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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Defectors from PISSI

mardi 22 septembre 2015 à 02:00

Suggestion: protect and aid defectors from PISSI.

Freedom of speech in British universities

mardi 22 septembre 2015 à 02:00

Freedom of speech in British universities is under attack from the right-wing government and from leftist students.

The National Union of Students' "no platform" policy started out as a campaign to refuse to legitimize talks by fascists and racists, and officially that's still how it operates. However, nowadays its real activity is to prevent or shut down talks by adherents of a range of views that certain leftist groups disagree with.

When a speaker proposes to do great harm to people it is understandable that they protest the speaker forcefully. Once in a while, the community's opposition may interfere with a speech, but they did not stop the guest from speaking. A systematic effort to prevent someone from giving speeches is going too far.

Increase in drug prices

mardi 22 septembre 2015 à 02:00

Pharma companies are making some old, proven drugs so expensive that the prices will kill people.

These drugs are no longer patented, but the makers control the distribution of the drug so that would-be competitors can't get samples. We should make such anticompetitive behavior a felony. (I wonder if it already is.)

Money buys US elections

mardi 22 septembre 2015 à 02:00

Correcting a naive attempt to claim that money doesn't buy US elections.

Indonesia offers to cut emissions

mardi 22 septembre 2015 à 02:00

Indonesia offers to cut emissions by 40% by 2030 if it is given financial aid.

That is starting to reach the level of cut that might really make a difference. The wealthier countries must fulfill their responsibility and must tax global business to do it.