"Richard Stallman is kind of a lunatic. He's been tinfoil hat for many years now," Redditor Antiproton says.

Weighing in on Stallman's statement that "I'm not going to carry a surveillance device that can be turned on to eavesdrop," Slashdot commenter Luis_a_espinal says "Legit privacy concerns aside, this sentence reads "silence of the f* lambs!!!"

Stallman has no "shades of gray," says Slashdot commenter DrgnDancer, who objected to Stallman's opinion that proprietary software is "a social problem" and "an evil."

"Fanatics make terrible representatives for a cause, because in a world with billions of people, the chance to get even part of what you want, without some sorts of compromise, is non-existent," the commenter writes.

"Cell phones have been critical tools in every recent freedom movement," writes Reddit commenter LegionSB. "Surveillance is a concern, but the rapid communication power is incredibly valuable. The idea that they are Stalin's ideal is ludicrous. Stalin would most certainly not have enjoyed dealing with a young populace carrying smartphones with cameras and ."