George Carlin on religious people on abortion and homosexuals:
Explanation: Alan Turing was a mathematician and computer scientist whose revolutionary work during WW2 helped the British shorten the war considerably by breaking (and thus having access to) Nazi coded messages.
A little over half a decade after the war, a chance break-in at his house led to him accidentally incriminating himself - by admitting to the presence of his boyfriend. This being the 1950s UK, the courts gave him a choice for the horrific crime of homosexuality - chemical castration, or several months in prison. Turing considered that he would not last in prison, and opted for the chemical treatment. Some time later, he bit into an apple laced with cyanide and died, which many consider to be an act of suicide (though it is still disputed, some believe it was genuinely an accident).
Wait a second, Alan Turing was a queer icon? I had no idea.
I cannot fathom how anyone can allow people to be punished for loving who they love, in a consenting relationship between two adults. What a terrible and tragic story. Fuck anyone who wants to punish people for doing something that doesn’t hurt anyone; for doing something that in fact is literally the direct opposite of hurting anyone. Like, fuck them to the core, and not in any nice way.
Wait a second, Alan Turing was a queer icon?
Yeah. He’s a queer icon, and a god among humans to computer science fans.
It breaks my heart that he didn’t get to see the current era of queer federated computing. If there’s any kind of after-life, Alan has got to be rooting for the Fediverse.
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It wasn’t just the British system it was just the culture at the time for everywhere. The United States was far further behind the times at that point in time Britain.
Segregation was still a thing in the 1940s to the point at which American soldiers coming to the UK had to have lessons in how not to be racist. Gay rights weren’t even on anyone’s radar back then.
Turing aside, the world simply treated gay people horribly altogether.
Gay men were victims of the holocaust much like many other groups but Germany wouldn’t recognize this until 4 decades later in the 1980s. We know what the British did to Turing but the U.S. acted similarly due to the Lavender Scare which compared gay people to communists and enacted its own witch hunts for them.
Can we stop the false notion that he did it on his own? It’s just not true. Not even close.
Arne Beurling however DID single-handedly Crack a T52 in 2 weeks with nothing but pen and paper.
without alan turing the modern era would not be the way it is. In the same way that without tesla the modern electrical grid simply would not be the same as it is today.
These people didn’t do it alone, nobody does it alone, but without these people things would be substantially different. It’s a steve jobs type influence.
I was with you till you said Steve Jobs. Jobs was only good at abusing his employees and marketing.
it was forced “chemical castration” or something right? I don’t recall any medical procedures being performed on him, but yeah it’s still fucking horrid.
Classic british experience really.
How is chemical castration not a medical procedure?
They probably meant surgical procedure.
