11 ms·

Yeah, this is a really great video, thanks for sharing "woke" Bowie. As you say, he ages well, except for his molesting young girls in the '70s. There's at lea

Yeah, this is a really great video, thanks for sharing "woke" Bowie. As you say, he ages well, except for his molesting young girls in the '70s. There's at least two 15 year olds that admit having sex with him. I'm a Bowie fan but it's difficult to separate those unacceptable acts from the great things he did.

dang 5y ago
If that's true, you're right—that has not aged well. I guess I meant he ages well as a performer, which is what that interview was. I've added that qualifier to my comment above. Generally though, I don't think it's that hard to separate unacceptable from great things. Everyone is a combo of good and bad–that's how humans are. It's childish to expect otherwise. The fashion of denouncing historical figures by anachronistic standards is especially puerile. Not a single person who ever lived would pass such a test. The related internet habit of saving the worst thing one can say about anybody in a big hash table [1] and then looking it up and repeating it every time the name is mentioned, is also a bit silly. What are we doing when we do that? certainly nothing interesting. But I rant. I take your point that "ages well" needs a qualifier! Edit: I noticed something else that's mildly interesting—calling this "woke" is also an anachronism. The word that Bowie uses in the interview is "integration". That places him ideologically as a civil rights moderate, and of course wokeness (whatever it may mean) didn't exist yet. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22hash%20table%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- skystarman 5y ago
  I'd imagine plenty of people didn't rape 15 year old girls in the '70s even if it was more "acceptable" back then. Using your fame to exploit young, impressionable women is pretty awful and was awful 50 years ago. Even if "everyone did it!"
  - dang 5y ago
    Could you please stop taking HN threads into flamewar? You've been doing it a lot, and it even looks like your account has been using HN primarily (though fortunately not exclusively) for political and ideological battle. We ban that sort of account on HN [1] because it's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. Also, definitely please don't create accounts to break the site guidelines with. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
randompwd 5y ago
> his molesting young girls in the '70s Where is this evidence he molested girls? > There's at least two 15 year olds that admit having sex with him. That in and of itself isn't molestation. Love the hyperbole though.
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar hell. Of all the things we don't need, definitional disputes about molestation are really up there. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- skystarman 5y ago
  You're right it wasn't molestation, it was rape as defined in the California penal code where age of consent was and is 18. He raped two 15 year old girls. And likely many more that haven't came out publicly.
skystarman 5y ago
Getting downvoted for pointing out the fact that David Bowie raped teenagers. Great job HN!
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't post this sort of flamewar dross to HN. We're trying for something a little better than that here. If you review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html to (almost) the end, you'll see that comments like this are explicitly off topic.

dang 5y ago

If that's true, you're right—that has not aged well. I guess I meant he ages well as a performer, which is what that interview was. I've added that qualifier to my comment above. Generally though, I don't think it's that hard to separate unacceptable from great things. Everyone is a combo of good and bad–that's how humans are. It's childish to expect otherwise. The fashion of denouncing historical figures by anachronistic standards is especially puerile. Not a single person who ever lived would pass such a test. The related internet habit of saving the worst thing one can say about anybody in a big hash table [1] and then looking it up and repeating it every time the name is mentioned, is also a bit silly. What are we doing when we do that? certainly nothing interesting. But I rant. I take your point that "ages well" needs a qualifier! Edit: I noticed something else that's mildly interesting—calling this "woke" is also an anachronism. The word that Bowie uses in the interview is "integration". That places him ideologically as a civil rights moderate, and of course wokeness (whatever it may mean) didn't exist yet. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22hash%20table%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

skystarman 5y ago
I'd imagine plenty of people didn't rape 15 year old girls in the '70s even if it was more "acceptable" back then. Using your fame to exploit young, impressionable women is pretty awful and was awful 50 years ago. Even if "everyone did it!"
- dang 5y ago
  Could you please stop taking HN threads into flamewar? You've been doing it a lot, and it even looks like your account has been using HN primarily (though fortunately not exclusively) for political and ideological battle. We ban that sort of account on HN [1] because it's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. Also, definitely please don't create accounts to break the site guidelines with. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

randompwd 5y ago

> his molesting young girls in the '70s Where is this evidence he molested girls? > There's at least two 15 year olds that admit having sex with him. That in and of itself isn't molestation. Love the hyperbole though.

dang 5y ago
Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar hell. Of all the things we don't need, definitional disputes about molestation are really up there. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
skystarman 5y ago
You're right it wasn't molestation, it was rape as defined in the California penal code where age of consent was and is 18. He raped two 15 year old girls. And likely many more that haven't came out publicly.

skystarman 5y ago

Getting downvoted for pointing out the fact that David Bowie raped teenagers. Great job HN!

dang 5y ago
Please don't post this sort of flamewar dross to HN. We're trying for something a little better than that here. If you review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html to (almost) the end, you'll see that comments like this are explicitly off topic.