saying shit like that about Epstein and his victims isn't particularly defensible.
Is there actually any evidence of Stallman actually
defending Epstein?
Most of the articles covering this seem to be conflating two things:
- Stallman pointing out in the past few months that at least some of the people targeted by Epstein's intelligence operation may have been unaware that they were having sex with virginal almost preteen seventeen year old girls, victims of human trafficking, rather than proud of-age women doing the honorable job of entertaining Epstein's guests through sex work.
- Stallman doing the old individualist libertarian/libertine 'what, exactly, does an age of consent mean?' shtick over the past decade or so.
Obviously #1 is true for a number of Epstein's targets. I mean, you go to a party at Epstein's place on the Upper East Side, you hang out with a bunch of other rich cunts who don't seem phased by what's going on. You fuck one of his hired entertainers who is [age of consent - 1] but from her appearance could as well be [age of consent], [age of consent + 1], or a well-preserved [age of consent +7], and who seems impressed by your wordly success. Obviously there's a bit of a difference between doing that once, and someone who's flown on the Lolita Express tens of times and gotten a handie or three from a 14 year old.
I suspect there are probably quite a few people in the former position. Stallman's point was that at least some of these people had no idea they were doing anything wrong.
It should be obvious why this would be the case, given Epstein's mission was to get blackmail material on powerful people so they could be subverted to Mossad goals. I'm sure many of those people were either more attracted to women in their early or mid twenties instead of late teens, or cautious against entrapment, so of course he would have had a reasonable number of slightly underage women who looked older, and young women of age around, as well as the few blatantly underage girls we've heard about.
By all means, hang everyone who's flown on the Lolita Express, but not for fucking a 17 year old, for being a rich prick.
The second point is indefensible, as fornication is a major sin, but all of the people piling on Stallman hold views not that dissimilar- that fornication should be allowed within some arbitrary set of rules. Some significant portion of them probably want to drop the age of consent to 12 or younger.
