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From https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-denied-bail-in-bahamas-on-ftx-fraud-charges-judge-cites-flight-risk.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/

From https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-denied-bail-in-bahamas-on-ftx-fraud-charges-judge-cites-flight-risk.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-denied-bai... : “Bankman-Fried's parents were animated during the proceeding, at times laughing or putting their fingers in their ears, according to Coindesk.” … what in the world.. I guess they really think they are going to somehow get him out of this.. how do they not understand that this type of behavior is not in any way helpful to him?

brewdad 4y ago
Maybe they already got their millions secured away in some untouchable country and don't really care what happens at this point.
- tasuki 4y ago
  They were already quite well off, now their son is in trouble. "My son is going to prison but I have secured my millions so it's fine" is generally not a thing.
  - LudwigNagasena 4y ago
    Maybe he never was their favorite son anyway.
    - bambax 4y ago
      Oh I think it's the opposite. I think they thought of him as the second coming of Jesus himself, and he felt he had to do extraordinary things to live up to that image (which of course is impossible). I think he secretly hated it and that's why he trashed his own hypocrisy in some interviews, saying that the charity talks were all an act and not true. And I also think that's a big part of his "I'm stupid / I fucked up" line of defense. Yes, he may think it helps his case (but is he actually that naïve?) But the main goal is to tell his parents "see, the genius you thought I was is actually a complete idiot, what do you make of that?!?" I think he's happy to suffer if that makes his parents suffer more. (Of course that's all speculation and pop' psychology and as such isn't worth the electrons it's typed in; but it's a possibility.)
  - syzarian 4y ago
    I think that it is a thing for a shockingly large percent of parents. Historically children were the retirement plan (in addition to labor for the family). That type of thinking is fairly common.
    - KMag 4y ago
      But aren't his parents pretty successful lawyers who are pretty well of on their own? There are usual family pathologies and unusual family pathologies, and this looks like the latter.
      - syzarian 4y ago
        I’ll rephrase. There are too many parents who don’t care about their kids or what happens to them. This tendency goes up a bit, I think, if the kids are not necessary for retirement or care when old age sets in.
    - anonporridge 4y ago
      > Historically children were the retirement plan They still are. It's just that the retirement plan has been socialized to the level of the nation state. The labor of the young takes care of the old. This is literally true in the case of social security which is funded by taxing current productive labor. This isn't necessarily bad, because it's the way it's always been. But it is something like a multi-generational ponzi scheme. It can work for a very long time, but eventually, the last generation is left holding the bag with no one to pass it onto.
      - csomar 4y ago
        > This isn't necessarily bad, because it's the way it's always been. I'm not sure this sentence make any sense. The same could be said about slavery. Is slavery not necessarily bad because it's the way it's always been?
        anonporridge 4y ago
        You're right, that sentence is bad. Maybe I should have said it isn't obviously bad or some new, modern evil that we just invented. It's how human social groups that take care of their non productive elderly have always operated.
  - time_to_smile 4y ago
    I'm glad you have great parents, but I think you vastly underestimate how much many parents do not care about their children, and will sacrifice them for their own well being. Most caring parents would aggressively caution their children from heading down the path SBF went, especially if they're smart, educated parents. There are no "boy geniuses" out there like many lead SBF to believe he was, people from prestigious backgrounds know this better than anyone. There are some really smart people out there, but anyone being propped up the way SBF was is being setup. I don't have any sympathy for SBF, but a lot people whose names we'll never know where more than happy to set him up to think he was himself an unstoppable genius because that helped them sell a product and they know that it will also help focus all the blame.
    - sn41 4y ago
      His parents are Stanford law professors, so they are smart and educated. But doesn't mean that their child has to listen to them or to behave in an ethical manner.
      - SoftTalker 4y ago
        That's the thing. You can do everything you can to educate your children and teach them right from wrong, but at some point they are free-thinking adults. Of course you would be distressed if they end up taking the wrong path, but underlying that you would know that you did your best and it's not your fault.
  - optimalsolver 4y ago
    You'd be surprised.
  - smeej 4y ago
    The number of self-absorbed parents who care about their children only as accessories to their own lives, to be embraced when useful and ignored when inconvenient, is staggering.
lr4444lr 4y ago
They watched their own flesh and blood son transition with breakneck speed from a high rolling billionaire who hobnobbed with society's elites to facing spending the best years of his life in prison, a disgrace to his family and their legacy. How do you think you'd cope with that psychological ordeal?
- indigodaddy 4y ago
  Sure as hell wouldn’t laugh and put my fingers in my ears during a hearing. They are professional lawyers. Time to man up and not put your son at even more risk. Who knows how involved they’ve been in his shenanigans up til now, but it’s time to stop the madness..
  - mattnewton 4y ago
    This reads like a stress response to me. I don’t think realizing your child is probably going to live behind bars for the rest of your life and your family will never recover is something you “man up” through.
    - chip-8 4y ago
      I agree. People act weird under extreme stress. Once when I arrived at work my boss was grinning. I asked him what was going on and he told me my co-worker tried to kill my supervisor. I laughed. Other co-workers were laughing and grinning too.
      - cutemonster 4y ago
        What happened with the co-worker? (Prison?)
  - 0xB31B1B 4y ago
    Academic lawyers (his parents) are nothing like trial lawyers. Don’t expect them to have a good poker face.
- H8crilA 4y ago
foota 4y ago
Maybe this is a case of the apple and the tree?
Aunche 4y ago
This is mainstream media being sensationalist per usual. This is what the original Coindesk article wrote. "They appeared to oscillate between dejection and defiance, at times holding their heads in their hands and clasping their hands. Bankman-Fried’s mother audibly laughed several times when her son was referred to as a “fugitive” and his father occasionally put his fingers in his ears as if to drown out the sound of the proceedings." It definitely sounds more like a stress response.
- anonporridge 4y ago
  Lol. When Coindesk is bringing more nuanced news reporting than CNBC, you know things are whack.
  - catominor 4y ago
    things be whack
  - humanizersequel 4y ago
    I wasn't acquainted with them until roughly 6 months ago, but from what I've seen Coindesk has actually been an excellent publication.
    - dopidopHN 4y ago
      Media arm of digital currency group. Fine people, but just as a disclaimer.
  - ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
    They both make money by selling ad space and attracting eyeballs to that space, but the audience of Coindesk is going to be much more interested in the financial details, whereas the more general audience of CNBC is going to be less interested in getting the details of the story right, and more likely to read a story that is lightly sensationalized.
    - 4y ago
asveikau 4y ago
I think being faced with this or having your kids faced with this probably elicits all kinds of stress responses and coping mechanisms. I could totally see myself engaging in nervous laughter if one of my kids fucks up this badly. I could also see twisting my worldview to make my kids innocent in my own mind, as a form of denial, unconditional love for the kids, etc. From press reports it seems possible those parents did a poor job raising him, that the apple didn't fall far from the tree, but I think also we shouldn't rush to judgement or draw conclusions where another explanation might suffice.
Aleksdev 4y ago
They must live in ivory towers and don’t understand exactly how bad this is..

brewdad 4y ago

Maybe they already got their millions secured away in some untouchable country and don't really care what happens at this point.

tasuki 4y ago
They were already quite well off, now their son is in trouble. "My son is going to prison but I have secured my millions so it's fine" is generally not a thing.
- LudwigNagasena 4y ago
  Maybe he never was their favorite son anyway.
  - bambax 4y ago
    Oh I think it's the opposite. I think they thought of him as the second coming of Jesus himself, and he felt he had to do extraordinary things to live up to that image (which of course is impossible). I think he secretly hated it and that's why he trashed his own hypocrisy in some interviews, saying that the charity talks were all an act and not true. And I also think that's a big part of his "I'm stupid / I fucked up" line of defense. Yes, he may think it helps his case (but is he actually that naïve?) But the main goal is to tell his parents "see, the genius you thought I was is actually a complete idiot, what do you make of that?!?" I think he's happy to suffer if that makes his parents suffer more. (Of course that's all speculation and pop' psychology and as such isn't worth the electrons it's typed in; but it's a possibility.)
- syzarian 4y ago
  I think that it is a thing for a shockingly large percent of parents. Historically children were the retirement plan (in addition to labor for the family). That type of thinking is fairly common.
  - KMag 4y ago
    But aren't his parents pretty successful lawyers who are pretty well of on their own? There are usual family pathologies and unusual family pathologies, and this looks like the latter.
    - syzarian 4y ago
      I’ll rephrase. There are too many parents who don’t care about their kids or what happens to them. This tendency goes up a bit, I think, if the kids are not necessary for retirement or care when old age sets in.
  - anonporridge 4y ago
    > Historically children were the retirement plan They still are. It's just that the retirement plan has been socialized to the level of the nation state. The labor of the young takes care of the old. This is literally true in the case of social security which is funded by taxing current productive labor. This isn't necessarily bad, because it's the way it's always been. But it is something like a multi-generational ponzi scheme. It can work for a very long time, but eventually, the last generation is left holding the bag with no one to pass it onto.
    - csomar 4y ago
      > This isn't necessarily bad, because it's the way it's always been. I'm not sure this sentence make any sense. The same could be said about slavery. Is slavery not necessarily bad because it's the way it's always been?
      - anonporridge 4y ago
        You're right, that sentence is bad. Maybe I should have said it isn't obviously bad or some new, modern evil that we just invented. It's how human social groups that take care of their non productive elderly have always operated.
- time_to_smile 4y ago
  I'm glad you have great parents, but I think you vastly underestimate how much many parents do not care about their children, and will sacrifice them for their own well being. Most caring parents would aggressively caution their children from heading down the path SBF went, especially if they're smart, educated parents. There are no "boy geniuses" out there like many lead SBF to believe he was, people from prestigious backgrounds know this better than anyone. There are some really smart people out there, but anyone being propped up the way SBF was is being setup. I don't have any sympathy for SBF, but a lot people whose names we'll never know where more than happy to set him up to think he was himself an unstoppable genius because that helped them sell a product and they know that it will also help focus all the blame.
  - sn41 4y ago
    His parents are Stanford law professors, so they are smart and educated. But doesn't mean that their child has to listen to them or to behave in an ethical manner.
    - SoftTalker 4y ago
      That's the thing. You can do everything you can to educate your children and teach them right from wrong, but at some point they are free-thinking adults. Of course you would be distressed if they end up taking the wrong path, but underlying that you would know that you did your best and it's not your fault.
- optimalsolver 4y ago
  You'd be surprised.
- smeej 4y ago
  The number of self-absorbed parents who care about their children only as accessories to their own lives, to be embraced when useful and ignored when inconvenient, is staggering.

lr4444lr 4y ago

They watched their own flesh and blood son transition with breakneck speed from a high rolling billionaire who hobnobbed with society's elites to facing spending the best years of his life in prison, a disgrace to his family and their legacy. How do you think you'd cope with that psychological ordeal?

indigodaddy 4y ago
Sure as hell wouldn’t laugh and put my fingers in my ears during a hearing. They are professional lawyers. Time to man up and not put your son at even more risk. Who knows how involved they’ve been in his shenanigans up til now, but it’s time to stop the madness..
- mattnewton 4y ago
  This reads like a stress response to me. I don’t think realizing your child is probably going to live behind bars for the rest of your life and your family will never recover is something you “man up” through.
  - chip-8 4y ago
    I agree. People act weird under extreme stress. Once when I arrived at work my boss was grinning. I asked him what was going on and he told me my co-worker tried to kill my supervisor. I laughed. Other co-workers were laughing and grinning too.
    - cutemonster 4y ago
      What happened with the co-worker? (Prison?)
- 0xB31B1B 4y ago
  Academic lawyers (his parents) are nothing like trial lawyers. Don’t expect them to have a good poker face.
H8crilA 4y ago

foota 4y ago

Maybe this is a case of the apple and the tree?

Aunche 4y ago

This is mainstream media being sensationalist per usual. This is what the original Coindesk article wrote. "They appeared to oscillate between dejection and defiance, at times holding their heads in their hands and clasping their hands. Bankman-Fried’s mother audibly laughed several times when her son was referred to as a “fugitive” and his father occasionally put his fingers in his ears as if to drown out the sound of the proceedings." It definitely sounds more like a stress response.

anonporridge 4y ago
Lol. When Coindesk is bringing more nuanced news reporting than CNBC, you know things are whack.
- catominor 4y ago
  things be whack
- humanizersequel 4y ago
  I wasn't acquainted with them until roughly 6 months ago, but from what I've seen Coindesk has actually been an excellent publication.
  - dopidopHN 4y ago
    Media arm of digital currency group. Fine people, but just as a disclaimer.
- ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
  They both make money by selling ad space and attracting eyeballs to that space, but the audience of Coindesk is going to be much more interested in the financial details, whereas the more general audience of CNBC is going to be less interested in getting the details of the story right, and more likely to read a story that is lightly sensationalized.
  - 4y ago

asveikau 4y ago

I think being faced with this or having your kids faced with this probably elicits all kinds of stress responses and coping mechanisms. I could totally see myself engaging in nervous laughter if one of my kids fucks up this badly. I could also see twisting my worldview to make my kids innocent in my own mind, as a form of denial, unconditional love for the kids, etc. From press reports it seems possible those parents did a poor job raising him, that the apple didn't fall far from the tree, but I think also we shouldn't rush to judgement or draw conclusions where another explanation might suffice.

Aleksdev 4y ago

They must live in ivory towers and don’t understand exactly how bad this is..