I read the "citations" and I was left feeling a little skeptical, added to the fact that the daily beast is not considered by many to be a credible news outlet. Regardless; The tone of this article itself uses such emotive words that I would struggle not to define it as a hit-piece.
hackernews puts a high emphasis on civility, so I’ll be succinct because I find what you said to be absurd.
We do not take for granted that every website is 100% truth or fact. And when presented with something that has only emotion and no fact then we are right to dismiss it. This is why we do not link to things like Obama’s tan suit being Marxist and meaning it[0].
I read into it more, I saw only emotive language and some women who called rms creepy 20 years ago, nothing else. And, yes, I find rms creepy (toe skin eating, anyone?). It is not valid reason to persecute. However, I’m totally open to the idea that this man has horrible ideas and opinions about women and paedophilia. But this is not a compelling citation unless you’re swayed by the kind of language the author uses.
For what it’s worth there are good comments on this article here that indicate something rms previously said about the age of consent in the Netherlands being lowered to 12, and he later changed his opinion on that. It’s a troubling opinion that he had, but I, personally can’t get too bent out of shape if someone changes their mind from something problematic when presented with evidence.
Thank you for the civil response. Good primer on the websites as well, so far I've been taking every written word everywhere as 100% truth and fact but your point is something I had never considered before.
If a 66 year old man tells you that contrary to everything he's written on the matter, he has recently learned that having sex with children is wrong, is that a moment where you wouldn't personally get too bent out of shape about it?
I mean, yes we all change our minds about things. But is there no nuance to it at all? Do you erase someone's entire past as soon as he says "I've changed my mind, child rape is wrong"?
Yes I change my mind on a person who changed their values. Although it’s not as if I change it to be completely 180° from my original estimations of the person.
I think it’s soulless to never allow a person to grow or change when presented new information no matter what age they are.
Or, are only young people allowed to change their minds? Or is nobody?
I mean I’ve had pretty stupid ideas about things ranging from communism as a good political ideology to believing that the UK would be better outside of the EU. But when presented with new information I changed my opinion. I would hope people don’t treat me as a communist or a brexiter.
it seems I'm not alone in my assertion: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/d5a4dz/_/f0l50w4/?co...