Neurodivergence and accountability in free software September 25, 2024 on Drew DeVault's blog

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2024-09-25 17:30:07

In November of last year, I wrote Richard Stallman’s political discourse on sex, which argues that Richard Stallman, the founder of and present-day voting member of the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), endorses and advocates for a harmful political agenda which legitimizes adult attraction to minors, consistently defends adults accused of and convicted of sexual crimes with respect to minors, and more generally erodes norms of consent and manipulates language regarding sexual harassment and sexual assault in his broader political program.

In response to this article, and on many occasions when I have re-iterated my position on Stallman in other contexts, a common response is to assert that my calls to censure Stallman are ableist, on the basis that Stallman is neurodivergent (ND). This line of reasoning suggests that Stallman’s awkward and zealous views on sex are in line with his awkward and zealous positions on other matters (such as his insistence on “GNU/Linux” terminology rather than “Linux”), and that together this illustrates a pattern which suggests neurodivergence is at play. This argumentation is flawed, but I think it presents us with a good opportunity to talk about how neurodivergence and sexism presents in our community.

Neurodivergence (antonymous with “neurotypical”) is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of human experiences, including autism, ADHD, personality disorders, bipolar disorder, and others. The particular claims I’ve heard about Stallman suggest that he is “obviously” autistic, or has Asperger syndrome. The allegation of ableism in my criticisms of Stallman are rooted in this presumption of neurodivergence in Stallman: the argument goes that I am putting his awkwardness on display and mocking him for it, that calling for the expulsion of someone on the basis of being awkward is ableist, and that this has a chilling effect on our community, which is generally thought to have a high incidence of neurodivergence. I will respond to this defense of Stallman today.