3 ms·

>The system that jails Ross but lets very wealthy pharmacy company owners off with thousands of confirmed deaths, people who produced, marketed, and sold simila

>The system that jails Ross but lets very wealthy pharmacy company owners off with thousands of confirmed deaths, people who produced, marketed, and sold similar and sometimes identical drugs exclusively for profit are punished with a fine. Yep, because pharma companies all respect the monopoly of the state. The state can ban any molecule they please and pharma companies will comply. The state could not do anything whatsoever to silkroad so it unleashed its full wrath on a website administrator.

throwaway654329 4y ago
I understand the why - the state felt challenged - ultimately when the state is the supposed victim, the crime is inherently political. It’s nice to see someone in this thread acknowledge the political nature of his situation and thus his status; elsewhere in the discussion there is some pushback. My primary point is that the Sackler’s company actions have a body count that is sky high, and they will walk with a monetary fine. This is because they accept the primacy of the state, and the victims are not as important and it may be dealt with as a financial compensation issue. That result is as much about the primacy of the state as it is about the standing of the Sackler’s in American high society. In other words it looks like two justice systems: one for the rich, and one for the proles. In Ulbricht’s case, the hypothetical dead in the murder for hire allegation are known to not exist - the state admits to fabricating all of it. Well not all of it, they claim he was aware, and that he believed their lies. I wouldn’t be surprised if that part was a lie too, since they are admitted liars to achieve their stated goals.
- pawsforthought 4y ago
  Who even are the victims in the Ulbricht case?
  - throwaway654329 4y ago
    “The people” - of course. So you and me! Everyone we know! Society! But really: The state who has to expend resources (gotta pay for the officers time), the courts (he is costing them time by asking for a trial!), the prosecution (they probably had to work hard to hide the real sources of intelligence so it could be laundered into a court), the people who bought bad drugs through the market (in theory, I don’t think he was charged with anything specific like this), Ross’s family and friends (isn’t it really their fault for raising him so badly? Nope; but hard to miss an opportunity to victim blame), a lot of Tor relay operators DDoS’es by the Eff-Bee-eye to do intersection and circuit collapsing attacks (yes; they do this and more), almost certainly some NSA XKeyscore specialists were consulted (talk to some of them about it!), the DEA agents who defend our way of life (including the ones that went to prison for corruption in this very case: look it up, it’s amazing!), the secret service (again the ones who went to prison for corruption in this very case!), people who had to sit through the trial and lost faith in their entire country’s justice system (this isn’t most of hacker news which is very “law and order” which means cops can break the rules if the ends justify the means) and of course the children (no specific children, don’t ask so many questions). Never forget. Ahem, I mean, think of the children. Meanwhile Ross is probably having his ass beaten or sexually assaulted in prison right now for refusing to join a white power group to save himself as a matter of principe. But don’t worry, this is fine because he did it to himself and think of the victims. The poor state, if they hadn’t gotten him, they might have lost the drug war. Good thing they racked up this political win! There’s a war on drugs my friend, and to paraphrase bill hicks: every time you’re high, you’re winning it!
  - pennaMan 4y ago
    the monopoly of the state is the victim
- pennaMan 4y ago
  >company actions have a body count that is sky high This is not about victims in the population AT ALL. The state could care less about people beeing murdered if it dosen't affect it's power over said people. It was always just about the state's totalitarian power over trading and Ross' complete subjucation of that power.

throwaway654329 4y ago

I understand the why - the state felt challenged - ultimately when the state is the supposed victim, the crime is inherently political. It’s nice to see someone in this thread acknowledge the political nature of his situation and thus his status; elsewhere in the discussion there is some pushback. My primary point is that the Sackler’s company actions have a body count that is sky high, and they will walk with a monetary fine. This is because they accept the primacy of the state, and the victims are not as important and it may be dealt with as a financial compensation issue. That result is as much about the primacy of the state as it is about the standing of the Sackler’s in American high society. In other words it looks like two justice systems: one for the rich, and one for the proles. In Ulbricht’s case, the hypothetical dead in the murder for hire allegation are known to not exist - the state admits to fabricating all of it. Well not all of it, they claim he was aware, and that he believed their lies. I wouldn’t be surprised if that part was a lie too, since they are admitted liars to achieve their stated goals.

pawsforthought 4y ago
Who even are the victims in the Ulbricht case?
- throwaway654329 4y ago
  “The people” - of course. So you and me! Everyone we know! Society! But really: The state who has to expend resources (gotta pay for the officers time), the courts (he is costing them time by asking for a trial!), the prosecution (they probably had to work hard to hide the real sources of intelligence so it could be laundered into a court), the people who bought bad drugs through the market (in theory, I don’t think he was charged with anything specific like this), Ross’s family and friends (isn’t it really their fault for raising him so badly? Nope; but hard to miss an opportunity to victim blame), a lot of Tor relay operators DDoS’es by the Eff-Bee-eye to do intersection and circuit collapsing attacks (yes; they do this and more), almost certainly some NSA XKeyscore specialists were consulted (talk to some of them about it!), the DEA agents who defend our way of life (including the ones that went to prison for corruption in this very case: look it up, it’s amazing!), the secret service (again the ones who went to prison for corruption in this very case!), people who had to sit through the trial and lost faith in their entire country’s justice system (this isn’t most of hacker news which is very “law and order” which means cops can break the rules if the ends justify the means) and of course the children (no specific children, don’t ask so many questions). Never forget. Ahem, I mean, think of the children. Meanwhile Ross is probably having his ass beaten or sexually assaulted in prison right now for refusing to join a white power group to save himself as a matter of principe. But don’t worry, this is fine because he did it to himself and think of the victims. The poor state, if they hadn’t gotten him, they might have lost the drug war. Good thing they racked up this political win! There’s a war on drugs my friend, and to paraphrase bill hicks: every time you’re high, you’re winning it!
- pennaMan 4y ago
  the monopoly of the state is the victim
pennaMan 4y ago
>company actions have a body count that is sky high This is not about victims in the population AT ALL. The state could care less about people beeing murdered if it dosen't affect it's power over said people. It was always just about the state's totalitarian power over trading and Ross' complete subjucation of that power.