There is when children are forced into it due to circumstance, coersion, or force. This subject at hand has nothing to do with an adult making a conscious choice.
They're only considered children in some backwards places. Plus as far as I understand 17 is old enough to enlist in the army in the US? Please tell me how you think it's totally ok to send "children" off to war but prostitution now that's a line you won't cross!
More to the point of this thread: since I'm arguing that there's no effective difference between a 17yo and an 18yo prostitute (much like Stallman), should my professional life be ruined as well?
17 with parental consent, but don't be dense; it's the conditions under which these girls are being passed around that is so abhorrent to most people. Stallman should have just kept his mouth shut on this one, and I don't believe HN would maintaine this position if it were e.g. Donald Trump in the middle of this instead of RMS.
This was just the straw that broke the camel's back. RMS has done a lot of great things, but he's also done a lot of bone headed things and some of his colleagues understandably don't want to be associated with him anymore.
Honestly, when Stallman visited my university, because I knew the people that were involved with the organization, I got to know how a massive asshole he is, plus his conduct during the panel he was part of was deplorable. Also the vast majority of the time I saw something written by him made me strongly dislike him. I do recognize how his extremist views have pushed the open source movement into a good direction, though that is pretty much the only positive thing I can say about him.
Still my argument is that he should not be excised from society from having what the hivemind decided was the wrong kind of opinion. It's ok to discuss things and I'd even argue that all discussions should be had.
I just don't want to live in a place where expressing my opinion on some controversial issue, entirely lawfully, might have me excluded from society.
> I just don't want to live in a place where expressing my opinion on some controversial issue, entirely lawfully, might have me excluded from society.
I don't either, but that doesn't mean we need to have an absolutist position on speech. I don't view defending pedophilia or making apologies for the rape of a sex trafficking victim to be merely "controversial."
A few comments up I admitted that I'm torn on how he was ousted as well because I, like you, am not a fan of outrage culture and exiling people who make a remark someone else may find offensive.
That said, I don't think it's reasonable to have this discussion about RMS in a bubble, pretending as if he's never done anything else to contribute to what happened.
