It also wasn't in isolation; he made very similar remarks in 2006 on his blog that he got flak for, but people mostly brushed aside as 'oh, Stallman..'

Comments here seem to mostly equate this situation to a Cancel Culture outcry over an isolated remark. That's not what happened here. rms has had decades of inexcusable behavior for any individual, much less someone affiliated with MIT and heading something as large as FSF. He had to answer for this eventually.

I sincerely appreciate his contributions to this world. But I also sincerely feel that we can't give people free passes for their behavior (see: courtesy cards at conferences) just because they've done well in other respects. We need to end the acceptance of Brilliant Jerks.

Stallman wasn't defending Minsky, he was explaining why Minsky didn't need any defense with the evidence as presented. That Epstein instructed an underage to have sex does not mean that she did.

RMS points out that she did not ever say that she and Minksy had sex, although the prosecutor implied it, and there was a witness account that Minsky declined and warned someone else about what happened during the event. Pointing this out should not be a problem.

So please look past the media's witch hunt and into what's actually been said.

Someone on Reddit says the deposition states that a bystander saw Minksy turn the 17 year old down.

However I can’t seem to find the original documents to verify that.

And reading too much about Giuffre, my god. The list of powerful people.

Epstein must of had blackmail on everyone.

Almost like a cartel leader in their nation, he made big philanthropic donations for good press and then kept many of the world’s richest and most powerful people under his thumb.

> There are a chain of media reports which inaccurately portray what Stallman was saying.

Why the hell the Media never puts up links to direct sources is what frustrates me the most. There's been some bad cases of this lately.

Saw your post is recent and noone is debunking this so I should...

Minksy DIDN'T had the sex.

What the court documents said is:

A woman, that at the time was 17, said Epstein told her to OFFER sex to Minsky.

And another person that was present, Greg Benford, said that Minsky refused the offer.

Nowhere was stated that sex happened.

> There are a chain of media reports which inaccurately portray what Stallman was saying.

Here for example https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/16/computer-scientist-richard...

It went from "defended Minsky", to "Victims Were ‘Entirely Willing’" to "defended Epstein".

> Stallman was trying to defend Minsky who had sex with someone

I think that he was just trying to be rational. But being rational against a lynching mob is not a good idea (and hasn't ever been in human history).

> but in the context of defending Minsky and in the venue they were wildly inappropriate and indefensible

Would you mind expanding on that? Say that someone claimed that Stalin drank the blood of his victims, would it be "inappropriate and indefensible" to try to debunk such a claim (and thus defend Stalin) in the process?

When you grow older, do always keep your attraction within your age? Is it only moral for an older 70+ year-old-man to be attracted to an equally aged woman?

Of course not.

Then, where is the line? If not 18, then, 25? 30? I get why it would be creepy from the perspective of the woman wanting to be with an old man, but why exactly is the man himself a creep?

IMO, all adults are attracted to the younger opposite sex. Men have a biological drive to be attracted to women who will give birth to healthy babies, survive the birth, and live long enough lives to ensure that child is supported.

I'm 30 now. I hope people never regard me as a creep for masterbating when I'm 60 to the teen section of PornHub.

Statutory rape is not "having sex". Even if you make the girl a year older I am not sure the situation changes very much. The power dynamic is not allowing her a lot of free choices.

Is it a fact that Minsky had sex with the girl?