I don’t exactly care for Stallman but I hope he remains in GNU leadership for as long as he wants. The behavior of the FSF in this case is truly despicable, trying to leverage GNU to complete the removal of him from public life.

Stallman very smartly offered to “help” FSF and GNU revise the nature of their working relationships. The relationship is fine. Stallman simply knows that the comment about “revising relationships” is a veiled threat, not anything people are truly interested in doing.

Want to eliminate “cancel culture” overnight? End anonymous internet usage. Like magic, I have a feeling the vast majority of people would suddenly get real careful about what they said and who they said it about.

Seriously though, i think a lot of “cancel culture” gains its power from fears of a vocal minority. Companies fire people because they think a smattering of twitter loons represent a larger critical mass of consumers or public. Maybe a non-profit can be formed that has the stated goal of accurately estimating the extent and nature of group opinion in cases where someone is “called out”. Instead of the knee-jerk reaction of getting rid of a person or thing to eliminate negative opinion, corporations can be educated about the value in waiting, and the extent to which vocal minorities on twitter vastly warp actual public opinion.

We are actually living in a world where any judgment, statement, or action can have devastating life effects if placed in the wrong context. We are even judging people for opinions they held in the past! The only judgment that is safe to make is negatively judging what everyone else is.

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst. Are full of passionate intensity.”