“I am not a woman, therefore I am not affected by his comments! Conclusion: good guy!” — far too many people in this thread
Dude also has some… “”“interesting”“” opinions on the legalization of CP.
All you gotta do is contribute to FOSS and you’re a hero?
Some of y’all dumb as hell.
he has never endorsed cp! He has, however, supported any one over the age of 14 having sex, and has changed his view on that a decade ago.
As of 2016, there are reports of Stallman changing his views on the matter within the previous few years.[2] However, in 2018 he defended Cody Wilson, who later pled guilty to sex with an underage girl, with Stallman saying that the girl likely had “entirely willing sex with him.” Stallman changed his original post but nevertheless still said it is “normal for adults to be physically attracted to adolescents” and that adults using trafficked children shouldn’t be legally responsible. In 2019, Stallman posted an email to an MIT listserv about the allegation that MIT professor Marvin Minsky raped a 17-year-old girl, and due to public outcry he resigned from both MIT and the Free Software Foundation.
changed his view on that a decade ago
got quieter about his views
At 17 years, it is a matter of technicality. Plenty of places draw line at 16 years, some even lower.
I don’t know him personally, so if he got quieter or lied (he actually has a statement on his website that, according to you is a lie) about his views, I would not know. Look, I see more than plenty of reasons for one not to like him. I feel people run with media reports even when we have his email transcripts that can be read word for word.
I strongly disagree.
He is a creep, but he has done a lot of good for the open source community, that does make him a good guy, at best it makes him neutral, but after reading the whole kaffufle about his views on the Epstien scandal, I can no longer see him as a good guy.
Politically, I don’t like him. He had a critical influence in the beginning of the Free Software movement, and its failure can be easily identified in the core ideas that put the freedom of the software before the freedom of the people. The fact he cared more about software than people is reflected in pretty much anything he did.
On a personal level, he seems an insufferable asshole with enough power to get away with toxic behavior. Luckily, I never had to interact with him, but his visibility for sure didn’t help marginalizing toxic egomaniacs in IT communities. Being neurodivergent is not an excuse for being an asshole. He’s the last remnant of an age that hopefully is over.
Smart guy. Not a good person. Don’t idolize people
Honestly it comes across to me not as him defending rapists, but actually just genuinely not understanding how rape works. The guy somehow understands people less than I do, and that’s saying something.
That was my neighbor’s defense, too. “It wasn’t rape! She was very clearly coming onto me!” about the 14-year old girl he “”“encountered”“” as a college student.
He very absolutely understands what rape is. He just doesn’t want age to be a factor if she’s “into it”. It’s very very very very very clear where he stands: if she consents, it’s not rape, no matter her age!
Nobody is even accusing him of rape. Why treat him like a rapist when nobody has suggested the possibility that he had done anything wrong besides stick his foot in his mouth? It seems obvious to me that the point he was poorly attempting to make was that he’s uncomfortable with the inconsistencies around age of consent in different countries, not that there should be no such thing. 17 is enough to be a consenting adult in some actual reasonable countries.
