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.

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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.

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

Robert Reich explains how the bullshitter and Republicans are trying to spread chaos to discourage non-fascists from voting. After creating as much real chaos as they can, they pretend there is even more of it, hoping Americans will give up and not vote, or support a fascist strong man.

I urge you to vote in Democratic primaries for the progressive candidate, if there is one. And in the final election I urge you to vote for Democrats, unless a liberal independent had a good chance of winning.

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: Private equity in child care business
5 November 2024

US citizens: call on Congress to keep private equity out of the child care business.

Urgent: Stop amplifying election lies
5 November 2024

US citizens: call on Big Tech to stop amplifying election lies.

Urgent: Ban surveillance pricing
5 November 2024

US citizens: call on lawmakers to ban surveillance pricing.

They should go further than that and ban collecting personal data about the purchaser.

Putin forces drones dropping grenades
5 November 2024

The Putin forces are using specialized drones that drop grenades on civilians. The drone controllers do not target a specific person; rather, they generally attack anyone they come across.

Risk of Kessler Syndrome
5 November 2024

As we increase the number of artificial satellites in Earth orbit, the danger of the Kessler Syndrome (a chain reaction of collisions) increases too. Humanity could bar itself from space entirely.

The movie Gravity showed an extremely fast chain reaction. It might actually take years, but be unstoppable nonetheless.

Mozambique opposition figures killed
5 November 2024

*Mozambique opposition figures killed as protest grows over election results.*

Time for climate delays has run out
5 November 2024

*"Crunch time for real": UN says time for climate delays has run out.*

*Time to act: UNEP paints bleak climate picture without rapid emissions cut.*

No memory of non-extremist Republican party
5 November 2024

Today's US college students have no memory of a Republican Party that wasn't extremist. To those whose families were Republicans, the way they find it now is normal.

"Ineffectual" carbon offsets slowing path to "real zero"
5 November 2024

*Corporations using "ineffectual" carbon offsets are slowing path to "real zero", more than 60 climate scientists say.*

It is obvious that use of bogus "offsets" as an excuse not to do real decarbonization keeps the greenhouse emissions high.

Wrecker's campaign ties to Russia
5 November 2024

*[The wrecker's] Campaign's Ties to Russia Were No Hoax.*

Putin supports US neo-Nazi group
5 November 2024

Putin is supporting the propaganda of a US neo-Nazi group.

Putin and the corrupter support each other, too.

Spain's apocalyptic floods
5 November 2024

*Spain's apocalyptic floods [following others in countries around the world] show two undeniable truths: the climate crisis is getting worse and Big Oil is killing us.*

The annual COP conferences that was created to get the world o the road to safety has been captured by planet roasters, and it is hard to see how the US and Russia could negotiate any sort of agreement about fossil fuels.

Some large countries could set up a carbon tax system on their own, using the tax money to help the poor not to subsidize specifically fossil fuel for poor people. Maybe then other countries would join.

California high school to invest in clean energy
5 November 2024

* A high school in California has decided not to invest in coal, oil or [fossil] gas, instead pledging to put money into clean energy..*

This was a demand made my the students. Bravo! But what we really need is to stop anyone from "investing" in fossil fuels.

Working-class Britons
5 November 2024

*…Working-class white people were actually the dispensable pawns of white supremacy. Or as Lyndon B Johnson put it: "If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best coloured man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you."

I made a link to that article because it tells us something important about racism. Racism is an intense form of bigotry; it is a collective injustice that I condemn, and support the campaign against. I think posting a link to that article will help that campaign.

Ironically, that article itself embodies symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid this bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I denounce lesser forms of bigotry too, and I don't want to normalize symbolic bigotry by letting it pass without calling it out. Normally I avoid any menton of articles that practice it.

I had conflicting feelings about that article based on these two valid goals: to make a link, because of its important point about racism, or not to link, to avoid normalizing the article's own bigotry. I concluded that the first goal could not be neglected, and made the link. But the second goal also should not be neglected — hence this note to criticize the article's own bigotry.

Climate denialism
5 November 2024

*Five ways [that the wrecker as president] would be disastrous for the climate.*

Harris endorsement
5 November 2024

The billionaire owner of the LA Times blocked it at the last minute from publishing an already-written endorsement of Harris for president. Some editors resigned in protest, and many subscribers have quit.

Bezos blocked at the last minute an already written endorsement of Harris for president, according to staff. Some editors, staff and subscribers are quitting.

Since Bezos is not an ideological right-wing extremist, there are suspicions that he was afraid the bully would punish his other companies if he allowed an endorsement of Harris and then the bully somehow became president.

People have asked what Musk hopes to get if he can make the bully president.

I think Musk wants to be emperor.

The danger that billionaires pose to the American republic somewhat resembles the way concentration of wealth destroyed the Roman Republic (1). Eventually the richest Roman of all, Julius Caesar, became so powerful that no few in Rome could go against his wishes, not enough to succeed in denying him anything. He aimed for total power.

Later his nephew, Octavian, actually got that total power, so that no one could safely oppose him at all. This he obtained the official position that we nowadays call "emperor".

If we defeat the bully this time, he may go away and leave us alone, but Vance won't refuse the "support" of Musk, and they are not old enough to be likely to disappear soon. To be safe, we will have to take away most of Musk's wealth. And likewise for other billionaires.

1. There are many differences, of course. The Roman Republic never had goals such as democracy or equal rights. The vote of a rich citizen counted for more than that of a poor citizen, and a sufficiently rich citizen was automatically a senator. Wives had little more rights than slaves. Notwithstanding the revolt of Spartacus, few ever said that slavery was wrong in general.

Nonetheless, there are similarities in the evolution of the system into instability as the richest fortunes became greater.

Marwan Barghouti
5 November 2024

*Israeli prison staff accused of assaulting Marwan Barghouti [in his cell],*

causing several wounds.

He is kept in solitary confinement, which is effective a form of torture,

and rarely allowed visits, even from lawyers. So the attack could hardly have been done by anyone but the prison guards.

Israeli publishers
5 November 2024

Some famous writers have supported a campaign to boycott Israeli cultural institutions, except those that have taken a stand against the occupation or atrocities.

The reason I call Isreal's massacres of Palestinians "atrocities" but not "genocide" is that the meaning of the latter word is a matter of magnitude of the acts in question, not just the kinds of acts.

Killing 20 people in cold blood is clearly an atrocity, but it is not genocide. Killing 40,000 people out of 2.3 million, by violence or starvation, is a series of atrocities, but is it genocide? I think that is still stretching the word. Killing 10% of the population of Gaza might be genocide. Enough additional killing (which I hope will not occur) would surely make it genocide. But I don't think there is a precise line.

Why argue about that question of the meaning of the word? Killing tens of thousands of people is a grave and vicious act, and calling it a series of atrocities expresses the gravity of the crime in a way that is totally clear.

Georgian Dream party
5 November 2024

Russia has more or less taken unofficial control of Georgia, through the opposition is still fighting and claim that the election was rigged.

NAFTA jobs
5 November 2024

* The working class saw Clinton’s support of Nafta, which cut most tariffs between US, Mexico and Canada, as "a betrayal".* They continue to blame Democrats for it. It was a betrayal and it was promoted by Democrats (though not as many Democrats as Republicans).

But what counts in the election is what they would do next year. Overall, Democrats are inclined to resist the demands of rich people and the businesses they own somewhat more than Republicans would,

though not as much as Bernie Sanders would.


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".

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

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.

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