Every time you think: "But what about all the good things he did", consider: "What about all the people and potentially great contributions we lost because of him."

We don't need leaders any more. We never did.

@comzeradd I am not sure that there even would be a free software movement without #RMS, so his merits seem quite without precident. So a world without him I think would have been a worse world. But he obviously missed the right moment to step down. And his apparent defence of Epstein and repeated trivializing of child rape are beyond stupid

@johannes @comzeradd He said Epstein probably forced the girl to look willing, where in the world was he defending him?

@shiba @comzeradd You're right. I have read some of the transcripts in the meantime. Still what he did was victim blaming and exonerating the perpetrator. He suggested that the perpetrator didn't know that she was forced and also that it didn't matter that she was underage with regard to rape.

@johannes @comzeradd I think Minsky share of the blame is up to a court to decide, so let's see how this turns out (remember there is a witness saying Minsky didn't even have sex with the girl). Regarding the underage issue, I don't know how it works in the US, but in my country the age of consent is set to 16 years old, so I too am inclined to think the coercion to be the most horrifying matter here.

@johannes @comzeradd sorry for the double response: I don't have the arrogance to make a verdict, as even if he didn't commit the crime, he probably closed an eye on the whole matter, I just want to stress the last part of Stallman statement, which in my opinion is the most important and the most ignored: "Whatever conduct you want to criticize, you should describe it with a
specific term that avoids moral vagueness about the nature of the

@comzeradd The last sentence is not right. Every community needs leaders!

@comzeradd Especially when in Stallman's case, the answer to "but what about all the good things he did?" is a resounding "we'll fucking fork them!"

@comzeradd I think there's a sizable subset of tech people who can't imagine doing anything else. They can't conceive of a person who would be fantastic in tech but sees it as only one possible career path, and who picks another because of tech's toxicity.

hear hear. all those talented folks who quit because of assholes... :(

@comzeradd I can consider that and it would still be worth it.

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