I wonder what that reason is.
I think he's just letting the bullies have their way with him.
And enabling endless discussions like this one - where everyone has an opinion but nobody really knows what his opinion is.
Staying silent - yes. But not completely silent. One well thought through statement could've done wonders to the whole situation. Recognize the situation and take a stand in it, don't just ignore it.

I looked at his recent archives - the only statements I could find are this, this and this.

These are very short, barely acknowledging the situation, not explaining himself.

Considering
a) the overall volume of this archive
b) the dimensions the whole situation has grown into
it is no stretch to say that he's actively ignoring the situation, which I still think is the wrong thing to do here.
A dedicated statement on a separate web page (not just a short sub-header in the archives) that the press can relate to and quote from, that's what he would need.
Do we really want a martyr for online media madness? Seems pointless to me.

I happen to know the reason, in fact. This does very little good right now because it's one of the few things I won't say.

It's not as simple as that, but I sort of agree. I've even called for people to write to info@fsf.org (the main email for the FSF) and demand an end to their silence as well.

His opinion is very clear, but not full of detail. It is public knowledge that he doesn't want people to blame the FSF, including the board, but that he is on the receiving end of a coordinated attack outside the FSF.

Or as I would put it, mostly outside the FSF. The FSF mostly has good people there, but since I've devoted a great deal of time to getting more information about this, I think it's ridiculous to completely disregard that at least some people in the FSF are partly responsible.

Not everyone is completely silent, but I don't agree (perhaps at first, not a month in though) that this is the best course of action for the FSF.

One person at the FSF that is likely partly responsible is Matt Lee. I don't want to tread on the forum rules to name him (maybe this crosses a line, I consider it relevant but perhaps it's not close enough to a point of fact yet) though I will quote someone many people in this community (Free software, as well as many people on LQ) with permission but no name:

"Far before this episode I thought he is an incapable jerk, competing for power in the FSF."

"Recent events are just the confirmation of this, he has been the fastest and hardest to attack RMS."

I don't expect anybody to take my word for it or even care, but this is not a person I was certain was close enough to the FSF to even care. They still care about free software, and apparently rms.

I feel very strongly about this, even from day 1 and entirely agree.

It's frustrating for me, though consistent with what I know.

Absolutely true.

I would point out the obvious (and relevant) distinction between being silent and ignoring what's going on. It's very clear (if not, it can be made very clear through already established public information) that Stallman is far from apathetic about this situation.

The press has already sold him out in every possible way. I've added several websites to my hosts file that I will never visit again. In attacking Stallman with slanderous misquotes they have proven themselves "fake news." To some degree, it is relevant when the press lies-- but most of the places I won't ever visit again are insignificant or less important than they used to be.

It depends what you mean. I don't think Stallman is better off as a martyr, nor do I think we are better off if he is one, though the public stoning continues (abated, because even the worst narcissists have a limited amount of venom at a given time.)

It's time for the silence to end, and it isn't going to improve if we wait any longer. But I won't betray any confidences if I can help it. By the time this silence ends, very little I had to say about it is going to be interesting, and I'm completely alright with that.

I read a lot of these threads and it conforms to what I have suspected, but these posts are the best analysis I have yet found. Kindof shocking that Stallman's name is dragged through the mud and this affects the foundations of an entire philosophical school of technology, one of the ones that is the reason any of this internet stuff works at all in the first place. That tech shouldn't betray the user, this entire idea is being thrown out, not just saying it, but the investigation by anyone who is not already a spy of citizen(not consumer) technology is being undermined globally. I can only assume universally.

We should just trust the tech and the people who made it. (dismissive wave of hand) Like a religion or worshiping a king.

The few people smart enough to audit and wise enough to actually do so face the risk of being focused down so that all of their work is subverted, it becomes endemic, no ground to build on that isn't cracking.

The guy who actually, literally prophesied this conflict, is so far personally the man to take the brunt of the most awful scandal in the history of the world.

This, on its face, should be called into question by anyone capable of even the most rudimentary critical thinking.

The epstein scandal and the fallout, where MIT is taking scrutiny but the country of Israel and their backhanded 'alliance' with the United States is not even discussed, clearly demonstrates where the lines are drawn. And the people running the mass media is not on the side of the citizenry, if anything they are trying to elininate people even thinking like citizens at all.

Anyone who jumped to indict Mr. Stallman, some mentioned ITT, must be held suspect as people who may not be who they say they are, they are willing to gladly protect Epstein and co while underming any chance individual humans have to use a personal computer that is not comprimised.

This is really a moment where you have to pick a side. I can promise you they have been infiltrating the FSF and every other such movement for decades, derived from simply upon what I have seen in my personal life. Consider WikiLeaks and Mr. Appelbaum.

I write about it at my site, I have finally put a lot of stuff together about what I believe is a totalitarian system of oppression in the United States, one in which the FSF and ideas of Mr. Stallman have no place whatsoever. I have sadly been too close to it and so I learned a few things that will be helpful.

Watching this scandal and what they did to Mr. Stallman has made me angrier than anything other news I have ever read, and made me much more concerned that things are worse than even I thought they were.

Anyone who cannot see how bizarre this Epstein/MIT/Misnky/Stallman episode is and how it demonstrates an actual live media conspiracy in motion to protect elites from being accountable for their crimes, should be held as either a dolt or they are in on it.

Things about Richard Stallman do not go viral by accident, after all of his ideas have been ignored for 30 years by same. They are desparate to blame this on anything other than israeli zionists and rich jewish people. It is 'tech dominated by club of white men', it is 'rich white patriarchy', 'intelligence.'

Huffpo, the daily beast, chelsea handler, keep redirecting this to all white guys and it is really pissing me off. Weinstien and Epstein are not normal white guys, they are Jewish are connected with a vast network of zionists in the United States who have an agenda, one which includes the current sham president.

The absolute hatred of these people and other elites, and of course 'The Military', for Free Software and Hardware indicates something undeniable about the nature of the system they are trying to implement that must be confronted.

The vector of attack couldn't be more apparent, their nakedness and crudeness conveys a certain desperation we should perhaps perceive as a distant silver lining, that might be there for us if we all do our work.

They want to eliminate the personal computer. Yet there is can be no freedom without personal computing and there can be no personal computing without the ideas Richard Stallman first expressed and champions.

This whole epstein lightning strike shows their entire orc army in motion.

Someone is trying to eliminate human freedom and they are winning, but they have not yet won.

#pickaside

jmichaelhudson.net
thesesystemsarefailing.net
decultification.org

Am I the only one to see the t-shirts as subtle references to the fasces?

I'm more "never forget, and wait until the dish is cold" myself; and in that regard I've included redhat with microsoft for some time now.

They certainly don't show the "escalation" he's talking about.

He seems to be saying that leaders of an organisation should do exactly that.
I'm not clear on how far down the ladder that reaches - does he think I should stop encouraging people to use FOSS because I sometimes speak publicly in church?

It's still a mystery to me, I don't understand what happened still.

I know we live in a day and age where all good things have to go away and all bad things be embraced. I also know that we live in a society that demands we tolerate the worst kind of things ever and that tolerance is important. We need to include everyone, even the worst evils and be as diverse as possible so that even pure madness and insanity can become normal. Being insane is now normal, calling out insanity is discrimination and intolerance and hateful.

Tolerance, inclusion and diversity. Most importantly you'll need tolerance to be able to see the society around you falling apart and becoming moronic, without panicking. Good luck.

I think we need to open the madhouses and the prisons to let everyone out into this new tolerant, inclusive and diverse society, it's so bloody hateful and intolerant to keep those madmen and murderers and violent criminals locked up.

Think "viral", "outrage", "social media", "#MeToo" (not saying that violence against anyone is right or justified in any way - notice what happened to RMS?), and the fact that with such phenomena, people are now guilty until proven innocent...

In other words: he dared to ask for actual evidence before deciding someone was guilty, so apparently he supports such abuse...

The assault on Stallman is from all angles. I can only think that Stallman has been silent because it has now gone legal... but that would be just speculating.

You will note that the base journalism involved, simply goes for the easy vectors of attack and does not simply focus on the issue at hand. It goes into territory such as personal hygiene, lack of charisma, etc. None of it new, no stunning revelations, all historical.

Simply put, the reader is being coerced into accepting Stallman's demise as necessary or inevitable and there are links being made which should not be and old news being inserted with newer "news" for effect. It's typical character assassination tactics: Single out the target, prepare the main ammunition, then during the inevitable "postmortem" articles - point out another stack of character flaws, dig up old stuff, etc.

Effectively you have a very tenuous link to the Epstein scandal, an opinion, followed by claims such he slept on a mattress in his office, speculation as to what it was for, anecdotal evidence that he didn't wash regularly and was a bit pervy towards women being introduced to supposedly bolster things up.

Those critics in the US should perhaps look to their own head of state first and then work downwards from there. Given enough money and power, you can "grab" parts of the female anatomy with impunity and it's simply business as usual.

//edit:
Absolutely bang on.

You can also lie, cheat, steal, and even defame people on Twitter with impunity too, but don't have money or power and dare to ask for evidence, and try and seek the truth, before deciding someone just "must be guilty" because of enough people jumping on the "viral" bandwagon, then you just must be hung out to dry. That's what we can call the "new reality", and people wonder why society is falling apart ? It's a thread in itself (maybe a couple of threads for that matter...), and not to mention the obvious implications...

Fortunately we now have an informal (but soon to be formalised?) Committee of Public Safety to prosecute such abusers...


Edit: added Wikipedia link

And you think that will not be abused for political/personal reasons? Or did I miss the sarcasm in your post?

I know that it IS being abused right now, and I was being sarcastic.

Didn't they already formalize it? I was thinking that... isn't that what the hash tag on Twitter is for?

I need a headless smiley and can't find one...

Why a smiley? There are alternatives...

Here! I am #headless!!