Debian devs decide best response to Richard Stallman controversy is … nothing
- Reference: 1618818605
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/19/debian_stallman_vote/
- Source link:
The decision to say nothing came after a [1]call for the project to support an [2]open letter that called for Stallman’s removal from all leadership positions in the free software community and the removal of the entire Free Software Foundation for enabling Stallman.
[3]
Stallman [4]resigned from the Foundation in 2019 after he questioned whether the term “sexual assault” was applicable in the case of a woman who, aged 17, was coerced to have sex with AI pioneer Marvin Minksy.
But in March 2021 Stallman [5]returned to the Foundation’s board and vowed not to depart.
[6]
Numerous protests ensued, most calling for Stallman’s removal. Red Hat [7]voted with its wallet and pulled all funding from the Foundation.
FSF doubles down on Richard Stallman's return: Sure, he is 'troubling for some' but we need him, says org [8]READ MORE
The Debian GNU/Linux Project decided to offer its voting members eight options to consider, as follows:
Call for the FSF board removal, as in rms-open-letter.github.io
Call for Stallman's resignation from all FSF bodies
Discourage collaboration with the FSF while Stallman is in a leading position
Call on the FSF to further its governance processes
Support Stallman's reinstatement, as in rms-support-letter.github.io
Denounce the witch-hunt against RMS and the FSF
Debian will not issue a public statement on this issue
Further Discussion
Voting on those options ran for a fortnight and concluded on Saturday.
The winner was option seven: “Debian will not issue a public statement on this issue".
Debian votes use the [9]Condorcet Method , a complex preferential voting scheme, to reach a decision. The [10]post tallying votes suggests options five and six never achieved a majority.
[11]
Details of Debian's Stallman vote. Click to enlarge.
Explanation [12]here
While the Debian project will remain silent, option seven includes the provision for “Any individual (including Debian members) wishing to (co-)sign any of the open letters on this subject is invited to do this in a personal capacity.”
[13]
And plenty have: The Register counts 117 signatories with Debian affiliations among the 3010 who put their names to the open letter calling for Stallman’s removal (which stopped listing signatories on April 1st). . A letter in [14]support of Stallman lists six Debian-affiliated names among 6,415 signatories. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2021/03/msg00083.html
[2] https://rms-open-letter.github.io/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YH1Ut5VLCN6pn0YtbmuUYQAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/17/richard_stallman_final_interview/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/richard_stallman_back_on_fsf_board/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YH1Ut5VLCN6pn0YtbmuUYQAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] http://www.theregister.com/2021/03/26/redhat_fsf_funding_richard_stallman/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/12/free_software_foundation_doubles_down/
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method
[10] https://www.debian.org/vote/2021/vote_002#outcome
[11] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/04/19/debian_stallman_vote_outcome.jpg
[12] https://www.debian.org/vote/2021/vote_002#outcome
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YH1Ut5VLCN6pn0YtbmuUYQAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://rms-support-letter.github.io/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Not very accurate
But Stallman didn't defend Minsky by pointing out Minsky did not in fact have sex with Giuffre. Which would, under the circumstances, have been the best defence. He defended Minsky by saying Minsky would have done nothing wrong if he had had sex with Giuffre. An opinion that based on their age difference at the time would be questionable, and under the circumstances (Giuffe was being coerced, even though not by Minsky) is even more questionable.
This "Defence" of Minsky drew attention to a number of other questionable opinions that Stallman published on his personal website.
That attention resulted in a number of women coming forward to make accusations against Stallman of inappropriate behaviour over most of his career.
The characterisation of this as "Stallman defended an innocent man, and is being hounded because of it" is a massive injustice to those people who he has behaved inappropriately toward, and misses a number of opinions Stallman has aired that are at best deeply questionable, some of which he has since renounced, but not all.
Re: Not very accurate
We are in an era where some memes receive a lot of vocal support and it can become damaging to speak out against them. If questioned: not supporting the meme can be held against you - this is why the likes of RedHat pulled away from the FSF.
You see related actions all over: no platforming of speakers, prominent groups (not just political ones) claiming that they are more disadvantaged than others (things are not 0% or 100%), blaming others for events that happened centuries ago, denigration of those who bear resemblance to those who are seen as oppressors,...
The evidence supporting the memes does not need to be good, indeed there can be large cracks or evidence against it - this does not matter, they will be ignored as long as the meme aligns with other popular memes.
This is not to say that some things do not need to change, but there is often an all or nothing attitude that is very harmful: you are either for us or against us. More nuance is needed; more listening less shouting.
Note: I said some memes, not all. I have avoided mentioning which memes as unthinking supporters of some of the more egregious memes would just down-vote my comment.
There used to be a time when contentious issues could be discussed, but now ...
Re: Not very accurate
Just underscores that this whole "controversy" is an example of lynching by slacktivism.
They very nearly went for Option 2 "Call for Stallman's resignation from all FSF bodies". Option 2 only lost in its head to head comparison with Option 7, and only by 8 votes. Condorcet voting is very fair, but an arse to unravel the data into a sensible, understandable, and transparent form.
Although, unusually for Condorcet voting, Option 7 did actually fully meet Condorcet's criterion (which is "beats all the other options when considered pairwise"). Usually Condorcet is complicated by A-beats-B, B-beats-C, C-beats-A issues - the complexity normally lies in how you then breaks those ties.
I am not a DD but I did follow the vote and would have voted for Option 7 if I had had a vote. I prefer Debian, as an organization, to concentrate on its free software mission and avoid entering other issues.
Not a comment on the specifics of this case, which I don't know well enough - the commenter above says that she was actually older than 17 - just on the reporting here:
whether the term “sexual assault” was applicable in the case of a woman who, aged 17, was coerced to have sex
The correct term here would be "child", not "woman".
Child not, underage, yes. And coercing is always a crime.
But it looks there are people ready to sell everything, in exchange for some software without paying it. It's a deep selfishness - and Stallman impersonate it very well.
In the context, that's very dependent on the country, or even state.
For example, where I am right now, 17 is an "adult" in the context of consent to sex (with some obvious and otherwise exceptions).
It is perhaps odd that people of a particular age can be regarded as mature enough to have sex, or pilot an aircraft, or take part in various other potentially consequential activities, and simultaneously too immature to buy a beer, or a lottery ticket, but that would be a much larger topic.
A very wise decision indeed, to stay away from the politics.
Everyone expected to have an opinion
I congratulate Debian for not becoming involved.
Some opinions are personal and don't need to be shared with all and sundry, if everyone afforded this same respect to others the world might be a little bit better?
We really don't need to share every personal thought with everyone on the planet all of the time.. Only those that benefit from the social media platforms want you to behave in this manner..
Not very accurate
"Stallman resigned from the Foundation in 2019 after he questioned whether the term “sexual assault” was applicable in the case of a woman who, aged 17, was coerced to have sex with AI pioneer Marvin Minksy."
The actual quote is:
"You will see in this article that Giuffre was directed by Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with Minsky. Is this equivalent to Minsky assaulting Giuffre? Think about this yourselves. If A tells B to have sex with C, C assaulted B? "
Bear in mind that the woman in question says that Minsky did not in fact have sex with her. So Minsky is being accused of sexual assault because someone was asked to offer him some sort of sexual encounter which he turned down. This mutates somehow into Stallman questioning whether non-consensual sex is sexual assault.
At this point the attackers generally fall back on the "yes, but he's a weirdo" angle.
The fact that it later transpired that the woman was older than 17 just indicates how little basis in real life this whole affair has.
Likewise, Stallmans complaint that "[the] plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein was not only extremely lenient, it was so lenient that it was illegal" doesn't get a lot of airtime.
The Debian devs decision not to support RMS against this is a very weak one but not surprising given how much grief one can get for putting ones head above the parapet on this.