 Right now it looks like there's a major fight going on within the free software community and just the broader open-source community and the tech community over the fact that Richard Stallman is back. Richard Stallman is back at the Free Software Foundation. He says he is on the board of the Free Software Foundation. He's not the president. He was forced to resign as president of the Free Software Foundation about a year and a half ago and he wasn't a part of the Free Software Foundation in any official capacity for the last year and a half. Because of some unfortunate comments he had made about 18 months ago where he made some comments about Jeffrey Epstein and Marvin Minsky and the scandals surrounding those particular individuals on an MIT mailing list. MIT fired him from his job as a professor at the University over those comments because MIT was really wrapped up in the whole Jeffrey Epstein scandal and they wanted that story to go away and by Richard doing what he was doing he was actually keeping that story alive and MIT was not very happy about that. So they fired Richard over those comments and then there was pressure from the Free Software Foundation to also distance themselves from Richard. So they forced Richard to resign his position as president of the Foundation. But now it looks like they're ready to welcome him back into the fold. Not as president. Again, he's just a board member right now. But there's nothing to say that Richard couldn't become president of the Foundation again in the near future. Now I don't want to go back and rehash past events. The events that led up to Richard being fired from MIT and the Free Software Foundation. I did videos about this stuff, you know, 18 months ago and many, many other people made videos about this story and wrote articles about this story. It was big news at the time. And the one thing I will say is that I am not a fanboy of Richard Stallman as far as just a blind fanboy that he can never do wrong. I've actually publicly criticized Richard Stallman on a number of occasions about things he said and about things he's done. Sometimes Richard does put his foot in his mouth. Sometimes Richard puts things in his mouth that used to be a part of his foot. But even though I've been critical of Richard in the past for some things, I've never wanted to cancel Richard, right? I'm not one of these cancel culture kinds of people that they find people that they disagree with politically and they have to shut that person up, right? They have to get that person fired from their job or removed from their foundation or project or whatever speaking platform they have. They want to completely annihilate this person, destroy them, shut them up in a way they can never speak to society again. That is cancel culture. I don't understand that because that is for one thing, it's very mean spirited and hateful. All right, these people that are a part of the cancel movement, they are very angry and bitter and negative people. And I think that is a rather poor way to lead your life. The other thing that cancel culture teaches is that there's no forgiveness about anything, right? When the minute you make a mistake, you are forever shunned by everyone else. And that's that's wrong. That's completely antithetical to everything that the free software movement itself is about. I mean, the free software movement is out there trying to change hearts and minds as far as free software, you know, proprietary licenses versus free licenses and digital rights and digital privacy and things like that. And if we can get companies like Microsoft and Google and Apple to start changing some of their proprietary services over to free software, and that's great. That's a win. But if we had the cancel culture mentality, then that mentality is Microsoft is evil. They can never not be evil. So why even preach the message of free software to these people? They can never change. Well, that's stupid, right? That makes no sense. And that's the kind of message these cancel culture people have. You know, they're wanting to shut people up because they think a certain way that they disagree with. And instead of trying to maybe change that person's minds on this topic, you just want to shut them up entirely because you just assume, well, he can never change. Well, maybe the person that needs to change is you. And if you thought the cancel culture movement against Richard 18 months ago was bad, what's going on today is even worse. They actually created an open source project over on GitHub. It's a website, RMS dash open dash litter dot get hub dot IO. It's a petition to have everyone at the Free Software Foundation that's on the board removed from their position. So they don't want to just remove Richard because they disagree with Richard. They want the entire board of the Free Software Foundation being forced to resign because these people, quote, enable Richard, right? So what this is, this is an effort to end the Free Software Foundation and an effort to end the Free Software Movement. And what I find funny is almost all of these people that signed this petition, none of these people have anything to do with the Free Software Movement or the Free Software Foundation anyway. Many of these people are open critics of the Free Software Movement. Many of these people actually want to see the Free Software Movement feel and they've been stating this for years. So of course, these people are signing this petition against Richard. I doubt they really care about any of the comments Richard has said in the past. They just want the man destroyed. They want everybody on the board of directors to be forced to resign. They want the Free Software Foundation to actually be shut down. Going through a list of the names of some of the people that have signed the petition, I could have almost even before going to the list and looking up some of the names in that petition, I already knew some of the names that would show up just from the way some of these people act in public, the way they act on Twitter, the way they act on Reddit, you know, the really negative, mean, spirited, hateful, bigoted kind of people that unfortunately exist in our community. Most of those people, you can go find their names on that list. I'm talking about people like Coraline Ada Imke, who is completely out of her mind on Twitter. She is very nasty, mean, spirited and just a hateful person. She is the creator of the Ethical Source Movement. The Ethical Source Movement stands firmly against the Free Software Movement. So again, of course, she wants to see everybody on the Free Software Foundation board resign because she hates Free Software. She wants, quote, ethical software. That is a software license where the person that created that piece of software can decide who gets to run that piece of software and who doesn't. As far as based on demographics, whether I like that person politically, philosophically, religiously, you know, if I agree with you, great. You can use my software. If I disagree with you in any way, you don't get to use my piece of software. That's Coraline Ada Imke and the Ethical Source Movement. Not to mention Coraline is very politically activist in nature. So anything that's politically charged, her name is always going to be there. Oh, that's that's the first name that I looked up when I went to that list. Shockingly, it was there. Neil McGovern and many of the people on the Ganon Foundation was also a part of the list. The Ganon Foundation has always been very politically charged. They have been very divisive. They have been prejudicial and bigoted and some of the language on their website and in their code of conduct. Not surprisingly, most of the people that are involved with the Ganon Foundation are also on that list. Some other notable people, a many people that sit on the board at the OSI, the Open Source Initiative, their names are also on that list. Is that a surprise that the people that are on the Open Source Initiative board are also against the Free Software Foundation? Open Source and Free Software, they're not really the same thing. In many cases, they are at odds with each other. So, of course, a lot of the people that are deeply invested in Open Source are also against Richard and the Free Software Foundation. There's nothing to see there. Not to mention that the OSI here in recent years has also been warming up to the idea of the ethical source movement and people like Coraline Aida Empty. I also noticed many names from Google, including Chris DiBona, who is Google's director of Open Source. He actually sits on the board at the Linux Foundation, because Google has seats at the Linux Foundation. Chris DiBona has that seat. And the Linux Foundation is not invested in the Open Source movement or the Free Software movement. I've made videos about this in the past. The director of the Linux Foundation actually uses Mac. He uses iPhones and Macbooks and all of these PDF documents and everything that you find on the Linux Foundation website. All of it was made on Mac. All of it was made using proprietary software from the Adobe suite. So those guys, those guys don't matter. Chris DiBona at Google doesn't matter. None of the people at the Linux Foundation matter, because again, they're not even part of the Free Software movement. So like 95% of the names on this petition don't even matter because you're not even a part of this thing. So why would we listen to you? Why would anybody that deeply cares about the ideals of Free Software care what people from GNOME and the OSI and Google and Mozilla? You know, there's plenty of people from Mozilla on the list as well. Mozilla that wants to censor the internet. Yes, well, yeah, I'm sure they really don't like Richard and the Free Software Foundation and everything that those guys fight for as far as digital privacy and digital rights. Of course, Mozilla is completely against that. And then you've got a lot of people just signing the list because of my mentality, right? Once people start adding their names to the list and the list gets longer, then other people feel the need that they have to sign it to. They really don't necessarily care what Richard did or didn't do. They just want to be a part of this thing, right? They feel like they need to be a part of history in some way. But one of the things is, can you objectively look at some of these people and their criticisms of Richard Stallman? Because I can objectively look at some of what Richard has done and I can say, you know what, I don't like that or that was fine to me. I can separate myself. Again, personally, I think Richard's probably a OK guy, but has he done some dumb things, sure. But can you guys also take a look at these people that are criticizing Richard Stallman? Look at what these people are tweeting. Look at what these people are posting over on Reddit. Go read the Twitter feed for people like Coraline Aida Emkey and other people like that. And these people with the Ganon Foundation and Mozilla and all the OSI and ask yourself these questions. Are these people angry? Are these people objective? Or are they completely run by their emotions? Are they mean-spirited? Are they nasty? Do they have anything rational to say? In many cases, that's not actually the case. They don't ever post anything logical or rational or anything based in fact. It is all just driven by emotion and it's almost always politically charged. What I find hilariously funny is many of the people that criticize Richard, they try to label him as a bigot, as a misogynist, as a transphobic, and many other things. But objectively speaking, if you go look at some of these critics of Richards, go look at their Twitter feed. They say things that are far more hateful, bigoted, prejudicial than anything Richard has ever uttered in his life. And these people sometimes are saying these kinds of things on a daily basis. But they are the ones calling for Richard to be canceled. And when you compare Richard to many of his critics, one of the things I really respect about Richard is when he speaks, he does come across as genuine. He sticks to his convictions and you can tell he's not being a troll. Many of his critics, you can't say that because many of his critics are obviously just there for the trolling. They are there because they're fueled by hate and many of them are fueled by religious or political indoctrination and they've been programmed to hate Richard and people like Richard. And even though I've been critical of Richard Stalman, one thing I will never do, one thing ideologically I will never do, I will never side with anybody that promotes hate. And that's what critics of Richard Stalman are doing. Many of these people are actually actively promoting hate and bigotry and racism and just all kinds of nasty things. These people are just the worst of humanity. And they are claiming that Richard is that. You know, it's one of the things many people, when they try to accuse others, really they are trying to deflect attention from themselves. And I think that's what a lot of these people are doing. I guess I come from a different generation because again, I disagree with some of the things that Richard has said and done in the past, but one thing I've never done, I've never said anything vile or nasty or hateful toward the man ever. I've never told other people to go be vile and hateful and nasty toward the man either. I don't know why this is the norm today. It just blows my mind. I have said on occasion that he should not be the out-in-front spokesperson for the free software movement maybe he's not the best guy for that job, but I've never again attacked the guy in some personal way. And I mentioned my criticisms of RMS simply to show that people can disagree with each other without being nasty. Just because you disagree with somebody, it doesn't have to be one of these situations where you have to be filled with all this anger and rage and everything devolves into just an all out war where it's us versus them mentality. And you're either with us or you're with them. And if you're with them, guess what? After we're finished destroying Richard, we're coming after you too. That's the kind of cancel culture mentality. And it's very destructive. It's destructive, not just to society. It's destructive to you personally. Being filled with all that anger and rage is not healthy. And the cancel culture mentality, they prey on people that are scared to death of being excommunicated from society. You know, these people like Coraline, Ada Impey and the Genome Foundation guys and all of these people, they, they're these weird sick people that prey on people's fears of being cast out from society. They know many of you guys, your greatest fear is being cast out from society because most people are extroverted. Most people like being a part of the herd, a part of the social circle. So when you are threatened, it's like, hey, we want to get rid of this guy. You're going to help. And if you don't help, guess what? You're going with him. What are most people gonna do? Well, okay, I'll go along with the herd. Let's go get Richard. That's not principled in any way, right? That is just weak-minded and cowardly. If you just go along with people just to go along, right? At some point, you do have to show courage. You have to show real courage. And real courage is sticking to your ideals no matter what other people say or do, no matter what the consequences may be. And that's one of the things I love about Richard is he sticks to his ideals. Richard understands what real courage is. One thing I have never said and will never say is that Richard Stallman is a coward because he's not. This man has been constantly under attack for decades and he's fine with it. And what I love about it is he's still, when you seem speaking, when you see videos of the man, he's often smiling. He's often jovial in tone. And he is not one of these people that is filled with hate and resentment and bitterness, even though you would think all these people coming after you all the time would tear you down. He is not like that, though, and I really respect the guy for that. Now, ultimately, people are gonna wanna know, do I agree with the Free Software Foundation? Should they let Richard back as a board member? Should they maybe eventually let him be president again? I think that's okay. I didn't care that they asked the man to resign. That's what people within the Free Software Foundation wanted to do. It's an internal thing, right? We don't care what Coraline Ada Emke thinks. But if the people within the Free Software Foundation thinks, hey, it's been 18 months, the guy, he was punished enough, let him come back. He deserves to be a part of this community. He deserves to be a part of this movement because he's the person that founded the movement. He's the person that founded the Free Software Foundation. Yeah, he served his time. Now, let's reinstate him, let him be part of this thing once again, and I'm perfectly okay with that. My advice to the Free Software Foundation is ignore the trolls. Ignore all the hateful protests on social media and on that ridiculous Github petition and all of that because none of those people matter. And what I would suggest to the Free Software Foundation is, like I mentioned how courageous Richard Stallman has been for decades in the face of all of his attackers, the Free Software Foundation needs to start showing some courage, right? They need to understand that almost none of their detractors in this have anything to do with the Free Software Movement anyway. Many of them are not involved with Free Software at all. They don't care about Free Software, or in some cases, they're actually anti Free Software. So why would you try to kowtow to these people, right? These people don't matter. So just have some balls here, Free Software Foundation. Stick to your ideals, stick to your principles and show some courage. Even if there are some short-term consequences, maybe a few people do leave the Free Software Foundation in protest, it doesn't matter in the long run. This is what you have to do. The next thing I would say to the Free Software Foundation is don't drag this thing out. People are gonna protest. You're just gonna have to learn to live with that. Don't drag this out. Reinstate Richard Stallman, if that's what you wanna do. Make it official, because you guys haven't publicly come out and said it's official. Richard did it for you, but I would post something on the Free Software Foundation website right now saying, Richard is back. He's a member of the board. We know some people are gonna have a problems with it. Oh well, within the Free Software Foundation, we discussed this and we decided this was the best course of action. The people outside of the Free Software Foundation, your opinion doesn't matter at all on this. And I would just go with it. The other thing is, don't be tempted to change your opinions on these things because of the prevailing political wins, right? Cause politics and the prevailing mindset of society is always changing. And a little transparency would be good. I think the Free Software Foundation, they need to be honest. They need to be honest with themselves and with the members of the foundation. So more transparency. If you were gonna bring Richard back, this discussion should have been more open and out there. So it wasn't the kind of shock where Richard appears on camera one day and says, I'm back, right? You could have warmed people up to the idea a little bit, but that's in the past. Now there's no going back and changing this thing. I think another thing that the Free Software Foundation can do is to go out there and achieve some real victories because that makes the controversy go away, right? If you go out there and have some major wins in the fight for free software, digital rights, digital privacy and all of that stuff, the good press will drown out the bad press. And also I think it will shut up the detractors a little bit because they see the people in the free software movement making a real difference in real people's lives and not just one demographic, right? The Free Software Foundation fights for all people, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of age, regardless of what country you're in, regardless of sexual orientation, it doesn't matter. The Free Software Foundation fights for everybody. When we fight for free software, digital privacy, digital rights, it is a fight for every single person on the planet. Even those mean-spirited and nasty and hateful people that are trying to cancel Richard, those evil people that signed that petition, guess what, the Free Software Movement, they are fighting for those people as well, even though many of those people would claim we're not, we're fighting for everyone, even those that would shut us up, even those that would kill us in some circumstances. I also think the Free Software Foundation needs to better adapt itself to the modern world and by adapt, I don't mean they need to change the message. The message is perfect as far as, like the definition of the free software, you know, the four freedoms, we don't need to change that message. It's set in stone, it is what it is. By adapting to the modern world, I think what I'm saying is the Free Software Foundation needs to do a better job of communicating because right now, because Richard was the face of the foundation for decades and Richard is so detached from the modern world, and in part because of his unique position as the person that created the movement and everything, I guess he's completely and totally against using anything proprietary, I think that has held the movement back. The fact that getting the message of free software out on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or on the big video platforms like YouTube, you know, Richard was never going to do that. He just couldn't because ideologically, he couldn't be on those platforms. And I understand why he did that, but was that the best way to get the message out by not being on all the platforms that all the people are on? No, that is not the way to spread the message of free software. And I think that has held the movement back a little bit. But I think that is a unique problem to Richard as the founder of the movement. He just can't be seen as being on a place like Facebook. I think once we get past Richard, other people are prominently speaking for the free software movement. I think many of those people are gonna realize they need to go to where the masses are and they need to start spreading the message of free software on these proprietary platforms because the people on the proprietary platforms are the ones that need to hear the message the most. A final word I would say is I support the free software foundation. I mentioned I'm a member of the free software foundation. I'm currently a member and I'm not planning on going away. Right, I'm not one of these people that just instantly react to something. It's I'm canceling my membership because of the mob on the internet, all of them are going crazy. Let me go crazy too. No, no, I'm not one of these types of people. And I'm one of these types of people that I'm part of something and I really wanna be a part of it and it's going a direction I don't wanna go. Well, I try to be a part of the solution. I don't wanna be a part of the problem. And all of you people that are leaving the free software foundation over this, you're not a part of the solution. You're a part of the problem. And all of those people that oppose the ideals of the free software movement, they're not gonna quit attacking people like Richard Stallman. They're not gonna quit attacking people like me. All right, they're never going away. They're never gonna quit attacking you guys on the board of the free software foundation. These people that are asking for all of you guys to resign, guess what? That's what you signed up for. When you joined this movement, you signed up for this fight. And if you weren't prepared to take that fight, then you probably should resign. But if you were prepared to take that fight, then actually fight and actually win. Fighting for freedom means you gotta stick to your principles, right? You don't compromise. We never compromise. We never acquiesce. You don't compromise with a stupid person by agreeing, hey, I'll become dumber myself so I can meet you in the middle. That's not what you do, right? And that's kind of what these people, the detractors out there are wanting. They're wanting us to come to them. That's not what we do. We hold our ground. We make them come to us. For those of you that are not members of the Free Software Foundation, I strongly urge you guys go to FSF.org, click on the donate tab at the top of the page and become a member of the foundation. Help us fight for free software, the ideals of free software. Help us fight for digital rights and digital privacy. Help us stand up to the cancel culture mob mentality that is attacking people like Richard, people like myself and members of the Free Software Foundation. Just help us join the fight, right? Help us hold the line.