> Alumni from as far back as the 1980’s reached out to me and told horrifying stories, such as:
1) An emacs joke.
2) RMS had a mattress and grody friends in his office.
3) RMS is awful at asking women out.
That's beyond awful at asking women out, especially given that the woman in question was an undergrad at the time.
People on the spectrum tend not to speak emotions and empathy as a native language. But they’re often good learners if properly taught. Never setting boundaries for RMS for decades may have contributed to him never been properly housebroken and ultimately didn’t do him any favors.
I don't disagree.
Picture yourself as a freshman in a university where the vast majority of senior academics are gay and keep asking you out on dates. You can always say no, but don’t you think you would perceive this as a rather hostile environment?
What RMS did in that instance was certainly gross and awkward but in no way hostile. People lack perspective.
No, I'd see it as pathetic and desperate. Which is exactly how I felt about the men and women that worked for the university I attended and were known to date students or had hit on me.
Now if we wanted to talk "hostile environment" the uncomfortable situation my gay highschool principal put me in always drops jaws when I tell the story, but I just think it's funny. I shrugged it off in about 30 seconds and doesn't even rate on the list of things I didn't like about highschool.