Pete Jarvis

I've met RMS and he is odious. You are standing up for someone who would throw Sarah (and me and maybe even you) under the bus without a second thought. He's already done so with many like us and excuses it as "semantics". He defends pedophilia ffs.

Malcolm, even if someone is odious, the response should not be. My point is that one should not become that which one fights against. Why? Because you loose the moral high ground of the argument for change. It devalues the position held.

Classic tone policing. It's not unjust or unvirtuous to call attention to and to criticize and resist injustice. In this case (and in many others where folks like you stand up for poor, victimized, abusers) the harm RMS causes far outweighs his worth to society and culture.

RMS has plenty of money, plenty of social cushion, plenty of networking resources, plenty of time available to devote to bettering himself. He doesn't need your protection, and what we ask of him, in essence, is just to take a long hard look at himself and his priorities

and to improve. To make meaningful apology, to make meaningful amends, to undo all the harm he's done to countless women and other minorities in Free Software, and his other causes. Because the bias he's introduce into the system, that's his responsibility to fix.