This is one of those threads where you may discover people you haven't seen for a zillion years are on Hacker News. And though I never knew him well, he was nice to me on the occasions I had to interact with him, though you know, there's also a kind of unapologetic misogynistic arrogance in his musical catalogue (umm, Rapeman?) that his legacy will need to contend with.
Sigh. I think it’s possible to look at public figures and both see how they are praiseworthy, perhaps corrected errors, and still had impacts with their “mistakes.” I always hope that on HN there’s room for nuance, not just like sarcastic comments implying that a critique was one-dimensional and ill intentioned.
He’s been fairly open and public recently about his relationship with “edgy” art, his feeling that it didn’t destroy any hidden hypocrisy, and regret for it’s legacy of a coarser society.
I don’t mean to express any apologies he didn’t make, but I’ve appreciated his public thoughtfulness about it.
Rapeman was a completely ironic and funny name because the band was these scrawny, autistic, nerdy dudes that were the antithesis of rapey culture, at least superficially. And he did regret it for a variety of reasons which I believe he was bullied into but w/e as it wasn’t that important.
