Do I earn frequent blogger points by doing this?
1) I say "The Debian project believes that works under the GFDL, with invariant sections, are non-free". Someone is insulted, because they believe otherwise. Is my statement incorrect? Should that person feel insulted?
That statement would seem reasonable given the outcome of a project-wide General Resolution. If the individual believes that the process by which said outcome was reached was flawed beyond a reasonable point, that person might feel frustrated. If it is widely held that such was flawed beyond a reasonable degree, and the speaker advancing that position were widely regarded as being obviously deceptive, then that person should feel insulted.
2) I say "The Debian project believes that it is a shame that a member has died". Someone is insulted, because (for whatever reason) they disagree. Is my statement incorrect? Should that person feel insulted?
If you are basing your statement on a mailing list discussion in which no one was obliged to participate; which excluded anyone who didn't subscribe to that mailing list, anyone who refused to participate in said discussion for whatever reason, and anyone who quite correctly failed to recognize said discussion as a decision-making process; and which was generally shameful and embarrassing; then you are manufacturing consensus out of your ass. Yes, that statement is incorrect. Yes, we should all feel insulted.
Trying to argue that we should just spout meaningless platitudes (no matter how strongly a tiny minority might mean them) at a whim is insane. The Debian project condemns the U.S. head of state for being a retard; everyone with whom I discussed this today agrees. I know that Debian's about technical excellence, but what harm can a simple political statement do? Maybe we should darken our website to show our support for those who died at the Gulf of Tonkin.
If it's in poor taste to vote on whether or not the project believes something is a shame, then I think it's probably in poor taste to pretend that that was decided in some other manner.