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.
I am making a second visit to Europe this year after February. If you are interested in inviting me to speak there, and you have a venue to use and a public to invite, please email me in March with "speaking invitation" in the Subject field, using the name rms and the host gnu dot org. One advantage of this period for you is that the intercontinental flights are already covered, so you won't need to pay for that.

Political Articles | Political Notes | Talks | Airlines | Anti-Glossary | Archive | Ban face recognition | Books | Comics | Empire of the Megacorporations | Fiction | Glossary | GPG Key | Humor | Humorous Bio | Links | Media/Press/Bio | Non-Political Articles | The Four Factors of the Apocalypse | There Ought to Be a Law | Travel Experiences | Travel Photos | How I Do My Computing | RMS personal FAQ | Sayings | Scientific Links | Stallman on Love | Thanks |

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Send comments/questions about the search engine to: rms at gnu dot org


What's bad about: Airbnb | Amazon | Amtrak | Ancestry | Apple | Change.org | ChatGPT | Cloudflare | Discord | Disney | Ebooks | Eventbrite | Evernote | Ex-Twitter | Facebook | FLIXbus | Frito-Lay | Frontier | Google | Gofundme | Grubhub | In-N-Out Burger | Intel | LinkedIn | Lyft | Meetup | Microsoft | Netflix | Patreon | Pay Toilets | Privatization | Skype | Slack | Spotify | Tesla | Threads | Ticketmaster | Uber | Wendy's | WhatsApp | Zoom |

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.

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

[America Means Civil Liberties / Patriotism Means Protecting 
             Them / www.aclu.org/safefree ]
graphic by Susan Henson
Americans, you may wish to copy this icon to your own page, as a way of showing what patriotism means to you.

Upcoming talks

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.

Urgent: Break up Big Medicine
28 March 2025

US citizens: Call for breaking up Big Medicine.

Urgent: Resist saboteur-in-chief
28 March 2025

US citizens: call on Congress to resist the saboteur-in-chief firmly — don't look for a compromise.

If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

Urgent: Do not wipe out post office staff
28 March 2025

US citizens: call on Congress not to allow the DOSE to wipe out post office staff.

DOSE stands for Department of Sabotage and Evisceration.

If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

Urgent: Stop Starlink from replacing rural broadband
28 March 2025

US citizens: call on Congress to stop the muskrat from replacing the rural broadband access with Starlink.

Urgent: Amazon lawsuit attacking Consumer Product Safety Commission
28 March 2025

US citizens: call on Amazon to drop its lawsuit attacking the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Magats falsify "facts" to blame trans people
28 March 2025

Magats falsify "facts" to create excuses to blame trans people for whatever harm occurs.

This illustrates one dishonest aspect of a system that influences their tribe to believe imaginary criticisms of the the bullshitter leader tells them to hate.

Experiment shows microplastics damage mouse brain
28 March 2025

An experiment has found a way microplastics can damage mouse brain function in living mice.

I would expect that the dose level in the experiment far exceeded what any animal encounters in normal life, but that would not mean the same thing doesn't happen in normal life — it might just take many years rather than hours.

Whether human brains are vulnerable to this particular mechanism is not certain.

Cancellation of US initiative to document Russian war crimes
28 March 2025

The saboteur-in-chief terminated a U.S.-funded initiative that documents alleged Russian war crimes, including details of mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, according to officials.

This blocked transmission of evidence to prosecutors pursuing multiple criminal cases.

Can some European country provide replacement funding to make this operate again?

Hate spreader endorses prejudice
28 March 2025

The hate spreader has endorsed all kinds of prejudice — even racial segregation.

If racism against blacks is OK with him, clearly he can't really object to antisemitism either. So his campaign against it is not sincere. His concern with it must be to weaponize it.

People defend independent cinema
28 March 2025

The people of Miami Beach stood up to defend an independent cinema from censorship, after it became the only cinema in the US o show the film Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

The mayor backed down from threat to force that cinema to close.

French scientist denied entry to the US
28 March 2025

A French scientist who was sent by CNRS to a conference in the US was denied entry because the border thugs who searched the messages in his cell phone found condemnation of the wrecker's funding cuts for scientific research.

The outrage here is the idea of excluding people because they denounce a US government policy. That is vicious censorship. The wrecker is looking for opportunities to do this to US citizens too.

Complaint against U.S. Commerce Secretary
28 March 2025

*Campaign Legal Center Files Complaint Against U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for Violating Federal Ethics Rules.*

I have a feeling that the saboteur-in-chief will use this opportunity to sabotage government ethics rules by giving Lutnick as a punishment the requirement to buy 5 Teslas and market 50 Teslas to others.

Harder to get accurate economic data
28 March 2025

*Instead of Dealing with the Weakening Economy, Administration Officials Are Making it Harder to Get Accurate Economic Data.*

I have to make it clear that I don't believe that declining share prices are the worst thing that could happen to the US. If they were falling because corporations were going to have to pay more tax that would be used to help working and poor people's lives, I would cheer. If they were the result of policies likely to make Netanyahu or Putin stop making war, I would cheer.

But since the stock decline is being caused by magats, I don't think anything good is likely to result.

Members of British punk band denied entry to US
28 March 2025

*Members of British punk rock band UK Subs denied entry into the US,* where they were going to perform, and there was some mystery about why.

It seems that the regime is trying to impose censorship on people who might visit the US, to intimidate them from criticism. I expect this will arouse a lot of hatred for the US.

It strikes me that these airport "waiting" rooms are designed to be harsh. It can't be an accident that the rooms are cold or there is nothing to lie down on. People who run prisons know what will make prisoners uncomfortable, and the US could do better if it wanted to. The punishment starts even before they say they have decided to punish you.

(satire) Outside stimuli sneaked into sensory deprivation tank
28 March 2025

(satire) *Man Sneaks Bag Of Outside Stimuli Into Sensory Deprivation Tank.*

(satire) Posting photos of balding Elon Musk
28 March 2025

(satire) *DOJ Designates Posting Photos Of Balding Elon Musk As Domestic Terrorism.*

Boeing whistleblower's family
28 March 2025

*Boeing whistleblower's family claims company’s conduct caused his suicide.*

Bullshitter misreports diplomatic phone calls
28 March 2025

The bullshitter misreports his own diplomatic phone calls.

It could be dishonesty, or it could be he simply does not remember.

Maybe bully not really Putin's agent
28 March 2025

Maybe the bully is not really Putin's agent — he is not rushing to give Putin everything he wants in Ukraine.

Church of Scientology accused of intimidating UK critics
28 March 2025

*"I've been getting 100 messages a day": Church of Scientology accused of intimidating UK critics.*


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