[sn41]

Sorry, but I do strongly believe in this. The work stands apart from the man.

As a kid, I loved Lord Byron's poetry. Later, disgusted at his personality, I stopped reading his works. Still later, now I realise that flawed human beings can create beautiful works. Such is life.

[k__]

It's okay to acknowledge good work but it's also important to see when brilliant people do wrong and not go all "but look at his good work".

[zzzzzzzza]

Yea buuuut that's not even what's happening here. People are wildly misrepresenting stallman's position. To me it just seems like a certain subset of neurotypical people discriminating against people who don't see the world through 15 layers of social obfuscation/are actually honest about what they are thinking.

[k__]

Did they really?

My interpretation:

You think people are criticizing Stallman because you think they misread his statement (She wanted it anyway)

I think people are criticizing Stallman because he believed Minsky was tricked (She didn't want but people made here act like it), which sounds dubious to me.

[zzzzzzzza]

Firstly, I'm not sure how to parse your grammar,

secondly, it's hilarious that it seems you are now assuming that I am claiming that "she wanted it". This just goes to show you are here for blood and not justice.

thirdly, what stallman said: The word ‘assaulting’ presumes that he applied force or violence, in some unspecified way,” Stallman wrote in the email, “but the article itself says no such thing. Only that they had sex.” and to paraphrase "It seems probable that she presented herself as entirely willing and that minsky did not know she was underage"

lastly, as far as I can tell, in the deposition it's not clear that they did have sex, only that she went to the island for the purpose of having sex with minsky under orders from epstein, presumably as part of his blackmail/entrapment scheme

[Frondo]

Similar thing happened with me and Michael Jackson's music. I was on an irc channel when someone mentioned one of his songs and I agreed. One of my closer friends said, "you know he's a pedo, right?"

And I started thinking of the kids Michael had sharing his bed and realized that, until then, I had had sympathy for them only in an abstract. Now I think about those kids whenever one of his songs comes on, and you know, I no longer enjoy listening to it.

[mymythisisthis]

A bit of a difference here, Minsky was accused of having sex with a what he thought was a 17 year old prostitute. If you go to a brothel and things seem legit, how much are you going to question what's going on. That's like going to a restaurant and demanding to know if they've illegally hired staff before you sit down for dinner.

[jacobush]

If you have reason to believe that, why not?

[balaksakrionon]

For one, if a person of sufficient status in silicon valley inquired as to the immigration status of the kitchen staff helping to serve their $1000 meal, and it became public, they would likely be open to the very same type of media slander / twitter mob whirlwind that we are seeing in this RMS situation.

[mymythisisthis]

In the 1980s so many films stared teens, as a generation was growing up. We were barraged with moral panics that decried sex. The same is happening again, with another young generation growing up. They haven't grown up yet to realize that some people sell sex, that others steal without repent, and that everyone is complex. They haven't realized that not everyone holds their ideals.

[X6S1x6Okd1st]

"that others steal (sex) without repent" do you mean rape?

Oh the horrors if people growing up think that rape is reprehensible.