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People in high up positions often "resign" when their position is no longer tenable.
It's an opportunity afforded to people at the top so they can save face.
I don't see why you're bringing whataboutism about Gates into this. The discussion isn't about Gates, nor do I like Gates. Why bring him up other than to muddy the debate and shift focus away from padeo-champion RMS?
The discussion is about RMS being pro paedophilia, and his cult being in denial about that fact.
He still didn't return to his position. And again, the things said that lead to him resigning are not related to his previous comments. And again, he actually denounced what happened, in that email chain. He absolutely wasn't defending it. Go read it yourself, in full. Not some chopped up version.
Hey, Stallman answers his emails, how about you ask him what his opinions are yourself?
Also, I'm bringing up Gates because while there's massive uproar over some misplaced pedantry a lifelong activist did (again, while denouncing what happened and saying Epstein is described too lightly), it seems eerily silent when it comes to people in the same sector actually having real connections to Epstein and not just unpopular opinions on how words should be used.
I didn't say he returned to his position.
The entire thing led to him resigning. It was his comments on Epstein that got the ball rolling, but people bringing up his public championing of child rape using his work email address, as well as women alleging that he had been creepy with them, all led to him losing his position.
Look, you can defend him all you want. That's fine. I'm just on the "child rape is bad" side of the fence.
We're on the same side of that fence, don't think you're smart by painting me as pro-pedo. It's incredibly disingenuous and tells me you're running out of arguments to stand on. Stallman is of the belief that that is bad, and has denounced Epstein's actions. And even if he didn't, he still did nothing himself, so I'm not sure how me making the point that Stallman isn't the devil opponents say he is makes me belong on "that side of the fence"?
The "creepy" allegations have all been debunked iirc. I've heard of one about a mattress in his office, which wasn't even in his office or his mattress? I've also heard of him giving a business card (why is that creepy?). If you have any examples with actual evidence which isn't just "I heard that she said that he said", feel free to share and I'll look.
My point about him not returning to his previous position makes the argiment that him taking back his previous views wasn't just to return to the job he had. As you said that he didn't actually have a legitimate reason to change his opinion. Because if you don't like someone, it means they never have a benign reason to change their opinions!
No he isn't of the opinion that paedophilia is bad, because he has publicly said it's fine/good several times!
And no, he suddenly "changed his mind" as a last-ditch effort to save his job, and it failed.
If you genuinely believe he had an epiphany and did a complete 180 that just happened to perfectly align with him coming under fire, then you're pretty naive.
This cult behaviour is fucking weird, dude. The guy repeatedly states that having sex with children is fine and yet you're fine with him. Re-evaluate your position.
The last time I can see him saying that was over a decade ago. This isn't "sudden" or an "epiphany".
"He isn't of the opinion it's bad because he said it's fine several times", yeah right, because opinions can't change over literal decades. I'll go dig up stupid stuff you said long ago, because if you said it several times long in the past it means you agree with it now?
And if it was a last ditch effort to save his job, and that failed, then there's really no more need for effort. So if that's truly why his opinion changed, surely if you ask he'll have the old opinion?
You act like anyone changing a long-held opinion after being confronted with evidence is impossible. He originally thought it doesn't cause harm, he received evidence that it actually does, and so he changed his opinion to reflect the evidence he saw. It says a lot about you that a change in opinion after new evidence is shown to you is unfathomable.
And for fucks sake, stop saying I'm fine with that sort of thing, I'm not. I never once defended his old opinions. Stop trying to degrade my argument with that.
EDIT: You're also acting like this was more than just a malformed opinion he used to hold. Keep in mind he has never done anything to a child, nor expressed interest in it. As it should be. And he has also long held the opinion that any sex should be consentual, which of course extends to children, who he recognises cannot really consent now. His other past opinions align with his current opinion in this respect.
He didn't change his opinion over decades. He "changed" his opinion over days. Specifically, days after there started to be pressure for him to step down or be removed.
What a convenient time to have a change of heart!
Stop defending an advocate of child rape.
Sorry, when was the last time he stated this opinion? Because it wasn't anywhere near when there were calls for him to resign. There's a literal decade gap.
Again, what made him lose his job was actually him denouncing these actions and having his words spun. Because again, these are unrelated issues. From there people dug into very old opinions. It's almost as if it was nothing to do with his past opinions at all and people were looking for an excuse.
And I mean, just look at the headline that made him do it. "Stallman says Epstein's victims "entirely willing". What a blatant lie. He said the fucking opposite. He said they were coerced and told to act like they were willing to his associates...
Even if you don't like him you can't deny that there were plenty of lies about him at that time, smearing him.
Also: he was never an "advocate", just like I'm not an advocate of the idea that eating chocolate won't kill you, it's just an opinion I hold.
Hahahaha now you're saying the reason he lost his job because he made a statement against child rape?
You people cannot be helped.
I guess if Andrew Tate said he's against misogyny now you'd believe him too?
You go ahead and look at the article which kicked this all off. He was being pedantic, someone was unhappy about the inappropriate timing of that, leaked the email chain, and wrote a headline stating "Stallman says they were 'entirely willing'".
Read the actual email that quote is taken from and you'll see the exact opposite. They cut out key words to make that sensationalist headline.
This is easily verifiable.
This situation is nothing like Tate. The last time Tate made a misogynistic comment was probably 5 minutes ago, compare that to over a decade ago for Stallman's out-of-place opinion.
Tate has also acted on his opinions and caused real harm. Stallman, never did.
He also is not a logical person, whereas Stallman is pretty much driven purely by logic. He has never so much as hinted that he's open to evidence to change his opinions.
I'm not talking about his chat about Epstein, you brought that up for zero reason, specifically to muddy the conversation and distract from the topic, just like the Bill Gates tangent.
I'm talking about him being a proud and loud advocate of paedophilia, bestiality, parent-child relationships.
Hm yeah. Very logical to be supportive of raping kids (even your own kids) and fucking your pets. What a logical guy with sane takes.