Originally I didn't sign because I found the choice of hosting ridiculous and also because I don't have any real stakes in the FSF.
The discussions in the last few days have made me add the reason that I shouldn't sign an open letter that draws the right conclusion if it argues from the wrong premises.
rms took transphobic and ablist action due to a lack of empathy, this I agree with. I don't agree that he outright defended pedophilia and in particular didn't defend this instance of pedophilia. I originally considered this a minor detail, but I have to agree that it is actually significant and makes the appendix incorrect and unjust.
> rms took transphobic and ablist action
Kudos for separating the actions from the person!
I'm involved with an organization working against racism, and in that context this issue has come up repeatedly. One thing I learned there, listening to experts on that kind of thing, is that it is generally not useful to label a person as "racist" when in fact it is some specific actions that are racist. Labeling the person as racist reduces the chances of better behavior in the future.
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@clacke Also, if we classify people as wither racist or not, we lose the ability to detect our own racist behavior. "I'm not a racist, so what I said/did could never be racist" is a quite silly way of thinking.
You were talking about transphobia rather than racism, but I'm pretty sure the same thing applies: much better to focus on actions rather than putting a label on a person, as if that behavior is a some kind of definition of who that person is, that is really unfair to that person.
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