A volunteer posted the following to gnu-misc-discuss. The message never appeared.

Nils Melzer is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This is his web site at the United Nations.

Melzer described the equivalence of cybertorture and psychological torture, such as the shaming of RMS, to the effects of physical torture. This is a serious issue for all organizations that shame their volunteers, such as the FSF and Debian.

Subject: Re: Why the "social contract" should not be endorsed
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 08:58:18 +0100
From: a volunteer
To: gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org



On 28/02/2020 05:37, Mike Gerwitz wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 22:26:27 +0100, a volunteer wrote:
>> It took me a few days, but I finally came up with a concise summary of
>> the situation:
>>
>> https://fsfellowship.news/what-is-a-safe-space/
> 
> I am ashamed to have "free software" appear on this page and for anyone
> to believe I or anyone else here may be affiliated with such an
> extremist and horrific perspective.  How dare you equate the ongoing
> discussion with the slaughter of people.
> 
> This is not welcome on this list.
> 

The UN’s special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or
degrading treatment or punishment has said exactly the same thing as me.

The PsyOps techniques that large free software communities are now using
against volunteers, minimising people's views, misquoting/gaslighting,
scapegoating, shaming and emotional blackmail do as much harm or more
than physical violence.

These have become tools-of-the-trade for the people who sought to
displace RMS

Regards,

your volunteer