RMS Quits GNU Project
stallman.org
stallman.org
Most importantly, the top comment observes that it's somewhat likely this is fake.
While I believe strongly in Free Software, I think the movement would really benefit from a new more charismatic leader, someone from a younger generation. I hate to say that because RMS has given and sacrificed so much, but times have changed.
Judging by his website, he gets wrapped up in the whole world's biz. A stretch of RMS-time is probably long overdue.
Given that the parent post has been substatially edited without comment after a reply was posted, it's a moot point to comment on the response sans original context.
edit: never directly defended Epstein, my error. this does not excuse his other behavior in any way.
What? RMS never did any such thing.
Citation needed.
The Daily Beast re-contextualizes this as that she was, not presented as, willing. And the title includes "defended Epstein" and "victims", plural, both of which are entirely fabricated, and not reflected in Stallman's writings.
In short, The Daily Beast is lying to you, and half a month later has not bothered to clarify or correct their article. You should assume anything else they print is utterly unconcerned with the truth, and spun however they like. I can't begin to put my contempt for them into words.
Though RMS certainly has his flaws, what the media has done here is very wrong.
[0] https://www.change.org/p/journalists-to-stop-the-persecution...
First of all, RMS was defending Minksy, not Epstein.
Second, he was saying the most likely scenario was that she presented to Minsky as willing.
All he was saying was that the person he knew, Minsky, was most likely oblivious to her being coerced by Epstein.
He never came to the defense of Epstein, the alleged trafficker, to the best of my knowledge.
"The announcement of the Friday event does an injustice to Marvin Minsky:
deceased Al "pioneer" Marvin Minsky (who is accused of assaulting
one of Epstein's victims
The accusation quoted is a clear example of in?ation. The reference reports the claim that Minsky had sex with one of Epstein?s harem. (See [URL that didn't make it through OCR])
Let's presume that was true (I see no reason to disbelieve it).
The word "assaulting" presumes that he applied force or violence, in some unspecified way, but the article itself says no such thing. Only that they had sex.
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.
l've concluded from various examples of accusation inflation that it is absolutely wrong to use the term "sexual assault" in an accusation.
Whatever conduct you want to criticize, you should describe it with a specific term that avoids moral vagueness about the nature of the criticism. " [0]
As an aside. as discussed in the thread, it is not clear if any first party even accused Minsky of engaging in the alleged sex in the first place
[0] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9ke3ke/famed-computer-sci...