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

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551–560 of 770 posts

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

#551
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people who accept high-profile positions don't have a moral right to retain those positions. It may not always be the case that they have a moral obligation to abandon them at the first sign of trouble; the analysis will always be fact-specific. Here, I don't think there's much doubt. Ito should have left weeks ago. He had to know this was going to happen; the last few weeks of drama have come entirely at the…

> I think people who accept high-profile positions don't have a moral right to retain those positions. I'm not really sure what this even means. Everyone has some moral right to the position they're in. The question is how much. > He had to know this was going to happen; the last few weeks of drama have come entirely at the Lab's expense, seemingly as a long-shot gamble that Ito might weather the storm. This is sort…

> Everyone has some moral right to the position they're in. The question is how much

They have some kind of right without any obligations? Care to expand?

> It seems to me that he probably believed he didn't do anything wrong, and as such had a moral right to retain his position because he believed he did nothing wrong

The latest reveal is that Joi Ito deliberately hid interactions with Epstein from the rest of the lab and from MIT.

His earlier denials were lies he told to keep his position.

The strongest possible form of your argument becomes 'He thought the behavior was fine but knew that others would disagree, so he deceived them to manage the situation', which is not exactly a slam dunk for your moral rights argument.

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

#553

"reminder to self: don't invest with or take money from assholes" -Joi Ito, Mar 12, 2008

Not an asshole if your world views align I guess.

I'm just glad we appear to be mostly past the 'well so what if he gave money they did good with it herp derp' stage. If it had been NRA money heads would have rolled immediately. No spiked stories. No game theory debates about what wonders might be achieved with such donations despite the source.

Yes, it is about world views. Everything is.

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

#554
post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You said this: > It all highlights the difficult job facing people tasked with taking money from donors in this way. They won't always have 20/20 hindsight. It does not highlight that and no hindsight was needed. What was needed was to not go out of your way to conceal taking money you know you should not. You converted situation into completely different situation.

But in these cases, how do you know?

In this case, I do know. It the stories were similar, then it was not not knowing.

In others, if you don't know, why does one assumes it was innocent situation that highlight how unclear everything is and required hindsight? It is real question btw, not rhetorical one. The older I am, the more I see how many of much lesser ethical conflict situations have not just red flags all over them, but clear breaches going on long before something blows. And how people like to not act on it all, because it benefits them.

It is possible that innocent people are being framed in that or this situation. But the issues with rich psychopaths building impenetrable circles of enablers around them are not that situation. People willing to go there are given advantages and build further circles of people willing to support them around them too.

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

#555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember similar stories about people who took money from Harvey Weinstein, for example there was an AIDS nonprofit he gave millions to. It all highlights the difficult job facing people tasked with taking money from donors in this way. They won't always have 20/20 hindsight. They may learn about sketchiness after they already took the money. They may be so blinded by what they see as generosity and good will that…

What's wrong with a charity accepting donations from someone naughty? It doesn't make them complicit in their offences. Criminals often donate money to charities and victims in an effort to get reduced sentences, at least in my country.

Should rich criminal have ability to buy lesser sentence then poor criminal?

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

#556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any evidence the women were sex trafficked? What if they were young adults who made an independent decision to be the assistant to Epstein?

I mentioned this to a similar comment elsewhere in the thread, but this is a weird horse to hitch your wagon to. Even if these particular women weren’t trafficked, the Media Lab staff’s general suspicions about Epstein were obviously correct.

They were suspicious because he was a known pedophile. That doesn't mean that anyone under his employ was being exploited.

> this is a weird horse to hitch your wagon to.

I'm not hitching my wagon to anything. This is basically arguing that as long as someone was bad enough, you can just make up or assume anything also bad about them, including the extent of their crimes. Did you know Hitler was a pedophile and necrophiliac? Now, don't you go trying to defend Hitler by saying there's no evidence of this!

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

#557

> This is well-known now. Please avoid this. Let me preface this by saying that I have no idea who Epstein is except that he's some rich, white guy that got caught up in some kind of sex scandal, was arrested and is now dead. I'm not belittling his acts nor ignoring his accusers, I'm saying that I did not know . Now let me explain why. Over the past couple of years, there have been non-stop stories of one powerful wh…

Saying "This is well-known now" is fine, because he/she is indicating that it is well known by people following the Epstein case. On a side note, everybody should keep the minimum level of effort to stay up to date on politics and news, especially when it is the case of high level corruption. Saying "we're busy", is not a good enough excuse, and we have more responsibilities working in tech than to take care of stuff that is simply immediate to us.

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

#558
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

here's a story, originally published in 2010, about Jeffrey Epstein: https://web.archive.org/web/20170606013136/http://www.thedai... People knew, or should have known, who they were dealing with.

Wow. How is it legal to donate to your local police dep? That’s like legal bribery. Tax payers’ money is supposed to pay for this.

The way this usually happens is via donations to FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) organizations.

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

#559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why would that exclude girls? Would “girls’ night out” be an unusual expression where you’re from?

So is “boys night out” but you wouldn’t refer to grown men as boys.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

In many of your comments you discuss your girlfriend. Should we assume that you're talking about an underage girl?

If you're going to engage in this sort of weird pedantry you should be careful lest you paint yourself a pederast.

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

#560

> This is well-known now. Please avoid this. Let me preface this by saying that I have no idea who Epstein is except that he's some rich, white guy that got caught up in some kind of sex scandal, was arrested and is now dead. I'm not belittling his acts nor ignoring his accusers, I'm saying that I did not know . Now let me explain why. Over the past couple of years, there have been non-stop stories of one powerful wh…

How can we expect the republic to survive if some of the most capable people try so actively to not pay attention to what's going on outside their bubble?
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