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It's time to talk about post-RMS Free Software
Richard Stallman has once again managed to demonstrate incredible insensitivity[1]. There's an argument that in a pure technical universe this is irrelevant and we should instead only consider what he does in free software[2], but free software isn't a purely technical topic - the GNU Manifesto is nakedly political, and while free software may result in better technical outcomes it is fundamentally focused on individual freedom and will compromise on technical excellence if otherwise the result would be any compromise on those freedoms. And in a political movement, there is no way that we can ignore the behaviour and beliefs of that movement's leader. Stallman is driving away our natural allies. It's inappropriate for him to continue as the figurehead for free software.
But I'm not calling for Stallman to be replaced. If the history of social movements has taught us anything, it's that tying a movement to a single individual is a recipe for disaster. The FSF needs a president, but there's no need for that person to be a leader - instead, we need to foster an environment where any member of the community can feel empowered to speak up about the importance of free software. A decentralised movement about returning freedoms to individuals can't also be about elevating a single individual to near-magical status. Heroes will always end up letting us down. We fix that by removing the need for heroes in the first place, not attempting to find increasingly perfect heroes.
Stallman was never going to save us. We need to take responsibility for saving ourselves. Let's talk about how we do that.
[1] There will doubtless be people who will leap to his defense with the assertion that he's neurodivergent and all of these cases are consequences of that.
(A) I am unaware of a formal diagnosis of that, and I am unqualified to make one myself. I suspect that basically everyone making that argument is similarly unqualified.
(B) I've spent a lot of time working with him to help him understand why various positions he holds are harmful. I've reached the conclusion that it's not that he's unable to understand, he's just unwilling to change his mind.
[2] This argument is, obviously, bullshit
But I'm not calling for Stallman to be replaced. If the history of social movements has taught us anything, it's that tying a movement to a single individual is a recipe for disaster. The FSF needs a president, but there's no need for that person to be a leader - instead, we need to foster an environment where any member of the community can feel empowered to speak up about the importance of free software. A decentralised movement about returning freedoms to individuals can't also be about elevating a single individual to near-magical status. Heroes will always end up letting us down. We fix that by removing the need for heroes in the first place, not attempting to find increasingly perfect heroes.
Stallman was never going to save us. We need to take responsibility for saving ourselves. Let's talk about how we do that.
[1] There will doubtless be people who will leap to his defense with the assertion that he's neurodivergent and all of these cases are consequences of that.
(A) I am unaware of a formal diagnosis of that, and I am unqualified to make one myself. I suspect that basically everyone making that argument is similarly unqualified.
(B) I've spent a lot of time working with him to help him understand why various positions he holds are harmful. I've reached the conclusion that it's not that he's unable to understand, he's just unwilling to change his mind.
[2] This argument is, obviously, bullshit
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(Anonymous) 2019-09-15 10:22 am (UTC)(link)Not sure which youth you are supposed to mean, but no one I personally know would use such a phrase or share such a sticker. Please don't mark it as "just a Russian thing".
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She with other girls was filmed in the one-man studio in Novosibirsk (1st Studio), the arrest of who had gained a lot of coverage in media. After some time, almost all of the porn videos and photos got uploaded to the internet, presumably by the police, and were shared among users enormous number of times via p2p (Direct Connect networks were very popular in Russia at that time, every major ISP had their own Hub, and when you connect to the ISP, it was a common thing for the ISP staff to install DC++ client to your PC along with network configuration).
Now Masha tries to use her past popularity to earn some money and to get some attention. She participated in a very popular Пусть Говорят (Let Them Talk) TV talk show, participated in the interviews for some magazines, sold signatures (signature - a photo of herself with a piece of paper with arbitrary text specified by the customer, made for a small fee).
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(Anonymous) 2019-09-15 12:23 pm (UTC)(link)You mention social networks and youtube. These things are echo chambers; they recommend you things that they think will induce more clicks out of you (one side effect of that is clickbait: the more infuriating it is, the more likely you are to click to learn more). Are you sure this "popularity" isn't an artefact of targeted advertising?
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It could be because you haven't seen Masha before and can't recognize her. The memes are usually out-of-context and you should be 'in' to understand the context.
Just google for "цп в лс" for example.
https://cs7.pikabu.ru/post_img/2014/06/23/0/1403469764_1142720630.jpg
https://cs6.pikabu.ru/post_img/big/2015/02/18/6/1424252039_350025787.jpg
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(Anonymous) 2019-09-15 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2019-09-16 04:39 am (UTC)(link)can 9gag represent modern usa culture? i think yes
MJG59 is a self righteous douchebag
(Anonymous) 2019-10-13 05:02 am (UTC)(link)the internet is American culture,
4chan is possibly the most honest place on the internet, ergo....