Richard Stallman's Personal Site


The photo comes from wikimedia.org
"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019"
by Ruben Rodriguez

I continue to be the Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project.
This is my long-term commitment and I plan to continue.
You may have heard or read critical statements about me; please make up your own mind.

Join the Make Billionaires Pay march on September 20th.
Join a protest in your city.

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RSS site feed for the most recent political notes and new material.

This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.
The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project.
For the sake of separation, this site has always been hosted elsewhere and managed separately.

I will have a trip to Europe in the second week of October and I am looking for invitations for additional talks in the same trip. If you would like to invite me to speak in that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "october" as the subject.

It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.

If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See gpg.html for my real key.

Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.

FSF Giving Guide

Canadians: I suggest you seek election advice at a local chapter of a group that pushes to curb global heating and has the courage to say, "Canada should stop exporting fossil fuel." It will at least use the right goals to suggest who to vote for in your area.

Join a Friday climate strike.
That page is made by scraping Fridays for Future so you can get the information without running any Javascript code. I would be very glad if they made the information on their own site accessible from the Free World; then we could simply refer people to their site and do without the scraping etc.

I am limiting the number of new political notes per day so as not to overload the volunteers who install new notes. If you'd like to help, please write to rms at gnu period org.

Is your bank pressuring you to use biometric ID? If so, please write to rms at gnu dot org. It could be useful if you document what is happening.

Please join the Free Software Foundation to support its work for your freedom.

"They" is plural — for singular antecedents, use singular gender-neutral pronouns.

Link Policy

The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.

I'm looking for people to If you would like to help me in any of these ways, please write to rms at gnu dot o r g.

Civil Liberties Minute

Upcoming talks

I will have a trip to Europe in the second week of October and I am looking for invitations for additional talks in the same trip. If you would like to invite me to speak in that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "october" as the subject.

It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.

Urgent action items

Recording of Guantanamero

Listen to the recording of Guantanamero, a protest song written in Spanish. The recording is in Ogg Vorbis format. To install an Ogg Vorbis player, see the FSF's Ogg Players page.

There Ought to Be a Law

More items where there ought to be a law.

Quotes

Here are some quotations that I particularly like.

Most recent Political Notes and News Items

(RSS Feed)

You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.

Reproach of US government for killing people in boat
17 September 2025

Various former officials reproach the US government for choosing killing the people in a boat in the Caribbean, in disregard of US law, rather than arresting them and perhaps charging them with crimes (supposing there was evidence they were committing any crimes).

Bully's tariffs cause inflation to rise
17 September 2025

The bully's tariffs caused inflation to rise in August.

I am not a supporter of the free-trade ideology, that gives capital the power to bully and dominate countries that don't bow down and obey. Tariffs can help a country build up its domestic industry, provided they are used in a well-designed plan.

Of course, that is not what the bully did. His goal was to make other countries' governments submit to him.

Suggestion to make crime for not labeling LLM output
17 September 2025

A suggestion to make it a crime to publish output from an LLM without explicitly labeling it as such.

This could be a good idea, provided it avoids the marketing campaign of calling LLMs "intelligence" and referring to the output as "content" as if that were a sort of commodity.

Some senators said US complicit in ethnic cleansing of Gaza
17 September 2025

*Some US senators said that the US is complicit in Israel's ethnic cleansing of Gaza.*

This is clearly true. Ethnic cleansing is the clearest term I know of to describe what Israel is doing to Gaza.

(satire) Ordinary gunman on school campus
17 September 2025

(satire) *Witnesses Assumed Charlie Kirk Shooter Was Just Ordinary Gunman On School Campus.*

Democratic party must not only condemn Trumpism
17 September 2025

Robert Reich: *If it's to have a future, the Democratic Party must not only condemn Trumpism but explain why so many Americans are struggling and provide a credible way for most people to share in the nation's prosperity.*

Wave of antisemitism accusations
17 September 2025

There is a wave of antisemitism accusations against professors who criticize Israel's injustice toward Palestinians.

The same rules against atrocities that apply to other countries apply to Israel as well, and talking about those atrocities is not antisemitic at all.

Britain's situation allows it to resist being bullied into surrender
17 September 2025

Arguing that Britain's situation allows it to resist being bullied into surrender to rich lenders.

The article also argues that the Euro and its rules are responsible for France's current mass poverty.

How super-rich avoid paying their fair share
17 September 2025

*It’s not about [accused politicians] Rayner or Farage: the real tax story is how the super-rich avoid paying their share.*

Bully's war on Harvard proposed decades earlier
17 September 2025

The bully's war on Harvard was proposed decades earlier by a right-wing congresscritter.

Bullshitter hates wind turbines
17 September 2025

The bullshitter hates wind turbines, and promotes a wide range of imaginary reasons to get rid of them. This article checks the facts of them. Some are based on partial truth, but it isn't enough truth to justify rejecting wind power.

He might have some rational reason — rational for him, that is: his fossil-fool backers will make more money if we fail to make and use enough wind power.

The article leaves me wondering whether Britain is painting its wind farm blades black to protect birds, and also whether it is upgrading its electrical grid and battery storage so that it can utilize all the electric energy that its wind farms can generate.

IDF soldiers deliberately wounding children in Gaza
17 September 2025

*IDF soldiers deliberately wounding children in Gaza "like a game", says British doctor.* The doctor reached this conclusion in Gaza based on treating many wounded children and noting the day-to-day variation in what kind of wounds were being made that day.

He also reported that many of the patients he operated on later died because they did not get enough food to recover properly.

Perverse cruelty to win Republican votes in primary elections
17 September 2025

Would-be Republican candidates demonstrate perverse cruelty to win Republican votes in primary elections.

Censorship by payment platforms in Australia
17 September 2025

*Payment platforms [in Australia] [including credit card companies] demand services remove NSFW [games] after open letter from Australian anti-porn group Collective Shout, triggering accusations of censorship

This censorship is one added injustice in an aspect of life that is unjust through and through.

The platforms that were forced to remove some games make users identify themselves and run nonfree software to get games, and track what each person does. They are unjust.

Likewise for the payment platforms — using them to pay online requires running nonfree software, except on a few sites such as fsf.org where we avoid that for moral reasons.

The games themselves are also unjust nonfree software. That applies to all the games there, those that were removed, and those that have not been removed.

They have DRM, too, to prevent forbidden sharing; DRM is unjust.

change.org partakes of the same injustice — one needs to run nonfree software to sign any of its petitions. I've seen petitions there that I agreed with, but I won't sign them that way.

I do not tolerate any of these injustices — I "just say no." As a result, I will never have any of the games from those platforms on my computer.

But even though this new censorship will never affect me directly. I am concerned about it. When censorship is accepted in any area of life, it tends to spread. Some day it may spread to activities which are not inherently unjust. And it illustrates the danger of the design of digital payment system, and of nonfree software that users can't just share with each other.

By the way, where in Australia is NSFW? Has it anything to do with NSW? ;-}.

Ex-FBI officials sue Kash Patel
17 September 2025

*Ex-FBI officials sue Kash Patel over claims they were fired for investigating Trump.*

Speakers with controversial viewpoints on college campuses
17 September 2025

*A new survey of nearly 70,000 college students across the United States has found that a majority oppose allowing speakers with controversial viewpoints, whether liberal or conservative, to speak on their campuses.*

Anti-Islamic biker gang members hired to run security at Gaza aid sites
17 September 2025

*Anti-Islamic biker gang members hired to run security at controversial Gaza aid sites More than 10 Infidels MC members deployed to sites run by US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.*

Israel makes no effort to disguise the massacres that are part of the plan for these "humanitarian" activities. It only repeats, in the teeth of the evidence, the claim that they are not. Why would it not hire these gang members?

Political activists against drone boat strike
17 September 2025

Various political activists are joined by one Republican senator in condemning the deadly US drone attack on a boat allegedly carrying addictive drugs, calling it "an extrajudicial execution."

This shows what the trance demands — the power to kill at will.

Estimated worldwide deaths from Canada's 2023 wildfires
17 September 2025

Estimating that Canada's 2023 wildfires killed [around] 82,000 people around the world, including 22,000 in Europe.

It is not easy to determine who was probably killed in by the smoke from those fires. The identification of them is not as direct as determining whether a person was killed by a gunshot. The estimate could easily be off by some percent. Perhaps a more correct statement would be 80,000 plus or minus 5,000. or even plus or minus 10,000.

That wouldn't alter the implications of the result.

Massive emissions from 14 biggest fossil fuel companies
17 September 2025

Each of the 14 biggest fossil fuel companies has generated enough emissions that it by itself would have caused some fatal heat waves.

This may make it possible so win lawsuits against them for the various forms of damage done by those heat waves — including wrongful death


The four factors of the apocalypse:
   global heating, global hating,
   global eating, global mating.


[More Cartoons]


Not f'd. You won't find us on Facebook

Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.


E-books

Non-oppressive Commercial E-books


Don't use Facebook

Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.

Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.


Boycott Harry Potter Books, Movies, etc.



Internet Music EULAS



Business Supremacy Treaties



Countries to Stay Away From



No national identity cards

I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.

Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.

India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.

Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.

Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.

Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.

Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.

Ireland - national ID card by stealth.

ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.

Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.


Borders

Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.


Flight connections

Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.


The Lifelong Activist

People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.

I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.

Disclosure: I am friends with the author.


Bob Chassell

Writing (mostly science fiction) by my friend Bob Chassell who recently died.


Solidarity Economy and Free Software

Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.


Falkvinge articles

I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles. As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle.


Long-term action items


Political Articles

These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the GNU philosophy directory. You can also download copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition.

Political notes

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to more information. The current notes are here. For all previous notes, see this page.

See this page for information on efforts to maintain links in the political notes.

Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on their own page.

Media/Press/Bios

Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.

Travel experiences

Photos about my travels

Scientific Links


Some humor

The berry torture.

The Free Software Song, by Richard M. Stallman. You can listen to a performance of the song: Free Software Song performed by Thor Here is a variant of this song called "The Free Firmware Song".

Earth under attack from planet Koch.

On doxing, and how to spell it.

Futon Physics

A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta Española. thumbnail

The Night before M-x-mas

Here I am wearing my "power tie".

Wine snobs get their comeuppance.

Here I am struggling to open a bottle of water.

My application to an join Marian Henley's ex-boyfriends list.

My funny poetry and song parodies.

A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.

The text to a filk song, Johnny v. N., by Paul Rubin.

My Cartoons

My Puns in English (Little Leaguer, August 2019).

My Puns in Spanish (New pun: Apostasía April 2019)

My Puns in French (New pun: Microsoft à l'école July 2019)

My Puns in Portuguese

My Puns in Italian (New pun: Quale pesce fa starnutire? New 10/2018)

My Puns in German (New 02/2016)

Linguistic Swifties (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.)

I am a
     Saint In the Church Of Emacs --Saint IGNUcius-- The Church of Emacs will soon be officially listed by at least one person as his religion for census purposes.

There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's editorfather.

Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality…"

The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.

Pre-Zen Studies.

I found a funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s.

If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's an archive of this now-defunct comic strip.

Sleeping with Stallman at MIT.

Un malentendido gracioso.

ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.

American Extremists

My Small Mouth

The huns and the writs.

No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)

Hammer into Anvil

Fiction

Made for You (December 2012) (local copy) Esperanto translation

A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).

The Right to Read

Books

My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.

Stallman on Love

Love and Dance

My Childhood Sweetheart

Made for You

My Former Personal Ad

Non-Political Articles

Am I Doctor Stallman?

Avec des chapeaux French song parody.

My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.

Resolving the trolley problem

Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights

A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.

Origin of the POSIX name.

On Hacking: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker".

My Childhood Sweetheart

Love and Dance

Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor

Certificate of confusion

Links

Thanks

I would like to thank:


Please send comments on these web pages to rms at gnu period org.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are permitted provided this notice is preserved.
Verbatim copying and redistribution of any of the photos in the photos subdirectory is permitted under the Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0 or later. You can copy and redistribute the photo of me playing music to the butterfly under the Creative Commons Noderivs Nocommercial license version 3.0 or later. Any other photos of me in this (the toplevel) directory may be copied and redistributed under the Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0