RIP McAfee. You're a testament to the concept in which many intelligent people find a windfall of success but face the dark void of "what now?" While many like you have flamed out into drugs and mental illness, few have made it so public. May the people you so gravely hurt also find peace.
John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
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Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#632No one deserves to be kidnapped and throw in a cell for the victimless crime of tax evasion. RIP, McAfee. In the 20th century: ~8 million were murdered in mundane crimes. ~175 million people were murdered by the state. Democracy is just violence in disguise. Pure evil.
Tax evasion isn't victimless. It is a civic duty to pay into the system that you benefit directly from. Freedom isn't free.
Tax evasion is theft from the public. Tax evaders steal from you.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#633Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This used to be a great country. When?
Seen from over the pond in Germany: It seems like the US were (compared to the rest of the world) at their best from 1860ish to 1970ish. When they had great education for he masses, public health, technological and economic progress, a certain naive idealism, and the most comfortable middle class in the world. Things were, if not already good, pointing in the right direction. After that, selfish and cynical elites to…
I mean 1860 is when the civil war happened, possibly the worst time in American history. And the 70s were the end of Vietnam, another terrible time. Cynical elites have been apart of American history at every point between those two dates. I don’t think you can pick a time where America was really great or perfect. The only real example I can think of is the end of WW2 where American industry accounted for a staggering 50% of the world’s industrial output.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#634Earlier quoted context omitted.
> did something more with his life than just take a lot of drugs and be weird. Not everything about a person is their public image though. Summing up a persons life like that, even if you disagree with his public image, is just inhumane. Did you know him? Did you ever even see him once?
> Did you know him? Did you ever even see him once? We're going to need to rewrite an awful lot of history if our standards for judging people are "knowing them and seeing them even once"
I think very little history is about passing judgment on historical figures.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#635Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even without being found guilty of murder... if you watch that documentary he hires very unsavory characters to be his armed guards 24x7. You are one of the richest people on the planet and you choose to be an armed bully on a small island with a lot of poverty to exploit. He could literally have any lifestyle he wanted.
He hadn't been one of the richest people on the planet in more than a decade. Definitely did not have enough money for literally any lifestyle, especially seeing as it appears he owed a lot of money in back taxes.
Had a net worth of several hundred million in a country where the cost of living was 23% of the US might not be a "megayacht and private 787" lifestyle, but it would do pretty well.
He owed a lot of money in back taxes because he made a point of specifically refusing to pay them, not inability to do so.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#636Earlier quoted context omitted.
Parent poster meant let's not make him look like a loon and hound him relentlessly because of it.
Exactly. Thank you.
Ok but AFAICT the US government didn't make him look like a loon nor did they hound him relentlessly because he was a loon. They hounded him relentlessly to pay his taxes which is easily resolved by paying taxes, something even loons are capable of.
> The US Justice Department alleged that McAfee evaded tax liability by having his income paid into bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchange accounts in the names of nominees. He was also accused of concealing assets, including a yacht and real estate property, also in other people's names.
> In recent years, McAfee repeatedly claimed that there was a plot to get him - however the [Spanish National] court said there was "no revealing evidence" that he was being prosecuted for political or ideological reasons, El Pais reported.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#637Earlier quoted context omitted.
But he was a loon and a thief/tax cheat
Was he? He was accused of not reporting potential cryto gains from talking about some cryptos. But if it didn’t realized any gains, he really didn’t have anything to report.
Article says he didn't file for four years.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#638The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…
> I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he's obviously unstable This is ridiculous. Okay so let's leave all the rich people alone who claim they are unstable. McAfee made millions, from what I understand, he paid little taxes on that. That's stupid. I don't care how unstable you are, or how good you are donating your "fair share". You're still not excused from paying your taxes.
Taxation is theft. Fuck you and your blind support for the war machine, the war on drugs and the killing of millions of people at home and abroad. No tax in today's society is just. The US's case against John McAfee is weak at best and he should not be dead. Downvote and censor all you want because rational debate has been dead hear for while now.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#639The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…
I agree a more humane approach would have avoided his death probably, but look. He has to pay his taxes like everyone else to pay for all these stimulus, vaccines, medicare, debt interest, foreign invasions the US does all the time.
He could have renunced US citizenship and found something else, could have made money elsewhere. Im in Hong Kong with French citizenship and it s clear if France starts making me pay taxes while im abroad, Ill just find a way out of the citizenship.
No instead he paraded everywhere saying taxes were illegal... idiot.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#640Earlier quoted context omitted.
HST did a lot more than do drugs and be weird, but I wouldn't imagine a computer nerd who clacks on a keyboard to know much about Gonzojournalism or the effects it's had on American culture.
Just a note on a reason you likely got so many downvotes, beyond the tone: the parent was likely referring to McAfee with that remark, not to Thompson.
(and the tone)