[zozbot234]

It's far more than 'ignorant', Bushnell knows better than that. He's demonstrating a severe lack of empathy - and let's just say, he's not the only person who has shown tell-tale signs of this trait so far (and leave it at that). What I have to wonder is whether the radical activist politics that's becoming all-too-common in academia and elsewhere is making people less empathetic, or simply selecting for the least empathetic of us.

(As an aside, the notion that Aspergers sufferers "cannot cognitively" reach "the emotional maturity to treat people decently" is a deeply, deeply unfair stereotype that reflects a severe misconception as to Aspergers behavior. Autism and Aspergers has nothing, zip, zilch to do with sociopathy! The way sufferers might treat people may be less-than-satisfactory to us, perhaps even socially-impaired in some sense; but to say or to even imply that they they lack decency is simply outrageous. Sorry for the admittedly-pedantic nitpicking.)

[bbanyc]

From what I can tell, it's Stallman who lacks empathy here. If he had ever thought about the impact of his behavior on the people around him, maybe he wouldn't have driven them all away.

[dragonwriter]

Lacking empathy isn't exclusive; it's possible for multiple parties to the same issue to do that.

[zozbot234]

I have addressed this in another comment. Yes, one can certainly argue that RMS ought to have been cognizant of his social faults, and perhaps his moral failings as well. But there's at least a colorable argument to be made the other way, given how he was (to quote the article) coddled while at MIT. (Keep in mind that until very recently, MIT did not even have a policy on e.g. employee training wrt. sexually appropriate behavior in the workplace, if we are to believe activists' claims! There's plenty of institutional failure to go around in that place. So, no, I'm not going to blame the guy in the absence of deeper knowledge about the actual facts of the matter.)