quote:

I’m writing this because I’m too angry to work.

I’m writing this because at 11AM on Wednesday, September 11th 2019, my friend sent me an email that was sent to an MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) mailing list.

This email came from Richard Stallman, a prominent computer scientist.

In it, he’s responding to a female student’s email about this Facebook event, which calls for a protest by MIT students and affiliates regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s donation.

The announcement of the Friday event does an injustice to Marvin
Minsky:

“deceased AI ‘pioneer’ Marvin Minsky (who is accused of assaulting
one of Epstein’s victims [2])”

The injustice is in the word “assaulting”. The term “sexual assault”
is so vague and slippery that it facilitates accusation inflation:
taking claims that someone did X and leading people to think of it as
Y, which is much worse than X.

The accusation quoted is a clear example of inflation. The reference
reports the claim that Minsky had sex with one of Epstein’s harem.
(See https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/9/20798900/marvin-minsky-jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-island-court-records-unsealed.)
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.

I’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.

Soricidus posted:

someone who defends lynching black people is called a racist, not a “racism defender”, op

quote:

If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be
very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I
can visit with, that will be nice too.

DON'T buy a parrot figuring that it will be a fun surprise for me. To
acquire a parrot is a major decision: it is likely to outlive you. If
you don't know how to treat the parrot, it could be emotionally
scarred and spend many decades feeling frightened and unhappy. If you
buy a captured wild parrot, you will promote a cruel and devastating
practice, and the parrot will be emotionally scarred before you get it.
Meeting that sad animal is not an agreeable surprise.

The Management posted:

it’s actually gnu/pedophile

Nasty Old Randy posted:

It sure would be loving nice if I could like a weirdo without them becoming a complete sex pervert for once.

Bulgakov posted:

Bulgakov posted:

rms has long been known to be an awful creep but until these more recent publicized stories it feels like he's more just been kid glove treated as that weird foot bit eating weirdo in some small office at mit, instead of just one day to day aspect of a normalized pervasive oppressive environment against anyone who doesn't rule the power dynamics in these highly stratified institutions

Bulgakov posted:

id feel worse if esr wasn't such an absolute garbo soul

Displeased Moo Cow posted:

colour me shocked

The Management posted:

rms is a mentally ill person that doesn’t understand social rules, such as why people bathe, why people put passwords on their computers, and why they shouldn’t gently caress children.

Bulgakov posted:

rms has long been known to be an awful creep but until these more recent publicized stories it feels like he's more just been kid glove treated

Nasty Old Randy posted:

It sure would be loving nice if I could like a weirdo without them becoming a complete sex pervert for once.

Nasty Old Randy posted:

It sure would be loving nice if I could like a weirdo without them becoming a complete sex pervert for once.