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Why free software evangelist Richard Stallman is haunted by Stalin’s dream (factordaily.com)
11 points by jrepinc on Jan 23, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments



I am a big fan of RMS and his remarkable prescience. However the logic he gives here for using other people's mobile phones seems a bit suspect:

> To surrender my freedom in this way was failing to defend a free society. This is why I do not have a portable phone. I refuse to carry a portable phone. I never have one and unless things change, I never will. I do use portable phones, lots of different ones. If I needed to call someone right now, I would ask one of you, “Could you please make a call for me?” If I am on a bus and it is late and I need to tell somebody that I am going to arrive late, there is always some other passenger in the bus who will make a call for me or send a text for me. Practically speaking, it is not that hard.

Isn't this a little hypocritical, relying on other people carrying a mobile phone when he refuses to? OK yes, they have already made their own choice to carry one but he appears to be making use of their privacy limiting choice to protect his own privacy.

Not meaning to attack RMS in this comment, who as I said above, I admire. I know he's done a lot to advance and protect other people's freedom. Just questioning his logic in this instance.


We should ask him if he carries a rolodex with him all the time or he just text to his secretary to forward his messages during his busride.


You are right, that's is illogical. Needs to be called out, as you did.


What was the Android spyware they detected? Stallman calls just about anything spyware when most computer professionals don't have a problem with it. Makes me think his 90% of 1,000 free apps having spyware could really mean nothing to most people. Without the detail we just have no idea if this is a meaningful statistic that they've come up with.




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