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EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

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Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#161
post #12

We ll never know what "the situation" is and whatever "statements that do not correspond to any of our values" are. Good job smearing mud without saying anything i guess. Did stallman say something since he was invited that was particularly noticeable? if not then these organizers don't know what they 're doing and this reflects bad on them

I mean, his statements regarding pedophilia are enough. It's not exactly a hidden secret. Saying stuff like >I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing. Is very controversial, even if he backpedalled (only…

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Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#162
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if rms knew Cody Wilson personally and respected him or not, but he doesn't make that claim in his text: https://www.stallman.org/archives/2018-jul-oct.html#23_Septe...

The person I was referring to is Marvin Minsky, who is dead and thus cannot defend himself.

That is not the person about whom rms made the post with the text in question. (Minksy is not a convicted sex offender.)

Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#163
post #145

"The original Remove Richard Stallman post contained leaked communications from a private mailing list. In it, the author quotes an email from Stallman where he explains that Marvin Minsky likely wouldn’t have known that the woman on Jeffrey Epstein’s island was coerced: …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…

[flagged]

Look at any public/historical figure and they probably had unsavory stuff to fill bookcases.

It rarely cancles their positive contributions.

Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#164
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is in reply to the GP, which was inappropriately flag-killed. The difference is probably that Stallman has no money or power, so he's an easy, safe target to attack.

Stallman also likely has autism and can't manage his public appearance nearly as well as Gates.

Gates likely has autism--he's even famous for rocking--but the rest of your statement is correct.

Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a difference between a controversial opinion and one of the strongest taboos in American culture.

Pedophilia isn't exactly an American only issue. I'm not American but if thinking that pedophilia harms children is an American "taboo"... Then consider me thoroughly americanized lol.

It is certainly not exclusive to the USA and no one is trying to deny or diminish victims in other countries, but statistically, it is an endemic US problem.

According to US HHS "over the course of their lifetime, 28% of young people in the US, aged 14 to 17, had been sexually victimized."

Compare that to 4.8% for the UK, also a country with a severe child SA problem.

The US is thusly quite anomalous, and is only really comparable to undeveloped nations in terms of CSA rates.

So when an American goes out of his way to defend forms of CSA on his personal webpage, unprompted, it can certainly be seen as symptomatic of this larger US cultural issue.

Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#166
post #145

"The original Remove Richard Stallman post contained leaked communications from a private mailing list. In it, the author quotes an email from Stallman where he explains that Marvin Minsky likely wouldn’t have known that the woman on Jeffrey Epstein’s island was coerced: …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…

[flagged]

>Stallman's poor behavior over the years could fill a bookcase if written down.

If that's true, then you can write informatively rather than with hand-waving.

>the narrow contrived defense you're making here.

The argument above is specific and detailed, not "contrived".

Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#167
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

We talk about inclusivity here all the time, but what about being inclusive of neuroatypical folks who have quirks that don't come off as being polished and PC in current social code du jour? This all so so grates on me because it means we are wasting all this time and energy on things that don't matter all the while the real monsters of society go unchecked because with their psychopathic streak they know how to pla…

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Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#168
post #145

"The original Remove Richard Stallman post contained leaked communications from a private mailing list. In it, the author quotes an email from Stallman where he explains that Marvin Minsky likely wouldn’t have known that the woman on Jeffrey Epstein’s island was coerced: …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…

[deleted]

Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pedophilia isn't exactly an American only issue. I'm not American but if thinking that pedophilia harms children is an American "taboo"... Then consider me thoroughly americanized lol.

It's far from exclusive, but I don't know enough about other cultures to definitively say universally strong in all existing ones. (It hasn't been historically.)

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Re: EPFL cancels Stallman's lecture citing “the situation regarding” his persona

#170
post #9

Literally canceled. Perhaps having an eternal memory of everything bad human beings ever do in their entire lives to be summoned up to destroy people is not such a good idea.

Is experiencing consequences for one's behavior synonymous with "canceled" now?
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