4 ms·

No, he didn't. He defended a dead person from accusations of pedophilia and had quotes from it taken tremendously out of context.

stephenr 6y ago
Yes, he did, multiple times. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20994216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20994216
- spurgu 6y ago
  I find it refreshing to see someone willing to talk and think about these taboo kind of subjects. Myself I think it (sexual interaction) boils down to mutual consent, but there's obviously an age where a person cannot grasp the scope of what they're consenting to. And necrophilia fails this definition since consent is impossible (unless written in a will). And now having looked into what he was actually accused of, of trying to imply that a sexual "assault" didn't necessarily happen, it's just strengthening my view that this "wokeness" is getting way out of hand in today's society.
  - stephenr 6y ago
    The law literally is about age of consent. As a society we deem young people too immature to make important decisions for themselves. Nothing about calling him on his ridiculous views is related to "wokeness". One guy saying "hey maybe fucking kids isn't bad" is not in any way related to social injustice - society in general says that fucking kids is bad. Edit: unless you agree with his claims - then I guess you might see it as "social injustice". This is just a weirdo saying weird shit, and then other people (you) trying to latch onto the new version of "don't blame me, back in my day it was OK".
    - varajelle 6y ago
      Not only young people but also adult who would want to take some kind of drugs, or who would like to get into, god forbid, homosexual acts. Now, homosexuality has been allowed everywhere in the US for a decade or so. It wouldn't have been if it was not appropriate to talk about it. Richard Stallman was, for my understanding, just daring to ask questions, and debating over a sensitive topic, and he got blamed for it.
    - dataduck 6y ago
      Surely thinking you've got the right to police and punish other people for their views is wokeness, regardless of how ridiculous said views are?
    - spurgu 6y ago
      You are literally projecting your own views on this, which is exactly the problem here. The law? In which country? Who is correct? Is 18 mature but 17 isn't? Or 15? There is no hard coded rule/value, only arbitrary laws trying to generalize. And the rest of your post is not even worth dissecting (even though it would be moderately amusing), you're clearly missing both what I and RMS are trying to say.
  - visitor1 6y ago
    "Sexual assault" is an abused term, it does not make justice to real victims or real assault. Here's Nadine Strossen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Strossen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Strossen) on the subject: "So we see the term sexual assault and sexual harrassment used for example, when a guy asks a woman out on a date and she doesn’t find that an appealing invitation. Maybe he used poor judgement in asking her out, maybe he didn’t, but in any case that is NOT sexual assault or harassment. To call it that is to really demean the huge horror and violence and predation that does exist when you are talking about violent sexual assault. People use the term sexual assault / sexual harassment to refer to any comment about gender or sexuality issues that they disagree with or a joke that might not be in the best taste, again is that to be commended? No! But to condemn it and equate it with a violent sexual assault again is really denying and demeaning the actual suffering that people who are victims of sexual assault endure. It trivializes the serious infractions that are committed by people like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. So that is one point that he [Stallman] made that I think is very important that I strongly agree with." https://www.wetheweb.org/post/cancel-we-the-web https://www.wetheweb.org/post/cancel-we-the-web

stephenr 6y ago

Yes, he did, multiple times. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20994216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20994216

spurgu 6y ago
I find it refreshing to see someone willing to talk and think about these taboo kind of subjects. Myself I think it (sexual interaction) boils down to mutual consent, but there's obviously an age where a person cannot grasp the scope of what they're consenting to. And necrophilia fails this definition since consent is impossible (unless written in a will). And now having looked into what he was actually accused of, of trying to imply that a sexual "assault" didn't necessarily happen, it's just strengthening my view that this "wokeness" is getting way out of hand in today's society.
- stephenr 6y ago
  The law literally is about age of consent. As a society we deem young people too immature to make important decisions for themselves. Nothing about calling him on his ridiculous views is related to "wokeness". One guy saying "hey maybe fucking kids isn't bad" is not in any way related to social injustice - society in general says that fucking kids is bad. Edit: unless you agree with his claims - then I guess you might see it as "social injustice". This is just a weirdo saying weird shit, and then other people (you) trying to latch onto the new version of "don't blame me, back in my day it was OK".
  - varajelle 6y ago
    Not only young people but also adult who would want to take some kind of drugs, or who would like to get into, god forbid, homosexual acts. Now, homosexuality has been allowed everywhere in the US for a decade or so. It wouldn't have been if it was not appropriate to talk about it. Richard Stallman was, for my understanding, just daring to ask questions, and debating over a sensitive topic, and he got blamed for it.
  - dataduck 6y ago
    Surely thinking you've got the right to police and punish other people for their views is wokeness, regardless of how ridiculous said views are?
  - spurgu 6y ago
    You are literally projecting your own views on this, which is exactly the problem here. The law? In which country? Who is correct? Is 18 mature but 17 isn't? Or 15? There is no hard coded rule/value, only arbitrary laws trying to generalize. And the rest of your post is not even worth dissecting (even though it would be moderately amusing), you're clearly missing both what I and RMS are trying to say.
- visitor1 6y ago
  "Sexual assault" is an abused term, it does not make justice to real victims or real assault. Here's Nadine Strossen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Strossen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Strossen) on the subject: "So we see the term sexual assault and sexual harrassment used for example, when a guy asks a woman out on a date and she doesn’t find that an appealing invitation. Maybe he used poor judgement in asking her out, maybe he didn’t, but in any case that is NOT sexual assault or harassment. To call it that is to really demean the huge horror and violence and predation that does exist when you are talking about violent sexual assault. People use the term sexual assault / sexual harassment to refer to any comment about gender or sexuality issues that they disagree with or a joke that might not be in the best taste, again is that to be commended? No! But to condemn it and equate it with a violent sexual assault again is really denying and demeaning the actual suffering that people who are victims of sexual assault endure. It trivializes the serious infractions that are committed by people like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. So that is one point that he [Stallman] made that I think is very important that I strongly agree with." https://www.wetheweb.org/post/cancel-we-the-web https://www.wetheweb.org/post/cancel-we-the-web