[bigtones]

Are they.... here is a direct quote from him on a pro-pedophilia political party in 2006 that many that people took offence with:

“I am sceptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

https://thenextweb.com/dd/2019/09/13/free-software-icon-rich...

[hn8788]

When taken out of context it looks bad, but when it's part of a broader discussion about morality and law not always matching up, it makes sense. Age of consent laws vary around the world, and it doesn't make sense why someone could legally have consensual sex with someone in one country, but if they had sex in a place with different age of consent laws, they'd be branded a pedophile.

[pseudalopex]

It wasn't part of a broader discussion.[1] And he wasn't talking about adolescents.[2]

[1] https://stallman.org/archives/2006-mar-jun.html#05%20June%20...

[2] https://stallman.org/notes/2019-jan-apr.html#25_April_2019_(...

[phpnode]

This is an example where the quote is actually worse with the broader context.

[wsc981]

I think this view of Stallman was quite widespread in the 70s, or at the very least much more widespread than it is today.

I read in The Netherlands in the 70s child porn was quite readily available. See also “Chick arrest”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_pornography_laws_in_th...

In this period there were even politicians openly advocating for allowing sex with children on television: https://youtu.be/nSMpAhQRDB8 (Dutch spoken)

It seems to me often the people advocating for allowing sex with children would be left-oriented.

https://timeline.com/children-of-god-5245a45f6a2a

However I believe most decent human beings these days realize sex with children can be very harmful to children.

Perhaps this is a background Stallman grew up in.

[rayiner]

> It seems to me often the people advocating for allowing sex with children would be left-oriented.

And teenagers. My kid's progressive K-12 private school had a scandal recently when more than a dozen victims came forth with allegations that they had been sexually abused by male teachers in the 1970s. Much of the testimony recounts that sexual relationships between male teachers and high school students were an "open secret" around the school, teachers would invite students to parties at their houses, etc.

It was a very liberal school back then too--the fact that it did not generate a scandal at the time despite being an "open secret" tells you about how the boundaries were being pushed in various directions back then. Luckily that turned out to be an ideological dead end.

[r3856283]

But after someone read it they spoke to him about it and he realized he was wrong and published a correction right along side it and that was many years ago. You should have mentioned that. If he hadn't said it publicly, and only said it in private to people, that wouldn't have happened. Is that better? I don't think so. Free speech creates counter speech and changes people's minds.

[pseudalopex]

He didn't retract anything until just before he resigned as far as I know.[1] The retraction wasn't right along side his earlier comments.[2][3] 6 years isn't many at his age. And he fixed a link without changing anything else just 1 year before.

Defend him if you want. But let's be accurate.

[1] https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September...

[2] https://stallman.org/archives/2006-mar-jun.html#05%20June%20...

[3] https://stallman.org/archives/2012-nov-feb.html#04_January_2...

[CRConrad]

Someone far above posted an archive.org link from, was it 2006?, that allegedly showed him already having changed his mind on something by then. AFAICR from the discussion it was either exactly what you're talking about or something very similar.

(Sorry, you're on your own looking for it -- it was on the first page at the time I saw it.)

[cambalache]

Was he being an actual child-predator, was he sharing child porn?

Suppose some guy (Stallman or not) argues that the age of consent should be lowered to 14. Now you are in your right to oppose to that proposal or even be disgusted by it. What you dont have the right to is to silence and ostracize the guy or even suggest that opinion must have any type of consequence , be it legal or moral.

[konjin]

Odd that none of the teens Epstein slept with would be illegal to sleep with in Germany. Pedophilia is starting to mean 'sex I find icky' in the US.

[buisi]

German Law is a bit more complicated than people give it credit for. While the police might not proactively go after cases involving some older minors, they will if the person files a complaint.

If a situation involves "exploitation" under the law, as most of Epstein's crimes would be considered to, then it is also automatically illegal.

[konjin]

Yes, rape is a bad thing that gets reported in other countries too.

[lawnchair_larry]

Sounds like he is trying to follow the science. Aren’t we all about that nowadays? His statement is perfectly reasonable.

Also, it’s extremely dishonest of you, and frankly a little contemptible, to keep smearing a man by taking this out of context and failing to also mention where he learned more about the issue and changed his views. This serves no other purpose than character assassination.

[bpodgursky]

This is not something I would say, or something I would ever recommend someone say, but it is 100% the type of open questioning an autism-spectrum person would ask when they don't understand the emotional weight or implications behind asking such a question.