I don't like the societal expectation that children are inherently to be welcomed either. In some ways I wish I had the nerve to respond as forthrightly as RMS, although I'm also glad I have sufficient social self-preservation instinct not to.

I really don't want to be negative about Steve Jobs at the moment, especially somewhere like HN where it's conceivable people who knew him in real life might read it, but I am getting fairly tired of the endless hagiography, and especially of semi-informed people telling me how enormous and positive his influence on my life has supposedly been. While I don't think RMS's statement was very sensible, I think perhaps I can sympathise with his motivation.

However:

"It's like demanding that an atheist pray, lest he not "respect" the religious people he is surrounded by." in response to the outrage at Stallman's lack of caring for people announcing birthings. I think this is a great response. It also is true for Stalman's response to Jobs' death, he may shit on him all he wants, it is his rights, appearing to be a nut-case is a side-effect but that does not change a lot of his actually legitimately good beliefs. And Jobs definitely was in major conflict with OSS (see VLC trying to get on the iPhone, which concluded that Apple's app store is not compatible with OSS license requirements)

However, given that this value is currently the gravest threat to human survival and human welfare, I wish more people would attack it.

Empathy and practicality, however, dictate that the time to attack natalism is when people are considering conceiving a child, not when they're struggling with postpartum sleep deprivation.