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.

Join a protest:
No Kings October 18th

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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.

Sysco mistreating truckers and restaurants
16 October 2025

The giant corporation Sysco dominates the food distribution business in the US, and is using this to mistreat truckers and restaurants.

Its success has driven many US restaurants to buy food of lower quality.

I don't see a reason to distinguish between "organic growth" and mergers as paths to over-concentration. Paying attention to that is based on trying to judge over-concentration as "fair" or "unfair", but that judgment is a distraction from the crucial point: over-concentration is very harmful.

We should prevent and eliminate over-concentration in business regardless of how it is or might be created, with the exception of natural monopolies, and those we should restrain by strict regulation.

High youth death rates an emerging crisis
16 October 2025

*High youth death rates [from Alcohol, suicide and injuries] are an "emerging crisis", global health study warns.*

People learning not to trust bullshit generators
16 October 2025

People are learning not to trust the output of bullshit generators. But they need to organize to pressure or require companies to stop pushing bullshit generators on them. Companies including Google and United Airlines have done this.

Starmer Labour showing how it abandons environmental protection
16 October 2025

Starmer Labour is showing off how it abandons environmental protection to smooth the way for all sorts of construction projects.

Musicians organize boycott of Spotify
16 October 2025

Musicians are starting to organize boycott of Spotify, mainly about how it doesn't pay most musicians. But they don't seem to recognize the injustice Spotify does to every listener: such as making them identify themselves (by payment systems) and imposing DRM.

I won't submit to those injustices, so I have never used Spotify and never will.

Out, Out Damned Spotify!

Persecutor's plan to never forgive student loan debt
16 October 2025

The persecutor has a plan to make sure some US student loans can never be forgiven.

Israel demanded captive Australians bringing aid sign confession
16 October 2025

Israel demanded that captive Australians who tried to bring desperately needed aid to Gaza sign a sort of confession or they might be imprisoned forever.

This is not as bad as what Israel does to the people of Gaza, but it is despicable. And no one should assign any significance to these confessions when prisoners do sign them.

Prisoners in Alabama tell true story of cruelty
16 October 2025

Prisoners in Alabama, when interviewed for a documentary, supported the official story while they were being filmed. But when not on camera, they told of horrible cruelty.

Scientists warn US will lose a generation of talent
16 October 2025

*Scientists warn US will lose a generation of talent because of [the saboteur in chief's budget] cuts.*

Scientists usually have, within some ranger of issues, a commitment to truth and integrity. The saboteur in chief would rather not inculcate that into young people.

Biologists advancing toward making egg or sperm cells from anyone's tissue
16 October 2025

Biologists are advancing fairly fast towards being able to make egg or sperm cells from anyone's tissue. Any two people, of whatever sex and age, could make a fertilized ovum that could potentially develop into a baby.

If one of the parents is female and has a functioning womb, perse could carry the baby. (However, most of those couples would not need this technology to have a baby.) Otherwise, the conceptus would need a surrogate mother if it is to develop.

Those who imagine that these techniques could "reverse population decline" are perhaps not thinking about where so many surrogate mothers would come from. I don't think millions of women would volunteer for this; most who want to bear a baby will prefer to be its genetic mother too. So i fear they would be pressured or coerced into it — for instance, "We will give you permanent residence here if you act as a surrogate mother for the baby of two citizens." Or perhaps people will sentenced to do this. Would right-wing extremist hesitate?

But the idea that we should increase the birth rate is the result of foolish short-termist thinking. A larger population at the time when climate disaster really takes off will probably lead to a more abrupt and deeper disaster, which would leave fewer survivors later, therefore probably with less technology and less remnants of civilization.

Lake in New Mexico with highest known concentration of PFAS
16 October 2025

Holloman lake in New Mexico has the highest known concentration of PFAS. People hunt ducks there, but they are not safe to eat.

Mysterious fatal accidents of Tesla cars
16 October 2025

On the mysterious fatal accidents of Tesla cars, which the company releases little data about.

Project to plant over 800,000 trees failed
16 October 2025

A project to plant over 800,000 trees along a new road in England failed drastically. It is not clear why, but it is clear that the project was done carelessly.

I have to wonder whether the contractor responsible was made to pay damages for this failure. I suspect the answer is no, and that is enough to explain why the project failed, though not in detail.

Horrors of Israeli jail
16 October 2025

*"Cruelest forms of torture": freed Palestinians describe horrors of Israeli jail.*

Thugs arrest TV reporter Debbie Brockman
16 October 2025

Federal thugs violently arrested TV reporter Debbie Brockman as she was walking to a bus stop, and accused her of throwing things at them.

Apparently she had not actually done that, because they filed no charges.

Unnatural walled reservoirs
14 October 2025

The greedy privatized UK water companies want the state to charge the public to build unnatural walled reservoirs and give them as a gift to those water companies.

The UK should nationalize those companies, not build assets to inflate their valuation. If indeed those reservoirs need building, the state should own them, and drown the water companies in them.

Wrecker said Illinois Governor Pritzker should be jailed
14 October 2025

The wrecker said that Illinois Governor Pritzker should be jailed for "not protecting" deportation thugs.

They are masked and armed, and hardly in danger. The people who need protection are their victims.

That's an instance of the wrecker's usual absurd extreme double-standard premise. He goes beyond denying the truth, by proclaiming an extreme opposite of it. This will fool the people who try to find the truth by looking for the two extremes and taking the average.

The deportation thugs are not merely failing to protect the people who encounter them (including unauthorized immigrants, authorized immigrants, and US citizens), some of them are cruelly attacking innocent people.

Sierra club blasts report of "Concierge, White Glove Service"
14 October 2025

*Sierra Club Blasts Report of "Concierge, White Glove Service” for Fossil Fuel Companies.*

That fits with everything the saboteur in chief is saying and doing for them.

New scheme to borrow money to pay medical bills
14 October 2025

A new scheme to borrow money to pay medical bills will make it easy for poor Americans the transition from Medicaid (which Republicans have cut) to unpayable medical debt whose interest will drain them constantly.

Concert tickets have exploded in price
14 October 2025

Concert tickets have exploded in price for the last few decades. It is a disaster for music.


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