor Project. We must censor Stallman and the FSF | |
board of directors. The means of doing so is their removal from | |
that position. Let it be done and done peacefully. Let them learn | |
from it as Stallman learned that his 2006 statements were | |
dangerous and damaging. Maybe by removing them from power others | |
will learn as well. These ideas they're arguing are widening an | |
Overton window around sexual consent that doesn't need widening. | |
Lets quiet the extremists and bring that window to a healthier | |
place. |