After reading the FSFE’s statement on Richard Stallman rejoining the FSF board:
[…] We disapprove of this step that came without any message of remorse or willingness to change. […] we call for his resignation from all FSF bodies.
I find myself in stark contrast with the FSFE opinion - so much so that I can only withdraw any and all future support for the FSFE.
I encourage all the other supporters who value a person’s ideals, achievements and passion for Free Software over their personal opinions in completely unrelated matters (whether you believe something offensive has been said or not) to do the same.
I find the statement a real pain and an embarrassment, I’m considering to stop my support and contibution to FSFE after knowing what are its beliefs about free software.
Considering the facts I also see the statement as deeply problematic. It’s not as bad as the open letter, but still very questionable from an ethical viewpoint. The accusations that are used to argue for RMS removal are proven wrong. And to refuse to work with the FSF if RMS stays in a leading position isn’t warranted.
To me this analysis sums up the situation rather well.
RMS often doesn’t phrase his opinions in the best way but he never did anything that would warrant such a reaction. And this is also clear from how much support he gets despite the implicit social pressure for all who side with him.
Someone even went to the trouble to create a new support page to clear up the misinformation spread about him.
I agree with @fwyzard 's (unrelated matters) and @Franz 's (misconception argument) statements about Richard Stallman and therefore want to emphasize my unhappiness about the FSFE statement, but I will still support the FSF and FSFE in the future. I hope the FSFE representatives will change their opinion and they will work together in the future.
You may like RMS or not, but it is clear that it is just a campaign of hatred against him. FSF has already rectified and FSFE should do as well in a new public post.
I, too, disagree with the FSFE’s official message. However, I have not gone as far as pulling out my donation, because that would hurt the movement and is precisely what the authors of the misinformation campaign seek to accomplish. Therefore, I would ask those who have already done so to re-consider, and to work to change the organization’s views from within.
Reading the FSFE’s statement again, I think the ideals that it defends – creating a welcoming and inclusive community – is an obvious thing that everybody wants. It is not clear to me, however, to what extent the FSFE simply bottled up the misinformation and drank it all before publishing that statement, or whether it had done any research, or had a past, well-informed opinion, on RMS and his persona.
It is true that his return to the board was announced hastily at LP2021, and apparently not even existing FSF members had been notified. That could have been done better, and the FSF apologized quickly after with commitments to handle this and similar situations more transparently. But I don’t think that alone warrants the kind of public statements we have seen.
Also, those interested can find a support page for RMS here:
