Re: Remove RMS from the GCC Steering Committee

[Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com>]

The socialist collective angry bullshit will go on rising from the dead.
Richard Stallman executed a truly extraordinary feat that has never been
accomplished by anyone before.

---------------------
Christopher Dimech
General Administrator - Naiad Informatics - GNU Project (Geocomputation)
- Geophysical Simulation
- Geological Subsurface Mapping
- Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation
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- Free Software Advocacy


> Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2021 at 2:27 PM
> From: "Óscar Fuentes" <ofv@wanadoo.es>
> To: gcc@gcc.gnu.org
> Subject: Re: Remove RMS from the GCC Steering Committee
>
> This was meant to be sent by private e-mail. I'm sorry it was sent to
> the list by mistake, it was not my intention to stir this debate.
> 
> I invite everyone to keep discussing this topic in a cold-headed way.
> Specially, I'll like to see the base problem (lack of diversity)
> addresed, instead of its hypothetical cause (and even more hypothetical
> solution.) Let's see if, for once, instead of grand symbolic gestures
> that solve nothing the problem is attacked with effective and sustained
> measures.
> 
> Sorry again for my intrusion on the list.
> 
> Óscar Fuentes <ofv@wanadoo.es> writes:
> 
> > We on the West are on the brink of entering into a new cycle of social
> > madness, fueled by Postmodern nonsense.
> >
> > Thank you for being brave enough to confront the self-righteous mob, and
> > thank you for doing it with such equanimity and eloquence.
> >
> > Alexandre Oliva via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> writes:
> >
> >> Nathan,
> >>
> >> I think you identify an important problem of gender imbalance in our
> >> community.  It is quite likely that finding ways to make our community
> >> more welcoming to demographic groups that are currently less present
> >> than in the distribution in the global population could reduce this
> >> imbalance.
> >>
> >> However, your diagnosis as to the supposed cause of the problem makes no
> >> sense to me.  You said yourself that Stallman has not participated in
> >> our community for decades.  Much as I know, his very hands-off influence
> >> in the SC has been mostly limited to licensing and strategic issues,
> >> e.g. the GPLv3 and Runtime Exception relicensing, to ensure copyleft
> >> defenses were in place to avoid abuse of such features as plugins.
> >>
> >>
> >> It may be very convenient to paint a boogey-man and expel it because
> >> that became fashionable.  But sacrificing a goat or a lamb does not
> >> expiate our own sins, and expelling someone who hasn't even been present
> >> in the community can't be expected to make any real difference to that
> >> matter; it would rather make us seem *less* welcoming and more
> >> intolerant, and suggest other motivations for the move.
> >>
> >>
> >> Let's be real and honest, when was the last time anyone in the GCC
> >> community was called out for sexist behavior?  When was there even
> >> conversation about it, and about how sexist behavior is not acceptable
> >> and not to be accepted among participants in the GCC community?  What
> >> was our latest collective action to promote e.g. gender equity within
> >> the community?
> >>
> >> If we were to shift our collective blame over this very real and
> >> undesirable problem to someone who has any direct authority over the
> >> project, why not suggesting expelling e.g. the entire Steering Committee
> >> for its evident failure to address the problem?  (I don't think it's a
> >> good idea, but that would be the first thing to try if we were to blame
> >> "management"/"leadership" rather than ourselves for it)
> >>
> >> What could support any rational belief that having RMS one extra level
> >> removed from our technical community would bring about anything
> >> resembling a solution to the very undesirable and unjust gender
> >> imbalance you've correctly identified?
> >>
> >>
> >> The action you propose, besides the absence of effect in making our
> >> community actually more welcoming, because he's already absent, would
> >> send the opposite of a welcoming signal to people with controversial or
> >> impopular opinions, to people at a certain spot in the neurodiversity
> >> spectrum, and to many others who oppose this sort of mob rule.
> >>
> >>
> >> How about we set out to take individual and collective actions that
> >> actually address the problem *in* our community?  We don't need anyone's
> >> approval to call out sexist acts, nor to invite and train people with an
> >> interest in compiler technology, nor to maintain a welcoming atmosphere.
> >>
> >> A regime of terror to maintain a false appearance of a welcoming
> >> atmosphere won't get us there.
> >>
> >> If we undertake such actions, individually or collecetively, you might
> >> be surprised (but I won't be) that he, even absent from the community,
> >> would support these actions, which is the very opposite of the picture
> >> you paint.
> >>
> >> Our taking effective action on our own would help show what the real
> >> issues and intents are, and it would tell apart those who are really
> >> interested in solving the gender imbalance and the social injustices
> >> causing it, like you and me, from those who are abusing that flag as a
> >> trojan horse to serve nefarious purposes, as suggested and illustrated
> >> in https://ultralux97.medium.com/stallman-must-be-removed-a3061b09fb22
> 
>