It's so annoying when people you admire turn out to be a, uh, you-know, uh, Dick ...
... There, I said it.
No, the FSF doesn't need Stallman.
But, here’s some perspective, buried in this very long shaggy-dog-story:
I had recently been thinking: "God!! You know, Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds, between the two of them, have done so much for the world by creating the Linux environment, and the Free software ethos.".
I was --honest-to-God-- going to write to the White House proposing them for the Medal of Freedom. Why? Because thanks to Linux(, and the fact that, during the 1990s, people were throwing out old computers almost every week in my old neighborhood), I was able to set up a home network and learn enough about basic Linux systems admin, programming, and networks to eventually get a good-paying job, which, after not having had one for a long time, set me up in a stable financial situation that prevails until today. I am very grateful for the chances I got due to Free software.
(
By the way: I give my sincerest thanks to the myriad people who toil(ed) unsung to create the vast number of tools and utilities that I use for free(, and for pay too because I now can) every day. It's really touching to think that people all over the world can get access to these things and create something without having to pay by the inch, and through the nose, for things like e.g. Debian, OpenBSD, FreeCAD, SolveSpace, ImageMagick, LibreOffice, VI(M)!, Perl, PostgreSQL, Django, etc., etc. It's mind-numbing. I would not be where I am today without Linux and Free software. Thanks to all of you who made it possible. (can I have my Oscar now? :-) ...Um-Hnh-Hnhm… )
)
Then, just to get oriented, I looked up RMS, and read all the latest ... stuff: "What?!?: Aw-Shit-Un-Fscking-Believable! I know Linus can be a 'Git', but this: Aw-Jeeez-O-God-What-A-Shmuck!”.
The fact that RMS appears to be a Very Screwed-Up Person(tm), and No Moral Exemplar(tm), does not undo the great things he has done for the world by creating, and advocating, to his detriment many times, the idea of Free software. Bless him for that at least. And pray for him for the failings he has. We all have our shortcomings, and I make no excuses for his. But, don't forget what good he has done despite these failures.
Remember: If we “rm -rf”’d all the great artists, writers, and others who were also moral reprobates, we wouldn’t have much of what we prize in our culture, whichever culture you care to name. Yeah, it’s complicated.
I’m an American: This country was founded on destroying the aboriginal peoples here, and importing other people as slaves, so that it probably cost many millions of lives for America as it now stands to exist. Was it “worth it”? There’s no way to say. My ancestors came from Ireland during the potatoe famine, from Sweden, from Canada because they were oppressed Acadians; some were Cherokee, some were probably Black. Many oppressed peoples came to America to escape oppression and to make a better life for themselves. They didn’t know they came to a land which had been stolen from it’s owners. The fact that this country was stolen from it’s owners is a negative vector. The fact that this country is a beacon of freedom is a positive vector. You have to sum them up. That’t how it is with everything in the world.
The "Divine Comedy" is actually life in this world.