Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Is Stallman nuts?

[MARY-ANNE WOLF]

Let me make sure that I understand the distinction that is being claimed here.  
A young lady who is in fact young enough to be below the age of giving sexual 
consent "presents herself as being willing" to Epstein, an adult man aged over 
21.  This happens with multiple underage girls on more than one occasion.

So if Epstein has sex with each underage girl after she "presents herself as 
being willing", are you arguing that statutory rape has not occured?  If so, on 
what grounds?

If it were one girl, we could debate whether Epstein believed that the young 
lady was older than was the case.  If we are talking about multiple underage 
girls, using an airplane named "The Lolita Express" that becomes much less 
plausible. I think we can assume he knew how young they were.

So if a girl too young to give sexual consent tries to do so, and an adult male 
repeatedly acts as if he believes that she is old enough to give consent, does 
her action get him off the hook?  I do not think so. And if this happens with 
girl after girl after girl after girl?  Really?

If you believe that statutory rape did occur, then what does presenting herself 
as willing have to do with it?  Why bring that up?  Legally speaking, she was 
raped, no matter what she said first.

So how is Stallman not trying to excuse statutory rape by what he posted?

Mary-Anne


> On September 15, 2019 at 2:46 PM Michael Downey <michael@downey.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> I have not read the commentary articles, nor do I intend to. I have, on the 
> other hand, read the comments by the FSF President and Board member on the 
> mailing list in question. They are entirely inappropriate comments for 
> someone in his public position to be making.
> 
> I spend my day job trying to convince large governments and NGO's of the 
> value of free software. Once again they see the FSF leader behaving 
> inappropriately and I have to make excuses for him and the organization that 
> continues to provide him safe harbor, and explain that they don't represent 
> the values of the free software movement. 
> 
> I'm exhausted of doing that. The board has had many opportunities to remove 
> him from his role yet each time back down. 
> 
> As a single individual associate member, I can't do much. But I can (and 
> have) revoked my 15+ year membership and am removing all references to the 
> FSF in materials from my day job. We just can't be associated with that kind 
> of public behavior any more.
> 
> The letter I sent to the FSF follows. I'll be unsubscribing from this mailing 
> list too, unfortunately, but encourage others to reconsider their support 
> until the board acts in a way true to its public charter. For the sake of 
> software freedom, I hope my absence is short-lived.
> 
> - Michael
> 
> FSF associate member #2352 (since 2004-05-20) here. I also accepted the Free 
> Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit several years ago.
> 
> It’s unfortunate to hear yet another incident about the FSF President’s 
> unacceptable behavior in the news again.
> 
> Despite all the good things this organization does, this continued behavior 
> while holding the role makes it untenable for me to publicly support the FSF. 
> And that’s a bad thing for software freedom.
> 
> Software freedom is an important human right, but if one has to publicly 
> trample others’ human rights in order to get there, one undermines one’s own 
> cause.
> 
> With his continued behavior over the years, Stallman has done damage to our 
> movement that will take a very long time to repair. It’s time for him to step 
> down and let the next generation lead this critical movement into the future.
> 
> Should he be unwilling to do so, I note that based upon my review of the FSF 
> bylaws, the Board has the power to remove the person in office of President 
> with or without cause upon vote of the board. (Article VI, Section 7.) 
> 
> Until that time, I must regrettably cancel my associate membership. 
> 
> /s/
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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