I don't know him personally, so if he got quieter or lied (he actually has a statement on his website that, according to you is a lie) about his views, I would not know. Look, I see more than plenty of reasons for one not to like him. I feel people run with media reports even when we have his email transcripts that can be read word for word.

Minsky never raped anyone. The 17 year old girl was sent to him and politely refused. She has even confirmed this. I feel as if he goes to great lengths to speak clearly and people never seem to listen.

I do agree, however, his early views on pedophilia are creepy. I have never heard him support cp, so I won't argue either way.

I wish people would read the published mail thread and not the news articles...he never defended rapists. His quote was quite different. Also, the victim, insofar as her interaction with his old boss, confirmed what happened.

he has never endorsed cp! He has, however, supported any one over the age of 14 having sex, and has changed his view on that a decade ago.

agreed, if by west, we mean governments. Just as anywhere people are more than that.

The US can be worse than Russia...but that doesn't make Russia good.

late to the game... but you got upvoted(Im shocked)! Simply put...the US and Russia can oppose each other and still both be bad!!!!!

I agree. I know, this reply took a while. I was excited to join lemmy, as although I am not a believer in pure "communism", i do lean progressively left. And I enjoyed it here for a long time...when the Russia/Ukraine war broke out...I got discouraged with all this pro-Putin posts...and it was obvious, if I tried to voice an opinion (like current Russia is absolutely not communist, but in fact the opposite end of spectrum), i would get bad mouthed and down voted to oblivion! Now....I understand the distaste to the West and especially the Us (i live in a US territory (PR), I understand the US behaves badly...on a very personal level even!) But that doesn't mean every foe of the US is automatically good! Two opposing people can be both bad at the same time. Sigh...

I don't vilify Russia as it is much more than its government. I do vilify its government and Putin - in general and especially as a gay man. I also have a strong distaste for any far right ideology. I don't understand why people seem to defend Putin so much.