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Richard Stallman
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This is the Mastodon account for Richard Stallman. I founded GNU & the @fsf and with them launched the Free Software Movement. Please join or donate to the FSF: https://www.fsf.org I use this account to mirror the political notes from my web site, stallman.org. Read my linking policy: https://stallman.org/linkpolicy.html The views expressed here, as in stallman.org, are my personal views, not those of the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project. #FSF #GNU #FreeSoftware
Richard Stallman's avatar
Richard Stallman 2 years ago
[01/02] A survey of students of perceptions of their freedom of speech found that the vast majority feel free to express their opinions:
the Guardian
Almost nine in 10 students in England feel free to express their views – survey
Concerns that ‘cancel culture’ is blighting universities appear unfounded, according to OfS report
 The survey is useful but it could have been worded more carefully. The question asked whether students felt free to express the opinions they happen to hold. For the students who answered yes, it could be that they feel no pressure about what opinions they express. But it could be that they feel free to express their actual opinions...
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
Nixon supported a plan for a military coup in Chile in 1970 to prevent Allende from becoming president:
the Guardian
Files reveal Nixon role in plot to block Allende from Chilean presidency
President hosted rightwing mogul Agustín Edwards in September 1970 and discussed plans to foil socialist election-winner
 The coup attempt failed, but killed the head of Chile's armed forces, General Schneider, who would have opposed any coup. This probably paved the way for Pinochet's coup in 1973, which also had US support. For more information.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
[04/04] ...do better. The governments sending that force must firmly resist the temptation to convert it into a counterinsurgency battle afterward against the predatory Islamist gangs that threaten all the countries in that region. They are a very different problem, and much harder, and Western countries tend to do it very badly.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
[01/04] Niger: thousands gather for rally to cheer generals who led coup:
the Guardian
Niger: thousands gather for rally to cheer generals who led coup
Supporters wave Niger and Russia flags as Ecowas deadline for military to cede power approaches
 Some carried Russian flags as well as Niger flags. That confirms that this rally was not a grass-roots expression of public opinion. It confirms that the generals are allied with Wagner, which also supports coup-installed governments in neighboring Mail and Burkina Faso. Wagner may have suggested the coup in Niger and encouraged the generals to organize it.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
[01/02] The judge in the insurrectionist's trial, for trying to use fraud and force to overturn the 2020 election, gave him release conditions which included not threatening witnesses. Since then, he has threatened witnesses several times:
the Guardian
Will Donald Trump be jailed before his trial? | Robert Reich
The former president continues to threaten witnesses despite warnings not to violate conditions of release
 Robert Reich says, and I agree, that he should be jailed now for this.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
Institutions, academics and students are being ill-served by a failing marketized model of higher education:
the Guardian
The Guardian view on England’s universities: a summer of campus discontent | Editorial
Editorial: Institutions, academics and students are being ill-served by a failing marketised model of higher education
 The US methods of doing this are different in detail but they have had similar consequences. To treat education as a business for which people should pay based on the profit they hope to get from it is effectively to deny the value of an educated populace — which means to deny the value of democracy.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
Ohio voters rejected the Republicans' special rush referendum which asked them to make it harder for future referendums to be held or or adopted:
the Guardian
Win for reproductive rights as Ohio voters reject effort to make it harder to amend state constitution
Proposal would have made it considerably harder to amend state constitution as voters give verdict on Issue 1
 Republicans especially wanted to block a scheduled referendum on legalizing abortion and a proposed referendum to put an end to the gerrymandering that enables Republicans to control the state legislature with a minority of votes.
Richard Stallman's avatar
Richard Stallman 2 years ago
[01/04] A writer who decided to travel from Detroit to LA by bus as an adventure discovered that traveling around the US by bus has become ugly, highly uncomfortable, even dangerous:
the Guardian
A beautiful, broken America: what I learned on a 2,800-mile bus ride from Detroit to LA
Gone are the small, clean, cheap motels and public spaces where anyone can find a place to nurse a cup of coffee. Yet the camaraderie of the Greyho...
 All the things that made it acceptable and enjoyable decades ago have ceased to exist — stations have no food, no water fountains, no real toilets, no ticketing facilities, no staff, and hardly any chairs. And even the cheapest hotels in cities are painfully expensive.
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