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by ApicalDendrite 1914 days ago
Wasn't part of the issue with Stallman that his behavior, not just his ideas, were problematic. Like telling a college freshman that he'd kill himself if she didn't go out with him: https://daringfireball.net/2019/09/richard_stallmans_disgrac...
5 comments

The dude absentmindedly eats toe jam. He's um... touched. It really shouldn't be a surprising he lacks social cues, and probably has no idea how to interact with women besides blurting out the first dumb thought that comes to his head. If he isn't sexually or physically assaulting people, cut the guy some slack, and realize some of our genius are kinda nuts.
Yes. https://medium.com/@thomas.bushnell/a-reflection-on-the-depa...

(Above is a piece by someone who worked with RMS for years, explaining why it was not this one event that got him canned, but a long pattern of poor behavior, which he partially bore witness to)

> And, I think, some of those focusing themselves on careful parsing of RMS’s words are falling into the same pitfall as he. His intentions do not matter nearly as much as his actions and their predictable effects. ... I was around for most of the 90s, and I can confirm the unfortunate reality that RMS’s behavior was a concern at the time ... To my shame I didn’t recognize the dynamic myself when I was around it.

So it doesn't matter what he said, or what his intentions were, all that matters to the author is what they now believe, 30 years later, some people were feeling around RMS in the 90s.

The long term poor behaviour is a reasonable argument for the end result.

I just wish the people lying about him to make him look even worse than the facts did had faced some consequences for that as well.

I kinda feel like I'm giving the benefit of the doubt by disregarding that side of the argument. The linked article argues that everyone should avoid Stallman because he's smelly and rude and ate his toe jam one time - this is schoolyard bullying, not a serious argument.
Actually, it just comes off as ex-post-facto rationalization of doing something hasty and mean.
He expressed disappointment to a girl in ~1970, in a weird unintimdating way, and it's still haunting him.