Elias @eliasr@librem.one

This is a good video by Luke Smith: "Social Media as Social Control."

https://videos.lukesmith.xyz/videos/watch/5e0eeac4-2b38-450c-aad6-eb601087686e

"Whether planned or not, Social Media's prime current function is behavioral engineering at a massive scale. Most sites function as massive Skinner's Boxes, conditioning users to behaviors desired by those who run the sites. Part of this is inevitable, but it has certainly accelerated in recent years and will continue so long as people continue to rely on such sites."

The video is 15 minutes long.

Just noticed a spelling mistake there: I wrote amazing but of course it should be amaizeing in this case 😄

Amazing how fast #corn grows. I put three grains in the soil one week ago, now they're already 7-8 cm tall. #gardening #maize

Here is my own contribution to the #RMS debate, about the open letter and #fsf and so on.

Comment on the open letter to "remove RMS", based on the GNU Kind Communications Guidelines

https://eliasrudberg.se/rms/

This is not another escalation, it's something else. It's about how we communicate. I thought a lot about it. Hopefully this can reach some of the people who signed the open letter.

Boosts welcome.

Debian Votes to Issue No Statement on Stallman's Return to the FSF Board

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/21/04/18/1727209/debian-votes-to-issue-no-statement-on-stallmans-return-to-the-fsf-board

Details about the vote: https://www.debian.org/vote/2021/vote_002

#debian #rms #fsf

The GNOME Code of Conduct says: Be friendly. Be empathetic. Be respectful.

The GNOME Foundation signed an "open letter" accusing a software freedom activist of being "misogynist, ableist, and transphobic".

Questions:

(1) Is the letter in line with the GNOME Code of Conduct?

(2) Is it okay for the GNOME Foundation, as an organization, to sign something like that?

Personally I lean towards "no" on both questions, but I would like to hear what you think, especially GNOME developers.

#gnome

This is an excellent statement from the FSF India about the current #RMS controversy:
https://fsf.org.in/news/board-statement-2021/

"Unfortunately many of the arguments made against him were based on misunderstanding and half truths. More dangerous is concerted attack on RMS vilifying him and trying to isolate him. FSF India condemns this action. There is no freedom more important than freedom of thought and expression."

To understand the background, see for example this: https://edsantos.eu/on-stalman/

#freedom #fsf

Listening to: John Lennon, Working Class Hero

[...]

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years

Then they expect you to pick a career

When you can't really function you're so full of fear

[...]

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you're so clever and classless and free

But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see

[...]

In case anyone wants to try out receiving MMS messages on their #librem5 I just wrote down the steps needed for that here, still unofficial and hacky but it does work: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/chatty/-/issues/30#note_151962 #GNU #Linux #ModemManager #libqmi #mmsd #chatty #freesoftware

Had a bit of an identity crisis this morning. Luckily there was a command that helped resolve it. I know who I am. #freesoftware #freedom #librem5

A Critique of the Open Letter Calling for the Removal of #RMS: https://meribold.org/2021/04/07/critique-of-rms-open-letter/

"Suggesting that RMS is intolerant is strange. If anything, he seems to be too tolerant. Implying that RMS is hateful is just ridiculous."

https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/arkebiskopen-loggar-ut-pa-grund-av-nathat

Pictures from my morning walk the other day, down by the water along Edsviken north of Stockholm. I didn't meet it in person, but something tells me there is a #beaver living around here.

> brutality

Bullying tactics used to throw RMS out of the organization he founded while portraying him as a terrible person.

> the elite

Big Tech firms rejoice as RMS and FSF suffer, with Microsoft most clearly involved via Github.

Anyway, I recommend listening to the song, it's really good.

"What? The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy!"

The whole album is good. It was a big deal when I was in high school. Still good stuff today. 🙂

> Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission

A stubborn person like RMS must compromise his beliefs and conform to the norms, it is not acceptable for him to be different.

> ignorance

People attacking RMS without knowing what they are talking about.

> hypocrisy

Excluding a person in the name of inclusiveness, in a letter preaching "digital autonomy" while hosted on Github, owned by Microsoft.

(to be continued)

Just listened to the great Rage Against the Machine song "Know Your Enemy", it struck me how it relates to the #RMS debate.

Here is how it ends:

"Yes, I know my enemies"

"They're the teachers who taught me to fight me"

"Compromise,
conformity,
assimilation,
submission,
ignorance,
hypocrisy,
brutality,
the elite"

"All of which are American dreams"

Thinking about those "enemies" in the context of the RMS debate and the infamous open letter:

(to be continued)