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.

I will have a trip to Europe in the second week of October and I am looking for invitations for additional talks in the same trip. If you would like to invite me to speak in that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "october" as the subject.

It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.

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

Upcoming talks

I will have a trip to Europe in the second week of October and I am looking for invitations for additional talks in the same trip. If you would like to invite me to speak in that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "october" as the subject.

It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.

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.

New pun
10 July 2025

How an intern can do multiple tasks

Volcanic eruptions from melting glaciers
10 July 2025

Melting ice encourages volcanoes underneath to erupt. Oops!

Varroa mites killing honeybees
10 July 2025

60% of Honeybees in the US died last winter, killed by he varroa mites which spread various diseases among the bees.

ICC warrant for Taliban leader
10 July 2025

*ICC issues warrant for Taliban's supreme leader for persecution of women.*

Hooray! Even though it isn't likely that he will be arrested and brought to the court for trial, this will still have good effects on the world.

Swedish PM tracked by surveillance app
10 July 2025

The security detail for the prime minister of Sweden ran and rode their bikes to and from work shifts, and allowed a personal surveillance app to track them. This allowed the public to track the prime minister's movements.

I gather that publishing where users run or ride is a documented feature, not a bug or a documented malfeature. If humans were infallible, the fault would be entirely on the guards who used it. But since humans are fallible, the system is at fault also.

Don't be a sap,
Avoid the app!

Trump's antisemitic slurs
10 July 2025

Just as the bully's followers are attacking anyone that they can describe as antisemitic, the bully himself uttered an indisputably antisemitic slur. Can he be deported for that?

Palestine Action activists arrested
10 July 2025

Britain's repression of protest becomes more vicious, as we might expect. 20 protesters face prosecution and perhaps 14 years in prison for carrying signs stating support for the banned "terrorist" organization, Palestine Action.

The declaration that Palestine Action is a terrorist organization declares an absurd (and false) exaggeration to be true. The prosecution of the sign-carriers, if that goes ahead, will use that false "truth" for tyranny, and threaten even more tyranny.

I expect that the judge will forbid any discussion, in the trial, of whether Palestine Action really is terrorist -- to insist that the declaration replaces the truth.

Overcoming magat attacks
10 July 2025

Advice to protesters on how to overcome the magats' usual attacks and build a movement that goes beyond protest.

Although I am not an expert, it seems rational to me.

Eran Zelnik
10 July 2025

US citizen and Israeli citizen Eran Zelnik: *I’m a Jewish Israeli in the US standing up for Palestine. By [the fascist leader's] logic, I’m a terror supporter.*

He compares the current US regime in detail to the Nazi regime that his grandparents fled, and then asks Kash Patel (head of the FBI), "Do you want to arrest me?"

Ranked choice voting
10 July 2025

NYC's Democratic primary demonstrated the superiority of ranked choice voting.

Google's EU antitrust complaint over "AI" overviews
10 July 2025

The EU is investigating whether Google Search's "AI" Overviews are anticompetitive.

Weaponization working group
9 July 2025

* A former FBI agent who allegedly shouted "kill ’em!" at law enforcement during the [109]January 6 insurrection is now advising a "weaponization working group" in the "justice department".

Genetic evidence air pollution provokes lung cancer
9 July 2025

Genetic evidence that air pollution provokes development of lung cancer — and faster aging of telomeres.

Canada considering dangerous immigration and surveillance bill
9 July 2025

Canada is considering a cruel and dangerous immigration and surveillance bill.

The immigration part would permit officials to cancel visas arbitrarily and ban arbitrarily any pathway for people to reach Canada to ask for admission. No appeal is allowed.

Furthermore, people arriving across the border where there is no crossing point would have just two weeks to apply for asylum. What does such harshness serve/

The immigration minister has admitted that all this is a surrender to pressure from the bully.

The surveillance part would make it easier for cops and prosecutors to get access to people's communication metadata without a warrant. It includes an almost unlimited exceptions for emergencies; perhaps it would be acceptable if it stated more concrete limits, or if it prohibited the state from retaining such surveillance data more than 2 weeks if it has not by then obtained a warrant covering that same data.

EU abandoning leadership in curbing greenhouse gas emissions
9 July 2025

The EU seems to be abandoning its leadership in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Expelling of ancestrally Napali minority group
9 July 2025

Bhutan expelled 100,000 members of an ancestrally Nepali minority group into India, They went to refugee camps in Nepal. Many were later allowed to move to other countries including the US. Some have been deported from the US for various alleged crimes, but the US doesn't check that Bhutan will allow them entry (it does not). So they go to Nepal, but the refugee camp won't let them return, and Nepal does not believe, or does not care, that they formerly lived there.

Now Nepal insists on deporting them to Bhutan, and officials seem unwilling to face the fact that Bhutan won't allow them in.

Court ordered Ward Sakeik not be deported
9 July 2025

A court ordered that Ward Sakeik not be deported, and deportation thugs tried to deport her anyway.

Droughts worldwide pushing people towards starvation
9 July 2025

*Droughts worldwide pushing [around 100 million people] towards starvation, says report.*

This looks like the beginning of what we know global heating will produce: a permanent inability for some regions to sustain their current populations. To stabilize the population of endangered regions with birth control and abortion is urgent, if we want to prevent megadeaths from doing so.

The article's actual title said "tens of millions", but those words are misleading since the article's text says "more than 90 million". In the absence of a basis to know it is closer to 90 than to 100, the best rough approximation is 100 million.

BBC on facts on Israel's war crimes
9 July 2025

Many BBC journalists rebuke the BBC for refusing to present the facts that would shed a critical light on Israel's war crimes. For instance, its refusal to show the documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, which it had commissioned, apparently because of the truth that that documentary would demonstrate.

Another pertinent issue:
I am obliged to point out that authorized distribution of BBC video programs on the internet is wrapped in DRM, which is an injustice in itself.

The article talks about other channels that distributed the documentary in the UK, after the BBC finally rejected it. I suppose that their internet distribution is afflicted with DRM too, meaning no less subjugatory.

I hope you will join me in refusing to use anything that imposes DRM on published works. Let's make DRM a felony!

However, you can find textual explanation of the same facts in https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0xp969n69o and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/24/new-details-on-killing-of-paramedics-in-gaza-appear-to-contradict-idf-account

Mamdani connects climate policy to his affordability agenda
9 July 2025

*How Mamdani connects climate policy to his affordability agenda as he runs for New York mayor.*


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