7 ms·

He has expressed skepticism that "willing participation" in pedophilia harms children. And given a couple of bizarre quotes on bestiality (essentially, "if the

He has expressed skepticism that "willing participation" in pedophilia harms children. And given a couple of bizarre quotes on bestiality (essentially, "if the animal initiates it then what's the problem?"). More recently, he was pushed out of MIT and the FSF last year for questioning whether one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims was truly a victim or not. He prefers Emacs over Vim. There are probably other examples, but that's off the top of my head.

shirakawasuna 6y ago
> He prefers Emacs over Vim He's a monster.
- m463 6y ago
  Well, at least he didn't create emacs. ;)
- efreak 6y ago
  `ed` is better than either. `cat>newfile.txt` - teaches you not to make typos.
usui 6y ago
> He prefers Emacs over Vim I wasn't expecting to laugh, haha. This is great, good stuff! ...But seriously why? How could such a thing be possible?! I would like to know his reasons.
- dkersten 6y ago
  You get irrationally attached to things you are one of the authors of, I guess.
- iphone_elegance 6y ago
  He wrote emacs
dkersten 6y ago
> questioning whether one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims was truly a victim or not. I’ve never really been much of an RMS fan beyond admiration for what he has done for free software, but this is not what he said, at least according to his words as quoted in the post that initiated his cancellation[1]. I’ve pasted it from that post below [2]. The author of that post quoted this and then somehow inferred this [3]. How she (and everyone reading it thereafter) went from one line to the next from “she PRESENTED herself as willing” (not that she actually was willing), “assuming she was being COERCED by Epstein” somehow got reinterpreted as “she was entirely willing”. Nothing RMS said stated he thought she wasn’t a victim, just that Minsky may not have known due to how Epstein coerced her to present herself. But hey, the witch hunters got their burning. [1] https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-fec6ec210794 https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-fec6ec2... [2] We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing. Assuming she was being coerced by Epstein, he would have had every reason to tell her to conceal that from most of his associates. [3] and then he says that an enslaved child could, somehow, be “entirely willing”.
- Waterfall 6y ago
  This is exactly what my issue is with many of his detractors. He's brave enough to state his opinions good and bad, and most people don't think beyond the first step of why or the context and continue the myth of it being a fact. It is depressing to see how this is not common news even here and people have every reason to dislike him for other reasons but they just wanted a reason to hate him.
- sequoia 6y ago
  I'm an RMS fan overall & think he's been fairly prophetic over the years even and respect him for sticking to his Free Software guns even when his views were unpopular, but these comments of his regarding the Epstein case were stupid. Yes, RMS is correct, the term "sexual assault" is perhaps too vague in this case–the legal term for sex with an underage person is "rape." The context also make his comments strain credulity beyond the breaking point. "We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing." So this 73 year old man has a 17 year old approach him for sex on one of his patron's famous young-girl-harem flights, and I'm to understand that Minsky can't apply his AI-pioneering genius to figure out what's going on? Like, am I supposed to believe that he thought this girl young enough to be his granddaughter was just attracted to his magnetic personality? Give me a break. > Minsky may not have known Can you really look me in the screen and tell me you believe that? Again I say: give me a break. I think it's better to call a spade a shovel here and concede that Minsky knew what he was doing. The fact is Stallman probably _didn't_ consider Minksy to have done anything wrong, and that's why he spoke up, and he was "cancelled" because it was pretty plain to everyone else that it _was_ wrong.
Semaphor 6y ago
> essentially, "if the animal initiates it then what's the problem?" Note that this is current law in Germany.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
allarm 6y ago
> He prefers Emacs over Vim. Does he also prefer apples over oranges?

shirakawasuna 6y ago

> He prefers Emacs over Vim He's a monster.

m463 6y ago
Well, at least he didn't create emacs. ;)
efreak 6y ago
`ed` is better than either. `cat>newfile.txt` - teaches you not to make typos.

usui 6y ago

> He prefers Emacs over Vim I wasn't expecting to laugh, haha. This is great, good stuff! ...But seriously why? How could such a thing be possible?! I would like to know his reasons.

dkersten 6y ago
You get irrationally attached to things you are one of the authors of, I guess.
iphone_elegance 6y ago
He wrote emacs

dkersten 6y ago

> questioning whether one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims was truly a victim or not. I’ve never really been much of an RMS fan beyond admiration for what he has done for free software, but this is not what he said, at least according to his words as quoted in the post that initiated his cancellation[1]. I’ve pasted it from that post below [2]. The author of that post quoted this and then somehow inferred this [3]. How she (and everyone reading it thereafter) went from one line to the next from “she PRESENTED herself as willing” (not that she actually was willing), “assuming she was being COERCED by Epstein” somehow got reinterpreted as “she was entirely willing”. Nothing RMS said stated he thought she wasn’t a victim, just that Minsky may not have known due to how Epstein coerced her to present herself. But hey, the witch hunters got their burning. [1] https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-fec6ec210794 https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-fec6ec2... [2] We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing. Assuming she was being coerced by Epstein, he would have had every reason to tell her to conceal that from most of his associates. [3] and then he says that an enslaved child could, somehow, be “entirely willing”.

Waterfall 6y ago
This is exactly what my issue is with many of his detractors. He's brave enough to state his opinions good and bad, and most people don't think beyond the first step of why or the context and continue the myth of it being a fact. It is depressing to see how this is not common news even here and people have every reason to dislike him for other reasons but they just wanted a reason to hate him.
sequoia 6y ago
I'm an RMS fan overall & think he's been fairly prophetic over the years even and respect him for sticking to his Free Software guns even when his views were unpopular, but these comments of his regarding the Epstein case were stupid. Yes, RMS is correct, the term "sexual assault" is perhaps too vague in this case–the legal term for sex with an underage person is "rape." The context also make his comments strain credulity beyond the breaking point. "We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing." So this 73 year old man has a 17 year old approach him for sex on one of his patron's famous young-girl-harem flights, and I'm to understand that Minsky can't apply his AI-pioneering genius to figure out what's going on? Like, am I supposed to believe that he thought this girl young enough to be his granddaughter was just attracted to his magnetic personality? Give me a break. > Minsky may not have known Can you really look me in the screen and tell me you believe that? Again I say: give me a break. I think it's better to call a spade a shovel here and concede that Minsky knew what he was doing. The fact is Stallman probably _didn't_ consider Minksy to have done anything wrong, and that's why he spoke up, and he was "cancelled" because it was pretty plain to everyone else that it _was_ wrong.

Semaphor 6y ago

> essentially, "if the animal initiates it then what's the problem?" Note that this is current law in Germany.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

allarm 6y ago

> He prefers Emacs over Vim. Does he also prefer apples over oranges?