Richard Stallman Falls Ill At Conference

itwbennett writes "Stallman, 59, was speaking at the North Campus of the Polytechnic University of Cataluna when he started to feel ill and called for a doctor. It was originally reported in the Spanish press that Stallman was hypertensive, but it is not yet known what his eventual health status was, just that he left the building later under his own power." He is apparently okay and any significant confirmed updates will be posted here.

Comments

Re:Putting his money where his mouth is

[Just Some Guy]

Note that this is also the same man who wrote on his blog:

...that people should be free to do things we find distasteful, in the absence of evidence that those behaviors are harmful.

RMS is pro-freedom. I am shocked.

Note: he was referring to a Bush court nominee who opined that if choosing a same-sex partner were permissible, then each of the acts on that list may also be Constitutionally protected. I happen to disagree with his statement that those things should be allowed (with the exception of adultery, which we've pretty much all agreed is a household matter and not something for the criminal courts). But within certain very narrow scopes, I see (but not concur with) his points.

• Prostitution is supported by a lot of varied groups, from women's libbers to libertarian groups who see it as a free market barter.
• I don't think adultery is directly illegal anywhere.
• Necrophilia is hyper-icky, but if the, erm, cadaver, explicitly agreed to it while still in a condition to do so...
• Bestiality: OK, I'm having a hard time finding a scenario defending that one.
• If your 18 year old son has a sexy picture of his 17 year old girlfriend, he possesses child porn and would be put on a sex offender registry in many states. That's not in the same moral category as some perv collecting pictures of toddlers, but it seems to have the same legal classification.
• Incest: see necrophilia; I can't fathom it, but if two adults consent to something I find utterly repulsive, I'm not sure what right I have to tell them they can't be disgusting.
• Pedophila: see child pornography; a 50 year old with a teen is pretty clearly not OK, but I don't think a boy turns into a child molester on the day he turns 18 just because his girlfriend is a week younger than him.

So your main complaint with the man seems to be that he doesn't automatically have zero tolerance for situations you may be morally uncomfortable with. I don't like them either, and RMS himself probably doesn't (short of enjoying the reaction others have when he says that he supports them). That doesn't mean that they're off-limit to discussion, if not to allow them but only to suss out exactly why we don't allow them beyond "they're icky!"

Re:Let's have some perspective.

[rev0lt]

But you don't cut off a hearse or piss on people's graves do you?

No, I just don't care more about random strangers just because they had their life facilitated by being able to do academic work and public talks. You have people dying in Syria right now trying to defend values much more honorable than anything RMS ever stood for, do you give a shit about them? Because it is easy to talk about freedom (wtf!) and badmouth "evil corporations" when you and the ones that are close to you are protected from harm.

Show some goddamned decency.

YOU show some goddamned decency. There are people dying for what they believe is right, and you talk about decency in the context of someone that has used the only somewhat good idea it ever had to get a free lunch. Get some perspective, there is a lot more in the world than computers.