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[-] Gramba@kbin.social 198 points 11 months ago

Also Swartz had a section of his homepage defending child pornography as "not necessarily abuse" and that possession & distribution of it should be a first amendment right. He also advocated for a violent overthrow of the US government. Here's a cache of one instance of him defending it. Aaron did some really great tech stuff, but he's not a person that should be regarded as some hero as he had a lot of views that were misguided at best.

[-] HeavenAndHell@lemmy.world 76 points 11 months ago

In the US, it is illegal to possess or distribute child pornography, apparently because doing so will encourage people to sexually abuse children.

This is absurd logic. Child pornography is not necessarily abuse. Even if it was, preventing the distribution or posession of the evidence won't make the abuse go away. We don't arrest everyone with videotapes of murders, or make it illegal for TV stations to show people being killed.

I don't know if that's the reason CP is actually banned, but his logic is even worse and dumber by a mile.

[-] Syrc@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

I mean, the article linked in that page (albeit horribly long due to useless info) does raise a point against current laws on viewing illegal material.

But sharing it? Yeah that’s a bit of a stretch. Thinking that isn’t going to lead to more actual children being exploited is extremely naive.

[-] Wollff@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

Thinking that isn’t going to lead to more actual children being exploited is extremely naive.

That particular argument doesn't hold water. We don't generally subscribe to this kind of argument.

The general principle behind the specific argument you bring up here is this: All expression which is likely to inspire someone toward illegal action should itself be illegal.

CP is likely to inspire some people toward child abuse. Child abuse is illegal. Thus the distribution of CP should be illegal.

We don't do this anywhere else.

Descriptions of non consesnual violence are likely to inspire some people toward non consensual violence. Non consensual violence is illegal. Thus the distribution of all descriptions of non consensual violence should be illegal.

If we take this seriously, we have to ban action movies. And I am not even getting into the whole porn debate...

No, the only valid reason for banning the distribution of child porn which I can think of, lies in the rights of the victims. The victims were abused, and their image was used without their consent. Without them even possibly being able to give consent to any of that, or the distribution that follows.

So anyone who shares child porn, is guaranteed to share a piece of media which shows someone being subjected to a crime, while they couldn't possibly give consent for that to be recorded, or shared publicly. Making it illegal to share someone being a victim of a crime, without them being able to consent to that being shared, is a reasoning which has far fewer problems than what you propose here.

[-] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You raise a few valid points, but the problem with the action film thing is that it is fiction, and thus protected by free speech rights.

That's actually the main argument against lolicon being illegal: depictions of other crimes, including heinous ones like murder and rape, are not illegal.

Ultimately it comes down to inconsistency in the law, and sensationalism makes it very difficult to discuss rationally.

[-] Yendor@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

That particular argument doesn't hold water. We don't generally subscribe to this kind of argument.

The general principle behind the specific argument you bring up here is this: All expression which is likely to inspire someone toward illegal action should itself be illegal.

CP is likely to inspire some people toward child abuse. Child abuse is illegal. Thus the distribution of CP should be illegal.

We don't do this anywhere else.

Yes we do. Plenty of stuff is banned by federal law. Snuff films, for the same reason as CP/CSAM. Obscene pornography (stuff showing abuse or degradation, even if it’s just acting) isn’t illegal to posses, but it is illegal to buy, distribute or carry across state lines. Ivory is illegal, unless you have a certificate proving it is from pre-1989. These are all banned to stop demand.

And that’s not even getting started Americas long history of banning books.

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[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Child pornography is not necessarily abuse.

What the fuck. How is this guy a CEO and not publicly shunned?

Edit: My bad, I thought that was text posted by Spez.

[-] SmarfDurden@lemmy.world 34 points 11 months ago
[-] flatplutosociety@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

This is a quote from Aaron Swartz, a guy who (kinda sorta) co-founded Reddit, not the current CEO. Swartz has been dead for ten years and never had any leadership position with Reddit.

[-] superschurke@feddit.de 9 points 11 months ago

He's dead. That's why

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[-] CaptainEffort@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Yes, that’s why CP is banned. It being distributed and sold encourages the further making of it, thus leading to more instances of children being abused.

[-] elkaki@lemmy.dbzer0.com 51 points 11 months ago

I sure love it when people use a single opinion to smear a person's entire legacy, he was great not only for the tech stuff but his stance on scientific articles piracy and a lot of other stuff too.

I won't say that that his opinion on cp is a great one (there is no doubt at least for me that distribution should always be illegal), but he wrote it as a 16 years old and it was guided due to his extremism for free speech over the internet, regardless, it's not like he himself was an evil person distributing child pornography, to paint him as an overall shitty person for an opinion like this seems idiotic imo

This is q bit personal and maybe slightly unrelated, but it reminds me of when people defend non-offending pedos (as in they are attracted to children because yhey are born that way but have not offended, nor groomed, nor harmed a child) saying the stigma should be erased because that would allow us to actually help this people who constantly hide it, therefore reducing the harm to children. This position has unironically got me called a pedophile and a lot of horrible stuff over the internet, and I would draw parallels to this situation, no matter how you slice it this opinion should not be used singlehandedly to state he is someone that shouldn't be respected. Especially since he is not defending the harm itself being done to children (as in the production of CP) which would still be a crime under his view. (Although distribution of course grows the market so it's idiotic not to go after that too), but as I said, it's a bad opinion but that doesn't make him a bad person.

[-] Gramba@kbin.social 27 points 11 months ago

I'm not saying Aaron was 100% bad, my point is that I don't really think he's some modern-day hero either. And I've already replied to someone that dismissed the his child porn views as a forgotten childhood comment. It wasn't merely a poorly thought out comment he made at 16 and forgot about, he maintained and edited that page until his death, even restoring it after a server crash deleted it.

If you want to celebrate his tech contributions or his views on scientific piracy I'm all for it. I just don't agree with this view of him getting spread that he's some hero co-founder of Reddit that is being unfairly erased from history when that's inaccurate at best. He's just a dude that did some great things, had some great views, had some really really shit views, and never gave a shit about reddit.

[-] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 11 months ago

That website has been the same since it’s first archive on 2002-12-17. Aaron Swartz had just turned 16 a month earlier. I know I had some seriously immature opinions at that age. As well, that website was still up as of this January, a decade since his passing. http://www.aaronsw.com/ is also still up, and it doesn’t look like it was updated since 2002 either. Neither is any of this referenced on his wikipedia page, nor on it’s talk page. This feels like such a reach…

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[-] theodewere@kbin.social 27 points 11 months ago

i heard that Ohanian and Huffman have people out there trying to suggest that he was a pedo or some shit, what about that

[-] Gramba@kbin.social 58 points 11 months ago

I'd say you can read Aaron's own defense of child porn on his website and draw your own conclusions. If you're trying to suggest that I'm somehow defending Ohanian and Huffman, far from it. I can think Swartz shouldn't be considered a modern folk hero and still not like the other two.

Huffman was a mod for the jailbait subreddit.

Here's an interview with Ohanian after CNN reported on the jailbait subreddit which caused Reddit to close it down. Alexis blames CNN for "making up jibber jabber" and the children who allowed images of their abuse to be posted online.

This type of view was apparently support by all the original Reddit folks, just because Swartz has a better reputation now doesn't mean he didn't also share those views.

[-] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

He was 16 years old when he posted this. The statement is disgusting and not really defensable by itself, but I wonder if this was a dumb naive teenage take, or if he still thought this way up until he died.

I also don't know if he was actually a pedophile, or if he just thought freedom of information on the web should be taken to the extreme. I would lean towards the latter since he seemed to have a relationship with an older woman at some point, but I don't think I will ever truly know for sure.

[-] Gramba@kbin.social 13 points 11 months ago

That archive date I linked is from shortly after his death. If you go through the various archive dates you can see that he made changes to the page over the years. He added the bit about wanting a violent overthrow of the government when he was 18 or 19. In 2007 when he would have been 21, the archive just shows a note that he had a server crash and the site is gone but you can email him if you want a copy of it. By the time he was 22 he'd put the site back online. He made more edits visible through the following years until his death. So yeah we don't know his thoughts but we do he continued to maintain that page, even choosing to restore it after a server crash, until the point he killed himself. It's not as though it's an online post he made as a kid and forgot about.

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[-] theodewere@kbin.social 20 points 11 months ago

i really don't give half a shit about any of them, they have their heads so far up their asses

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 16 points 11 months ago

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[-] Bak@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

I thought the mod thing was because you used to be able to be modded for a subreddit without your approval

[-] zer0@thelemmy.club 9 points 11 months ago

These two run a rigged company plagued with censorship that over the years collaborated with all sort of scum including the chinese government. I really wouldn't trust what they have to say

[-] genoxidedev1@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago

What. The actual. Fuck. This guy is comparing peas to pies.

Imagine wanting to legalize that shit because "We don't arrest everyone with videotapes of murders, or make it illegal for TV stations to show people being killed.". Can't he imagine what would happen if we legalized that shit?

I think someone needs to get their hard drives examined.

[-] Action_Bastid@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago

I mean, he's dead, so bit late for that.

[-] Gramba@kbin.social 19 points 11 months ago

The feds did come after him for other computer crimes (unrelated to those views) and he hung himself and investigation into him stopped at that point.

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[-] binarybomb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 11 months ago
[-] zer0@thelemmy.club 7 points 11 months ago

He also advocated for a violent overthrow of the US government.

Half of the US goverment are pedos, under your own logic he advocated for something good.

he’s not a person that should be regarded as some hero

With the amount of scum and corruption around these days any public figure not afraid to share their own thoughts should indeed be regarded as an hero

[-] Gramba@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

Isn't that a bit of a conflict to think violence against the government is good because there are pedos in the government and also that Aaron should be a hero for not being afraid to share his thoughts of defending pedos?

[-] zer0@thelemmy.club 6 points 11 months ago

He's not defending pedophiles he's making a point against the law you stupid idiot. The guy was arrested and faced life imprisonment over something that shouldn't have been a crime to begin with

[-] Gramba@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago

Child pornography is not necessarily abuse.

What point was he trying to make here?

[-] zer0@thelemmy.club 6 points 11 months ago

read the rest of the page and you will find out

[-] entropicshart@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

FYI your link is broken and is just leading to the archive home page

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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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