• JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Above 13 they’re teenagers developmentally, even if they’re legally minors. I’m not saying adults should have sex with them, but they’res a clear difference between a 4 year old and a 15 year old.

          • flamingos-cant@ukfli.uk
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            9 months ago

            Yeah, but pair it with the exact wording of how Stallman walked back the paedophilia comment:

            Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it.

            Through personal conversations in recent years, I’ve learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per psychologically.

            • JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              I haven’t read all of that, but I agree with most of it. No one should have sex with a non consenting partner, but there is a real pattern in society where people want to exaggerate sexual misdemeanours that people have done and call it pedophilia or sexual assault, as a sort of clickbait, when it is in reality more minor. I am also against other forms of clickbait or dishonest attention grabbing tactics, to remain consistent.

              And other people see any criticism of the rapidly expanding sphere of things which get categorised as sexual crimes as siding with abusers, rather than a more thoughtful approach.

              • lemmeee@sh.itjust.works
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                9 months ago

                His mistake was thinking that pedophilia is only harmful when children are forced to do it. Fortunately he changed his mind. But I agree with many of his other opinions like rejecting the term “sexual assault”, because it’s too vague and can mean almost anything, so more precise terms should be used instead.

                People that hate him, criticize him for almost anything. Even for calling someone an “Emacs virgin”. And if they can’t find anything, they misquote him like they did during the MIT Epstein scandal.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Didn’t he changed his mind after learning it wasn’t okay?

        He changed his public statements after huge backlash. He supported pedophilia for decades and after he got bad press to a degree it reached parts of the wider public he suddenly had an actual change of heart? No way.

        • lemmeee@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          By supported you mean he wrote a few posts about it on his blog. Later he talked to some pedophilia victims and they made him realise how harmful it is. What is so impossible about it?

        • Adanisi
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          9 months ago

          There was about a decade’s gap where he could have changed his opinion.

          In fact, during the MIT CSAIL scandal it’s apparent that he did, since he noted that Epstein’s victims were absolutely coerced into pretending they were willing when they were not (which certain news outlets I will not name spun into “stallman says they were willing”), and he also said Epstein is not described harshly enough.

          Of course, you’re free to dislike him or even disbelieve what I just said, but you can’t deny that what he says about software is damn near prophecy.