Cancel culture
Cancel culture is a way of behaving as part of a group, typically on social media or other organized Internet media, where the groups common objective is to completely reject, stop and de-person someone because they may or may not have said or done something that offended you or someone you admire, look up to or follow.
Cancel Culture & The Free Software Community[edit]
"I believe to have observed a worrying pattern lately.
A small number of people select a person for a perceived or actual wrongdoing and do their best at destroying their target's lives though any and all means available. Including by exerting pressure on their target's workplace to throw the target out, shun them, destroying them completely.
This group of attackers usually comes with a larger group of followers on certain "social" networks.
Too often the initially innocent bystanders give in to the attacks out of fear of becoming themselves a target of the attackers. They grant the attacker's wish and (consciously or not) become accomplice of the attacker.
I am under the impression this might be the case here.
RMS may or may not have said something bad, I don't want to get into that. As far as I heard, the accusations are limited to RMS having stated an opinion, not having actually done something.
A "mob" decided to destroy him, and my impression is that TPO is now giving in and gives RMS another media-effective shove while others are in the process of throwing him under the bus, in an attempt at virtue-signalling to the attackers, so they'd leave TPO alone.
It looks like an example of falling victim to divide and conquer.
There are strong enemies of privacy, freedom of speech, civil liberties out there. We should try fighting them instead of fighting amongst one another, fighting someone who has done a priceless job for the free software movement for many many years."
March 26th, 2021
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