Here's some excerpts from his recent comments that suggest sincerity by someone who has a very different worldview than many of the participants here.
Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize:
"Given that Snowden has undermined Pax Americana, I find this nomination surprising."
Stallman on GCC, LLVM, and copyleft:
"Sure, I'll take cheaper parts for my car, and I love getting something for nothing, but on the list of humanity's problems, non-GPL software is very, very low."
Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End:
"They're not committing crimes against the American people. Not one American has been found who has been demonstrably harmed by any NSA program. Without harm, there no criminal act."
Startup failure post-mortems:
"If you can't create a successful company, what makes you think you know why a company was unsuccessful? It's just more mental masturbation."
Ask PG: Is HN Expired Link Eventual Fix Planned?:
"I suspect the fix will result in a large change to the code base and you want to always own/understand the code for some reason. So if you can't fix it yourself, nobody is allowed to, either."
NSA statement does not deny 'spying' on members of Congress:
"The real question is: has an human looked at Congressional metadata, or are they likely to do so? This question was not asked because, given the data protections in place, the answer is likely no."
Bzr is dying; Emacs needs to move:
"If Emacs moves to git, can we call it by its proper name: git/Emacs?"
It's not a worldview I understand at all, but it's good to have diversity. And I'll admit, the last one is genuinely funny.
Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize: "Given that Snowden has undermined Pax Americana, I find this nomination surprising."
Stallman on GCC, LLVM, and copyleft: "Sure, I'll take cheaper parts for my car, and I love getting something for nothing, but on the list of humanity's problems, non-GPL software is very, very low."
Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End: "They're not committing crimes against the American people. Not one American has been found who has been demonstrably harmed by any NSA program. Without harm, there no criminal act."
Startup failure post-mortems: "If you can't create a successful company, what makes you think you know why a company was unsuccessful? It's just more mental masturbation."
Ask PG: Is HN Expired Link Eventual Fix Planned?: "I suspect the fix will result in a large change to the code base and you want to always own/understand the code for some reason. So if you can't fix it yourself, nobody is allowed to, either."
NSA statement does not deny 'spying' on members of Congress: "The real question is: has an human looked at Congressional metadata, or are they likely to do so? This question was not asked because, given the data protections in place, the answer is likely no."
Bzr is dying; Emacs needs to move: "If Emacs moves to git, can we call it by its proper name: git/Emacs?"
It's not a worldview I understand at all, but it's good to have diversity. And I'll admit, the last one is genuinely funny.