Essay RFC delayed.

[Richard Stallman]

    They would, if he didn't insist on saying things that puzzle and alienate
    and frighten people so often.

I don't do this a tenth so much as you would encourage people to
think.  As the leader of the GNU Project, most of what I do nowadays
is dealing with people--mostly hackers, but some in business, the bar,
and government.  I am getting pretty good at it.

Since this isn't something I was born good at, I've put some careful
study into how to do it.  I succeed fairly often at challenging tasks
that demand great delicacy, such as asking a stranger to consider
changing a license; I succeed more often than not in asking other
projects to affiliate with the GNU Project.  And when I tell people
that "everything they know about Linux is wrong", which is a hard
thing to say to someone, the great majority receive the point with no
offense.

I've even received compliments for how I am handling this discussion.

Only a tiny fraction of the community has ever dealt with me.  So if
you actively spread the idea that I am incompetent at my main
responsibility, you can surely hamper my activities somewhat.  You can
also predispose people to feel alienated and frightened by me, since
people have a certain tendency to perceive what they have been told to
expect.

I think that would be unfortunate for the community.  You're entitled
to your own opinion about that, but I hope that you will agree.