[M-Selam G] I’d like to add a Content Note: this piece contains mentions of child abuse, rape, and other upsetting topics. An appendix of additional information has also been added at the bottom.
I’m writing this because I’m too angry to work.
I’m writing this because at 11AM on Wednesday, September 11th 2019, my friend sent me an email that was sent to an MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) mailing list.
This email came from Richard Stallman, a prominent computer scientist.
In it, he’s responding to a female student’s email about this Facebook event, which calls for a protest by MIT students and affiliates regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s donation.
The announcement of the Friday event does an injustice to Marvin
Minsky:
“deceased AI ‘pioneer’ Marvin Minsky (who is accused of assaulting
one of Epstein’s victims [2])”
The injustice is in the word “assaulting”. The term “sexual assault”
is so vague and slippery that it facilitates accusation inflation:
taking claims that someone did X and leading people to think of it as
Y, which is much worse than X.
The accusation quoted is a clear example of inflation. The reference
reports the claim that Minsky had sex with one of Epstein’s harem.
(See https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/9/20798900/marvin-minsky-jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-island-court-records-unsealed.)
Let’s presume that was true (I see no reason to disbelieve it).
The word “assaulting” presumes that he applied force or violence, in
some unspecified way, but the article itself says no such thing.
Only that they had sex.
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.
I’ve concluded from various examples of accusation inflation that it
is absolutely wrong to use the term “sexual assault” in an accusation.
Whatever conduct you want to criticize, you should describe it with a
specific term that avoids moral vagueness about the nature of the
criticism.
There are so many things wrong with what Richard Stallman said I hardly know where to begin. First, he didn’t even give the typical, whiney, ‘he’s accused but not convicted’ defense. No, Stallman went much further than that. Instead, Stallman said “Let’s assume that Marvin Minsky had sex with an underage girl who was a victim of child sex trafficking”…
The reference reports the claim that Minsky had sex with one of Epstein’s harem…Let’s presume that was true (I see no reason to disbelieve it).
…and then he says that an enslaved child could, somehow, be “entirely willing”. Let’s also note that he called a group of child sex trafficking victims a ‘harem’, a terrible word choice.
We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that
she presented herself to him as entirely willing.
This is someone who is respected far and wide by the technology community.
This is someone who is a Visiting Scientist at MIT.
MIT claims it never wanted to elevate Epstein’s reputation by allowing him to donate. But, here they are, not only elevating but funding and endorsing a person like Richard Stallman as a visiting scientist.
What’s more, somehow Richard Stallman decided it was appropriate to email his opinion to an almost department-wide mailing list (“csail-related”) which had undergraduate students on it. In an email further down the thread, he also said,
“I think it is morally absurd to define “rape” in a way that depends on minor details such as which country it was in or whether the victim was 18 years old or 17.”
in response to a student who said “Giuffre [the victim who testified] was 17 at the time, this makes it __rape__ [sic] in the virgin islands” .
Again, this mailing list has undergraduate students on it. It is likely some of them are “18 years old or 17”.
I was shocked. I continued talking to my friend, a female graduate student in CSAIL, about everything, trying to get the full email thread (I wasn’t on the mailing list). I even started emailing reporters — local and national, news sites, newspapers, radio stations. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. During my 45-minute drive home, when I normally listen to podcasts or music, I just sat in complete silence.
The only reporter who responded quickly was one from WBUR, and they didn’t seem to be in a rush to publish this information. So, I told my friends that I would just write a story myself. I’d planned to do it after work today; instead, because I can’t possibly focus, I’m working on it now.
MIT does not deserve its women.
The world does not deserve them either. I thought back to every person who has ever asked me how to “fix” the gender problems in STEM, how to “get more girls” to join STEM programs. I thought about every time that someone has suggested “men are better at spacial thinking” and that “testosterone is linked to better performance in math”.
In my mind I look at all these people, a crowd that is gathered. And in my mind, I stand up and I scream at them. I would put my hands around their shoulders and shake sense into all of them, individually, if I had enough time and enough hands
The problems are so obvious.
There is nothing wrong with women. There is nothing wrong with girls in STEM. There are many women and many girls who, in spite of everything, love STEM-related disciplines. Some of them even go through 4-year bachelors degrees at MIT, maybe even 7 years of a PhD, and then begin questioning whether they should continue in these fields, because they are filled to the brim with so, so many shitty men.
Jeffrey Epstein. Marvin Minsky.
Richard Stallman.
Travis Kalanick. James Damore. The laundry list of men in tech and academia who have continued this pattern of harassment, misogyny, and discrimination.
Richard Stallman was known to be problematic long before this. This is the door to his office:
[..]
#4
What happened to just disagreeing with people? When did we start ruining lives because of it?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
09/13/2019 10:40 Comments ||
Top||
#5
When did we start ruining lives because of it?
See: Richard Jewell
See: Ray Donovan
See: Lots of people who rubbed the Clintons the wrong way.
See: Lots of people who rubbed the Obamas the wrong way.
See: Anyone the media can use to get at someone they are after.
This is not a new phenomenon...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/13/2019 11:24 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Remove Stallman because he failed to parrot the approved opinion? That's f*&ked up.
By the way babe, IMHO, if this unknown girl actually shagged Marvin Minsky, she contributed to the field of cybernetics and robotics more than a hundred affirmative action "engineers" like you.
p.s. I know not all like that. Some are pretty good. But I do recognize a jackal by its footprints.
Near certain? Pakistan is spinning backwards awfully hard in the hope that someone actually believes them.
[DAWN] JUST days before the 9/11 anniversary, when more than anyone else Afghans pinned their hopes on a near-certain peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban ...Arabic for students... to bring the longest war in the US history to an end, President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... ’s irascible temperament came in the way.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/13/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Killing US troops is not how you get America to the table. The Taliban do not want peace, they want the US to surrender, and Trump will not. I do believe its time to send a few days of B52's to darken the skies and scorch the earth. I think they will get the point then.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/13/2019 12:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Don't care how long the war has been. Don't really care how much it cost. I do care about US military forces getting injured or killed.
All of that equals peace on our terms or Rolling Thunder, I don't particularly care which and I'm happy to let the Taliban decide.
#4
Careful! Our Agitprop Macro Commie Symp Herb will call you a NeoCon Warmonger for not surrendering unilaterally with a tail-between-the-legs retreat
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/13/2019 13:46 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I am willing to let the Taliban decide. So in my opinion they would be the warmongers...
#6
To really hurt the taliban, you'll have to engage in war with the 'Stain. Really engage. They just won't sit idle for a day those bastards, even if the FATF denies them any more aid. They'll cannibalize their infrastructure to support the turbans if need be.
Pakistan desires to posture as the peacemaker while actually plotting the wastage of another $trillion by the US on this. They are committed to the taliban surviving (not ruling, mind you). Their earlier regimes wanted the taliban to remain in the region, as disparate war-groups, a chaos in motion. They were muscle for the internecine rivalries in the tribal areas and a source of moolah from the drug trade. The latest regime was advised by the chinks to tread cautiously, forego the quickie and invest for the long game. I don't know what china hopes to gain and how, or where it stands on this. The talk in Delhi is that China, like Pakistain just wants the US to waste their money, but I find that too simplistic an assessment.
The current regime in Pakistain views the taliban as the legitimate pashtun representation, although they stop short at talk of an emirate. A section of Pak intelligence and militant mullahs also suggest a centralized taliban directorate in Afghanistan, with a weakened prop democracy like Pak's. An islamic alliance and an eastern mujaheddin force for the subcontinent.
Taliban recruits and trainers currently populate much of the tribal outlying areas on the durand line, robbing and raping the locals at whim. There's trade in local tribal children with regular bazaars and bids. Tribal resentment and rebellions like the PTM raised by local pashtuns against sasquatch militarization of their regions are actively targeted by the Pak army as anti-nationalism.
In any decisive war against taliban, if you don't hit Pakistain, they will keep regrouping and coming back. When the IS-Khorasan wanted to hit the taliban to make their statement, they know exactly where to hit. They hit Pakistain.
#8
Put some Pakistani politicians on the drone list and they'll come around. So far they've been immune to any punishment for their actions. I'm comfortable with changing that. I'll let Taliban decide but since Pakistan often gives marching orders to Taliban...)
[Breitbart] Do you hear that sound ‐ so quiet it’s almost deafening? That’s the sound of 17.4 million fucks not being given about the Remoaners’ latest fake news scare story, codenamed Yellowhammer.
Actually, I think it’s highly likely that I have underestimated the sheer scale of fucks not being given.
We know that at the very least 17.4 million people don’t give a toss what these released documents say. But that figure fails to take into account all the millions more who either didn’t turn up to vote Brexit because they thought ‐ not unreasonably ‐ that the Establishment would contrive to ignore their decision. Nor the millions who voted Remain but have since changed their minds having realised just how disgusting the Remoaner Liberal Elite actually are and just how vile and vindictive the anti-democratic European Union is.
Yellowhammer ‐ for what it’s worth ‐ is the code name for some worst-case-scenario documents, prepared by the Remainer Civil Service, as an exercise to wargame a No Deal Brexit.
John Bercow’s Remainer parliament, in its death throes, has contrived to force them to be released publicly so that everyone can tremble at the dire consequences ‐ delays at ports, possible shortages of vital foodstuffs that Remainers like to eat such as quinoa and chia seeds, more angry videos from Femi Sorry ‐ of a No Deal Brexit.
But the only people who take this theoretical nonsense seriously are Remoaners. It’s their latest version of Project Fear, that’s all.
And since Remoaners don’t count that means that literally no one cares about Yellowhammer.
I’m amazed I even bothered to write about it.
Sorry about that. Here’s a picture of a real Yellowhammer to make up for it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/13/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Yellowhammer is a list of contingencies expected by the cabinet, that everyone from Law enforcement to health and communications were asked to be prepped for by the secretariat. Some remainers and critics say it was made public to normalize the fact of a UK divorced and isolated from the EU.
Something like the list EC shared with us. Although that listed purely corporate-bureaucratic inconveniences.
#8
Well it's lying in a desk somewhere here (I gave you a very shortened version).
I guess Trump would say: "We'll see what happens."
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/13/2019 18:13 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Well they prepared for Dorian in Florida, didn't they? And rightfully so.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/13/2019 18:16 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Oh, I've never doubted what you said would come to pass. All the trouble that's in store for Britain after brexit. It's true. Maybe not sackcloth and ashes, but they'll just barely avoid it.
I have great faith in the incalculable, see. Providence, the power of human will, the momentum of life itself. Order and progress shall find a way, eventually. But if the will of the inhabitants of the land is overridden, no convenience is worth it.
[DAWN] THERE have been many ineffective campaigns against deaths in police custody in the past, and we should like to hope that the present public outrage will lead to some concrete steps to rid the country’s criminal justice system of one of its major flaws.
The signs, though, are not very promising. A man’s death in jug was attributed to a heart attack and a woman’s to haemorrhage. Death caused by fear of torture cannot be accepted as natural. A police comment on Salahuddin’s death by torture was that he was making big money, ie torturing him was justified. Now the use of smartphones at cop shoppes has been banned across Punjab; this will not end torture in jug. In fact, people will be deprived of a source of information about police excesses. Obviously, coppers, at least many of them, are surprised at the outcry over a routine practice that has always been known to the top police echelons and the government ‐ in fact, has often been encouraged by both.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Arabic for 
[DAWN] THERE have been many ineffective campaigns against deaths in police custody in the past, and we should like to hope that the present public outrage will lead to some concrete steps to rid the country’s criminal justice system of one of its major flaws.
