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Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

nytimes.com

81–90 of 770 posts

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#81
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything." -- future President of the United States, Donald Trump.

> “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” That same future president being quoted in an article about Epstein in 2002.

Great! Now do the one about Bill Clinton taking 27 flights on the Lolita Express!

Or the one about Trump banning Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in 2008 when he started to suspect...

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#82
post #53
post #13

In the other thread, people were saying "I'd take Epstein's dirty money and do good with it." But the problem is that doing so normalizes the behavior. Everybody who has doubts about working with the creep looks around the room, and when they don't see anyone else objecting, ends up thinking "I guess we're all ok with this behavior" and goes along to get along.

Normalize the taking money? Maybe, but not the child trafficking part.

I don't see evidence of that--Epstein seemed to be fairly well accepted and even chummy with the Media Lab management. Nobody consciously says "Hey this is a thing we do now--hang out with child traffickers as if it's normal" but that was the end result.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#83
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normalize the taking money? Maybe, but not the child trafficking part.

If you take the money you have to turn a blind eye to the child trafficking part.

I don't just assume where the money comes from.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#84

This is just one of sooo many.. the others truly need to be held responsible as well.

That will not happen. The others are a group so powerful, if you attempt to criticize them, your life will be ruined. They literally control speech and thought around the world.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#85
post #14

Those in glass houses... “They were models. Eastern European, definitely,” she told me. Among the lab’s staff, she said, “all of us women made it a point to be super nice to them. We literally had a conversation about how, on the off chance that they’re not there by choice, we could maybe help them.” And what did these people go home and start doing for Eastern European models since then? I find this pretty condescen…

The context here is that Epstein was a convicted sex offender who was widely believed to traffic women into sexual slavery, and sexual slavery is a serious problem in Eastern Europe [1].

The implication is the staff were concerned that Epstein was bringing literal slaves into the office.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_trafficking_in_Europe

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#88
post #82
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normalize the taking money? Maybe, but not the child trafficking part.

I don't see evidence of that--Epstein seemed to be fairly well accepted and even chummy with the Media Lab management. Nobody consciously says "Hey this is a thing we do now--hang out with child traffickers as if it's normal" but that was the end result.

Yeah but doesn't mean they normalize the practice of child trafficking itself.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#89

This article is filled with strangely matter-of-fact language regarding matters which are still unsolved: For example: > Mr. Epstein — who killed himself in jail last month while facing federal sex trafficking charges

Unfortunately the cameras spontaneously failed so we’ll never discover how someone can break their own neck

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#90

Good. These were in no way innocent ties. He knew who Epstein was and misled people. Ito could be on the hook for civil fraud. The elements of fraud are: a purposeful misrepresentation of a fact with knowledge that it is false to a victim who justifiably relies on the misrepresentation who suffers actual loss as a result.

That's reaching, a whole lot. Ito knew who Epstein was, as did everyone else - Epstein's conviction wasn't a secret. That harms Ito through his poor decision making, but other people were just as capable of knowing who Epstein was. Who suffered an actual loss as a result of these donations? Civil fraud is grasping, some.

If you read the article, you'll see that MIT specifically blacklisted Epstein from making donations as a result of his conviction, and Ito went behind their backs to keep getting money from him anyway. That's fraud, and MIT could definitely argue loss of reputation. I don't know if they'll go after Ito, but if they do, they'll have a pretty good case.
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