Reviving my old throwaway account to confirm that I indeed thought of "fleshlight" immediately after reading the announcement. Keep in mind that the average coder is far more likely to read Reddit daily (where this reference comes up surprisingly often) than to do things that require a flashlight (own a house somewhere remote, etc)
I still do not see how it can be taken as blaming the victim. Here's the exact quote from my inbox:
> 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.
It's pretty clear to me that he acknowledges the victim to be a victim, who has to deal with threats and coercion __in addition to__ sexual assault. He just argued that Minsky might not have known what was going on, which has nothing to do with what the victim actually felt.
The only people who interpreted this as victim-blaming are the media outlets who straight up lie in their headlines. Here's Vice:
> Famed Computer Scientist Richard Stallman Described Epstein Victims As 'Entirely Willing'
Stallman does have a responsibility to ensure he cannot be reasonably misinterpreted, but this headline is a blatant lie.
> what the person is doing is calling human trafficking victims "willing."
Please stop spreading this misinformation. As explained in this thread countless times, Stallman never called the victim "willing" -- he just said she might have been threatened into looking like she is.
I’m not saying it’s ok because he didn’t know. It’s certainly still rape, but I’d say the criminal in that case would be Epstein, not Minsky. If he sincerely thought she was a sex worker who’s over 18 and willing, why is he at fault? He might have done everything right and have gotten (what looked like) informed consent, for all we know.
You don’t have to agree with this idea (it’s not like we have any evidence after all), but I hope we can agree that it’s not entirely unreasonable.
That’s not his defense. Stallman never disputed the lack of consent of the minor. He’s saying the minor might have been coerced by Epstein to “present herself as entirely willing”, i.e. she _looked like_ she’s willing when she’s really not. Minsky would have no way of knowing.