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Comment by tehjoker | Hacker News Reader

This is very sad that the leader of the FSF took such actions. We benefited from his insights and advocacy on software, but the defense of Epstein, who essentially had a child abuse production line and defense of pedophilia is not something I can support and it is proper that someone new takes over.

Stallman's views were a variety of American libertarianism. While there are a few good points within that tradition regarding personal freedom, it's kind of sad that he carried some of the other baggage with his obsession with age of consent laws.

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From reading his comments isn’t he defending someone named Minsk who had sex with a 17 year old and didn’t know she was being coerced into it by Epstein?

It seems to be a bit of a far fetched theory to me that this guy would meet a 17 year old through Epstein and not really be aware of what Epstein was doing, but it doesn’t really seem to be a defense of sexual trafficking, pedophilia or rape.

That being said this is from my reading of the above thread so maybe I’m not getting the full picture here.

Sorry, I was shocked and was reading around and forgot which article was linked at the top. I read this one:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/richard-stallman-famed-mit-com...

Ah, so I think my interpretation of his Minsky comments was right, although it seems unlikely to me that Minksy didn’t know.

The whole legalizing child porn and age of consent thing, oof.

In they were in Massachusetts, Minsky might have asked, "Are you here willingly, and how old are you?" And he could have received the reply, "Absolutely, I'm having the time of my life with Jeffrey and all the famous people he introduces me to, and I'm 16."

And the sex might then have seemed consensual and legal to Minsky, because even now in 2019, the age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.

Deleted.

That's not what I see when I click on that link! Just in case we're seeing different page-versions, what does a frozen copy of the Wikipedia page from a third site show? Also "16":

https://archive.is/n3Nfs

Oops, I mistook Massachusetts for New York. My geography sucks.

Additionally, apparently Minsky turned the 17 year old down.

Seems to me it’s some of the other things Stallman has said which are more troubling.

Although he has renounced many of those prior statements at the very least.

A man of such convictions, working in tech but eschewing so much of it, not surprising he’d have some quirky or harmful views mixed in there.

Too bad since I appreciate his FSF work and hard line views against surveillance.

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