Sorry, I'm not a 20 something saying wow 70 is a long time, I'm closer to 50 than 40 so I can almost see 70. I was trying to provide some perspective on 70 not being old. It should still be a very productive time in peoples lives, and it's still way too young to die.

Alan Turing would be 99 if he were alive today.

And he would have been if social conservatives hadn't destroyed him.

god damn I fucking hate them.

Turing's destruction is more complicated than just prosecution by conservatives. He had access to extremely secure information over a period of years, this is what drew attention to his homosexuality.

When someone gets a security clearance, what do you think is looked for? Not many spies or people who eventually divulge information to an enemy country have explicit ties, eg. they aren't a member of a communist party. What is investigated are characteristics that would make a person likely to be influenced: debts, addictions, gambling problems or, as in Turing's case, some sort of socially unaccepted lifestyle.

Around the time of Turing's conviction, several other homosexuals had been convinced by the soviets to become double agents, eg. Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess. Turing also made regular trips to the continent to pursue sexual relationships. This is what inspired the indecency charges. That's my understanding at least.

Please understand, what happened to Turing was terrible. No one deserves that fate. I really do wish he could have escaped somehow. That said I don't think the situation was as simple as social conservatives destroying people.

The reason they could blackmail those people was that those in charge had made homosexuality illegal. None these defections had to happen and nobody seems to think Turing was embaressed about his homosexuality, so if it is not illegal what would there be to blackmail him about?

And what happened wasn't terrible. Losing your best friend to cancer is terrible. Accidents are terrible. This was entirely done by monsters (they may be of the species homo sapiens but they aren't human) and it was a monstrous crime.

Edit: sorry, that is the last time I will write hn comments from my phone

> done by monsters

If you believe that every despicable act in that past was done by monsters then you will waste your time looking for monsters. Instead you should be looking for human beings, who always have justifications, they are the ones who will be doing the despicable acts of the future.

You absolute ignorance of the events you are ranting about does everyone a disservice.

He probably would have lived longer, but living to 99 is pretty rare.