>As far as I can tell, it's over and the idealists lost.
Could be true, could not be, I don't know. The present often seems like the end of history because it is very difficult to see beyond it.
Some lost cause today will be a dominate ideology tomorrow, with the "nutty-idealists" reframed as visionaries ahead of the curve.
Fun game: if history remembers RMS, what role will he be cast into, what future trends will try to claim or denounce him?