title: The Free Software Movement is a cult
author: 寮
date: 2022-09-28
tags: technology,politics,foss
thumbnail: fsf-is-a-cult.jpg
threadid: AO1RFmjwrm870z1jeK
----
Don't get me wrong, I still love free software, I still only use FOSS software, and I will continue to promote free software over proprietary software.\
However, I think it's time for me to depart from the free software movement as a community, and instead liberate software my own way.

Because after publishing [my blog post of FOSS vs OSS](/blog/foss-vs-oss/), I've really got caught up in a very firey debate of people trying to convince me that free software is exclusively the 4 freedoms as decided by the FSF and every other freedom doesn't matter.\
I have to disappoint all of you, but I'm still not convinced about how freedom isn't freedom only because 1 institution didn't write it down on piece of paper.\
In fact, all you've done is proving my point.

## Free Software Movement is a cult

What the angry comments confirmed me is that the whole movement is indeed nothing more than a cult.\
Sure, the 4 freedoms are important, but freedoms don't end there.\
As is evidenced with Cuckzilla (Furryfox), Red Hat (SoystemD), and Audacity, you can absolutely undermine the entire purpose of the movement.\
Sure, the 4 freedoms worked back in the 1980's and 1990's, but the opposite side of the battlefield has clearly updated their weapons while this side clearly didn't.\
To those on so-called "our side", all what matters is the 4 freedoms, and every other freedom is not considered to be freedom, which is absolutely ridiculous.\
And this is why I consider it to be a cult, because all their followers see is 1 sheet of paper, and put no effort into independent thinking at all, which by itself is freedom according to common sense.

## The problem with sticking to only 4 freedoms

The 4 freedoms are essential to freedom, that's true.\
However, freedom doesn't end there.\
The 4 freedoms as defined by the FSF shall be considered to be a starting point, not the ultimate end goal.\
You're only making it extremely easy for institutions like Cuckzilla or Red Hat to initiate a hostile takeover of free software.

For a very long time we had a proprietary boot stamping on our heads for all of eternity, then this got replaced by an open source boot.\
However, it really starts to seem like soon this'll be replaced once again by a free software boot if people continue to remain cultish about what is considered freedom and what is not.\
Hence this article's thumbnail.

The point of the matter was and still is, if there's no privacy, there's also no freedom.\
Likewise, if there's no freedom, there's no privacy.\
I don't care if the FSF includes it as one of the 4 freedoms or not, it's still important.

## If freedom needs to be defined for you, then how free are you?

Freedom is never granted to you by somebody else, you need to obtain it by yourself.\
I previously said that if you need freedom to be written for you by somebody else in order to be free, then it simply means you're not free.\
And I still stand by it, because it's true.\
You can only be free if YOU decide to be free, YOU are the power, and not some document written by somebody else.

## Richard Stallman is pro privacy

Richard Stallman is the founding father of the free software movement.\
This very same Richard Stallman writes blog posts about how important privacy is to free software.\
He himself even admits that freedom and privacy go hand in hand, so if you dismiss the one, you effectively dismiss both.\
Exactly what I tried to explain to these freetarded zombies over at SNS (see comments on [FOSS vs OSS](/blog/foss-vs-oss/) to see the discussion, I never delete or edit any comment not written by me), but nobody cares, because not one of the 4 "freedoms".

Are you going to tell me now that Richard Stallman knows nothing about free software all of the sudden?\
Sure, Richard Stallman is a total idiot on everything that has nothing to do with technology, but when it comes to technology (and with this, FOSS and yes, PRIVACY!!), he's an absolute genius.

Though I should add him to be a genius when it comes to genders too, this got him kicked out of the FSF for an entire year, but he's still right about it, and we actually need people to say that sexuality has no place in software, because it really helps to keep the bad actors out.\
This was also why the Linux kernel was so great, because we had Linus Torvalds who straightout said "you don't belong in the kernel" whenever some irrelevant bullshit comes up, though he did seem to have changed after being caught up in a drama with some troon who told him that he needs to seek medical help for even daring to think that merit is a good thing.\
He should have told that troon to find medical help instead, meritocracy is exactly what works!
