Hacker News Reader

Comment by billpatrianakos | Hacker News Reader

Reading about Stallman's reaction to this makes me wonder about his mental stability. "Punching himself in the head"? And cursing? Now, cursing I can understand but the picture painted in the story makes it look like Stallman was throwing a tantrum, screaming obscenities, punching himself in the head and then crying. We all knew he was an eccentric fellow but when you're punching yourself in the head, in public no less, you have to wonder what else is going on there. Losing a bag with such important items in it would put anyone in a pretty upset state. Putting aside who we're talking about I think a reaction like that definitely deviates from the norm to the point of maybe crossing the line from eccentricity to instability.

View on HN

Running the risk of being an armchair psychologist, I think it's pretty well established that RMS likely falls somewhere on the autism spectrum, or at least has some sort of behavioral condition that leads to behavior like this, as well as his documented social quirks.

Which is to say that I think he's probably mentally stable, but a bit strange by everyday standards.

But punching himself in the head? I knew Stallman was weird as we all did and that yeah, he's probably got some disorder but when he's punching himself in the head publicly you can't help but wonder if maybe we should reevaluate our faith in his ideas. Having a mental disorder does not automatically invalidate anything he's ever promoted or done but for me personally, I'd ask myself whether the next idea he promotes is coming from a place of logic or if it's his condition talking. People don't seem to really question him as it is and if there really is something more going on with him maybe that should happen more? Because people are so sensitive when talking about Stallman I have to make a disclaimer: I didn't say he's stupid or wrong or crazy. I'm just wondering how stable the guy is and his public reaction to what happened gives me just cause. I'd wonder the same thing no matter who it was.

>>he's probably got some disorder but when he's punching himself in the head publicly you can't help but wonder if maybe we should reevaluate our faith in his ideas

That's a bit of a leap of faith from a second hand account from a comment on a blog that related the event. I think it's safer to assume for now that the person who made the comment is not a native speaker (due to his name, and, obviously, being present at the talk) and is describing someone acting out the "stupid, stupid! stupid. How could I be so careless!" routine combined with hitting your own head, which I believe is a fairly common way to express exasperation, as "punching himself in the head".

  [...] when he's punching himself in the head publicly you  
  can't help but wonder if maybe we should reevaluate our  
  faith in his ideas [...]

We should reevaluate everyone's ideas then (which is probably just as well), because nobody is perfect. Most people have some deeply-seated issues, very successful and very public people almost always have even harsher personal problems. It's what enables them to stand out, to move further than most of us. So, yes, of course RMS has some kind of disorder, most entrepreneurs have some kind of disorder, most CEOs probably too.

There is a quote from the West Wing that rings in my ears whenever a public figure shows some kind of flaw and someone like you inevitably demands that flaw invalidates everything they stand for:

Because we’re all broken, every single one of us, and yet we pretend that we’re not. We all live lives of imperfection and yet we cling to this fantasy that there’s this perfect life and that our leaders should embody it. But if we expect our leaders to live on some higher moral plane than the rest of us, well we’re just asking to be deceived.

>> People don't seem to really question him as it is...

I'm not sure with whom or where you hang out, but I'd say Stallman is one of the most controversial figures in the world of software. Even people who mostly agree with his viewpoints often say he takes it too far.

I guess you should evaluate his ideas for yourself, without bringing his mental state into it. If you disagree with Stallman, so be it, lots of people do for good reasons. But evaluate his ideas, not his personality because his personality should not affect whether you agree with him or not.

"Punching himself in the head"?

FWIW, I don't think the author is a native speaker of English, and may mean something closer to "facepalm" than "beating the shit out of himself".

I'd imagine he was also tired (travel and new people/circumstances do that), plus perhaps a touch of blaming the victim (himself), and realising the implications of letting down other people/places on the rest of his tour. An emotional reaction like a facepalm means he is human with feelings, something some people are forgetting.

I don't know if you're quoting me or someone else, but I can tell you I saw him doing that. It was a bit scary. He also yelled many times and, when he was at the stairs, he bit his own arm while shouting.

I've been a human for most of my life, and from what I can tell, this is a pretty typical reaction to losing all your possessions in a foreign country.

Who'd a thunk he'd be a control freak with little tolerance for the imperfections of human society?

(The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - G. B. Shaw)

I landed in Zurich, Switzerland last week to discover that my bank had shut off my debit card via fraud protection.

I had $0 in cash on me. It was quite frightening, even in one of the richest cities in world.

Everything worked out in the end, but it was the most I've been stressed out in a while.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com