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Is this president extremely concerned about drug dealers and gangs in the US? Why is he pardoning a drug trafficker?
by agentultra 2y ago
Is this president extremely concerned about drug dealers and gangs in the US?
Why is he pardoning a drug trafficker?
- smt88 2y agoI understand your point, but it has become a waste of energy to try to point out hypocridy and ideological inconsistency among that group. It's better to ignore the rational reasons to oppose them and focus on the emotional ones. For starters, people are repulsed by their cruelty.
- krige 2y agoI disagree, the lukewarm emotion driven campaign ("we're not the other guy!") and lack of any rational strategy or arguments from the oppositon is how these people won in the first place.
- noisy_boy 2y agoAppeal to emotions stands on the trustworthiness/track record of the pleader. The opposition, full of public/private office musical chair players, has been in the pocket of lobbyists/corporate interests - they don't have any standing to plead to emotions (not saying the incumbents do but they have been successful in harnessing their already enraged supporters).
- PartiallyTyped 2y agoPleading to emotion works only if the target audience is not ideologically possessed, and by ideologically, I mean that they hate the mere thought of voting democrat even if they support the democrat’s agenda. The Democrat agenda has far far higher approval ratings than Democrats, and that says a lot about the current state of affairs.
- noisy_boy 2y ago> The Democrat agenda has far far higher approval ratings than Democrats, and that says a lot about the current state of affairs. That is a good point. The problem isn't with the message, so this time they shot the messenger.
- dfxm12 2y agoTo add, conservatives voters often claim they vote they way they do because "the other side" makes no attempt to understand them. I think GP is asking an honest question. If nothing else, I had the same question because I want to understand what the conservative voters want in this case, if not the surface level racism. To anyone who voted for Trump because he said he'd be hard on drug dealers: how do you feel about him pardoning a top level drug dealer?
- aleign 2y agoWhen did he pardon a top level drug dealer? Source?
- PartiallyTyped 2y agoRoss Ulbricht is the top level drug dealer GP is referring to.
- butlike 2y agoSystems administrator. Not dissimilar to the civil engineer who planned the streets the drug dealers down the block hang out at.
- smt88 2y agoThe answer is that what they want isn't ideologically consistent. They want him to be hard on criminals who do things they don't like. The biggest drug dealers alive are the Sacklers or maybe McKinsey, and they're not in scope either. Progressives aren't consistent either. No one is. For example, Dems keep screaming about being a country of laws when referring to GOP antics, but want to ignore certain immigration, anti-abortion, and drug laws (in some cases by just refusing to enforce them). Unfortunately what's good for the goose is good for the gander, as they say.
- knodi 2y agoYes, yes but children detention center which separated kids from their parents and then lost the paper work connecting them back to their family, even some kids died of neglect in the detention center...cruelty. The rise of the morally bankrupt in America.
- shoxidizer 2y agoPardoning Ulbricht was a campaign promise he made at the Libertarian National Convention in response to it being a popular demand among the libertarians.
- noirbot 2y agoAnd more importantly, among the crypto crowd that dumped millions into his campaign. Libertarians have essentially no clout or money on their own. This was a pardon bought by Coinbase and Gemini and A16z.
- twelve40 2y agoWhy would Coinbase and Gemini and A16z care about an obviously shady person who reportedly tried to hire a person to kill someone? surely they could find a more legitimate hero to advance the legal crypto case? i mean, it's kind of like them - companies trying to do legit crypto - rallying today around SBF when they already have image problems from other exchanges?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- talldayo 2y agoThere is no "legit crypto" - it's a myth. Every single exchange that swaps spit with the Bitcoin ledger is laundering money made by criminal (often violent or fraudulent) means. Many if not most altcoins are equally as fraudulent, or used to launder ("tumble") other suspicious coins. Let's be honest anyways, the cryptocurrency "industry" as we know it is less than 4 years old, and in 4 years it may be gone. Exchanges like coinbase and so-called defi innovators like A16Z need this legally-dubious signalling or they'll risk never having another leader corrupt enough to sanction their behavior.
- beeflet 2y agoI got cash out of an airport currency exchange ATM the other week, and when I tried to use it to by groceries yesterday, the cashier tested it for cocaine and it came back positive. There is no "legit cash".
- isoprophlex 2y agoTo appease the broligarch technologists, who all enjoyed buying LSD with cryptocoins.
- hbbio 2y agoA drug trafficker sells drugs A developer builds a platform like eBay but without censorship that can be used by the drug trafficker It's not the same thing
- _s 2y agoI make and sell soap. The soap contains an ingredient that anyone can use to make bombs. Some people buy my soap only for that purpose. I know because they literally tell me how they use my soap. I can remove that ingredient but I would loose a lot of sales. The police finds my soap in the lab of someone who blew up a building. Some people died. Was it my fault, knowing how it was being used? Did I do anything illegal? Unethical? Immoral?
- hbbio 2y ago> I can remove that ingredient but I would loose a lot of sales. Or: I can remove that ingredient but it goes against my principle of not accepting constraints. > Some people died. Was it my fault, knowing how it was being used? Did I do anything illegal? Unethical? Immoral? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/
- jshen 2y agoJail is for people that don't accept constraints outlined by democratic society.
- highwaylights 2y agoThis is a nonsense argument. The manhattan project was very intentionally an attempt to create a WMD, it wasn’t a side-effect of something else. You don’t have a point here.
- beeflet 2y agoInteresting thought experiment, but no, I don't think it's llegal/unethical/immoral to sell that soap. But in practice this sort of business will change their formula to avoid bad press and regulation.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoNo no no, my friend. Ulbricht was not a lowly drug trafficker (also, incidentally, not black or latino). He was an _entrepreneur_ who built a _marketplace_ that would bring together buyers and sellers, cutting out the middleman, and driving _efficiency_! Basically trustedhousesitters.com, just for illegal drugs instead of pets ;)
- outside415 2y ago[flagged]
- kubb 2y agoBasically he’ll do anything to get the votes he needs, there’s no morality behind it.
- outside415 2y agothank god he won. someone had to do whatever was necessary.
- kubb 2y agoI wish we had leaders with integrity, but we won’t for the foreseeable future.
- outside415 2y agoI am just happy someone is slowing the H1B and indian out sourcing down. between that and AI california tech was about to die for Americans.
- kubb 2y agoWhether that happens remains to be seen. In the first row on his inauguration was an Indian tech CEO and Elon loves H1Bs.
- lossolo 2y agoTrump yesterday: “I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country, even if that involves them training and helping other people that may not have the qualifications they do. I don't want to stop…” "We want competent people coming into our country. And H-1B, I know the programme very well. I use the programme. Maître d', wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters, you've got to get the best people. People like Larry, he needs engineers, NASA also needs... engineers like nobody's ever needed them"
- kube-system 2y agoTrump clearly values favoritism to a high degree. He is doing exactly as he has promised, running the country like a businessman. If you scratch his back, he will scratch yours. Principles take a back seat to "getting the job done". For other examples, see his changed stances on TikTok, various foreign interests, cryptocurrencies, EVs post Elon support, etc. And in the opposite vein, he abandons support for anyone who challenges his authority on principles.
- a2128 2y agoThat sounds like corruption
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- AlexandrB 2y agoPrincipled politicians are very rare. Do you think the outgoing administration was particularly principled? People need to stop thinking of politicians as their friends and having parasocial relationships with them. They're public servants and should be treated as such.
- IMTDb 2y agoSee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik
- cbsmith 2y agos/businessman/gangster/ Principles are much more important to a businessman than a gangster.
- mrguyorama 2y agoIn America? Not for a while.
- cbsmith 2y ago
- bigbacaloa 2y ago[dead]
- tasuki 2y agoDon't online drug marketplaces lead to reduced gang activity? One does not need a gang and violence to sell drugs online. Selling drugs offline, gangs and violence will get involved.
- KeplerBoy 2y agoThere are gangs and violence all along the supply chain. The online marketplace only removes the last (few hundred) miles.
- herbst 2y agoSo it's much safer for customers and will likely reduce drug violence?
- KeplerBoy 2y agoIt's not that simple. It might still be a net negative if it increases drug demand by ease of access.
- herbst 2y agoI don't think you increase demand by ease of access. Also buying bitcoin, exchanging to Monero, installing Tor, understanding the risks, etc. Is much more work than just finding the next dealer.
- KeplerBoy 2y ago> I don't think you increase demand by ease of access. Well that's the entire principle of price elasticity. The less costly (not only in terms of money, but also in terms of risk and time) something gets the higher the demand, at least up to a point.
- cbsmith 2y ago> Don't online drug marketplaces lead to reduced gang activity? Online isn't the important factor here. > One does not need a gang and violence to sell drugs online. Gangs and violence aren't there to support a marketplace. They don't help you find customers or customers to find you. They don't improve the efficiency of exchange. They're there to enforce outcomes. Selling drugs leads to outcomes that don't care whether the buyer and seller found themselves online.
- bilekas 2y agoI mean, I don't know why it's a full pardon, IMO Ulbricht's sentence was far too long and harsh, I'm sure it was to make a point that others should not replicate it, but wouldn't a stay on the remainder of his sentence been a better option here ?
- highwaylights 2y agoYou’re assuming the reason for the pardon is “the sentence was unfair” rather than “some people that cheered at my rally said they would like me to do this”.
- amendegree 2y agoMy understanding is that it’s more Trump generally attempts to keep campaign promises, he doesn’t always succeed, but when all it takes is an executive order, he generally does it pretty quickly. In instances where it takes more than his signature (e.g. the wall) he has failed to make good on many promises but he definitely put in effort to trying to make them happen.
- gitaarik 2y agoCreating a website where you can trade (potentially illegal) stuff is not the same as being a drug trafficker.
- ohashi 2y agoAre we pretending the silk road was actually a legitimate marketplace and a few bad actors might have used it for things that break the law?
- gitaarik 2y agoIt just allowed unrestricted trade outside of regular economy. In a world where the governments themselves are corrupt and criminal, you could argue over the ethicality of the concept. But comparing it to drug cartels is unfair I would say.
- barnabee 2y agoIt's not necessarily unethical to break the law, merely illegal. Civil disobedience is a pretty important part of how we have always dealt with bad laws and bad governments.
- jmcgough 2y agoI don't think he knows who RA is, I'm betting the cryptobros who ran his rug pulls and NFTs for the last year have his ear after making him millions of dollars.
- dead_gunslinger 2y agoHe said he would do this during his campaign as a promise, a lot of libertarians voted for him based on this. He delivered on the promise after he won a convincing majority. I'm not sure why democracy offends you this much.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]