Stallman playing sandstorm

Thanks for your eloquence. I wanted to say something but you put it down to text much better than I ever could've done. It doesn't matter what he looks like. His words carry more weight than his body ever could.

It is common for human beings who are under a lot of stress and/or have had an injury or illness that causes them to have to abruptly reduce their physical activity to have this body type.

In Stallman's case, page 63 of https://web.archive.org/web/20150103152231/https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/faif-2.0.pdf (first edition published in March 2002) tells:

Pleading a sore ankle, Stallman limps along slowly. Stallman blames the injury on a tendon in his left foot. The injury is three years old and has gotten so bad that Stallman, a huge fan of folk dancing, has been forced to give up all dancing activities. “I love folk dancing intensely,” Stallman laments. “Not being able to dance has been a tragedy for me.”
Stallman’s body bears witness to the tragedy. Lack of exercise has left Stallman with swollen cheeks and a pot belly that was much less visible the year before. You can tell the weight gain has been dramatic, because when Stallman walks, he arches his back like a pregnant woman trying to accommodate an unfamiliar load.