As cynical as it might seem, there is an alternative possibility: in spite of getting a tattoo saying he would not kill himself, and in spite of posting a tweet saying he would not kill himself, he went ahead and killed himself.
An unstable personality that hates the US saying the US government would stage a suicide is much more likely to actually kill themselves than your regular run-of-the-mill evil billionaire with powerful enemies saying nothing about how they will die. I don't think Mcafee really thought things through enough to come to this conclusion.
He published a GU paper a few months ago: https://geometricunity.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/Geometric... (I haven’t read it, I’m not even remotely qualified.)
"*The Author is not a physicist and is no longer an active academician, but is an Entertainer and host of The Portal podcast. This work of entertainment is a draft of work in progress which is the property of the author and thus may not be built upon, renamed, or profited from without express permission of the author." Well, okay.
The tell tale signs of a quack theory is hiding behind "it's for entertainment" legalese while portraying it as anything but. If only we could collectively agree to not make such an effort at giving these people megaphones.
As a counterpoint, Germany uses fines much, much more as a punishment than the US, which can easily be seen as a regressive punishment – it is a punishment which is much worse for the poor than it is for the rich. Meanwhile prison is something both the poor and the rich want to avoid equally.
Fines in Germany usually follow the "Tagessatz", which is the income of a day, as calculated based on your tax records (and other information). So you might be sentenced to pay 90 'daily incomes', which hits a poor person as badly as it does hit a rich person. Also note that there is a minimum amount of income that you always will be granted access to ('Pfändungsfreigrenze'), so a fine will not make you die from hung…
True in principle, but afaik the income is usually estimated
(it is not measured precisely) a lot lower than its true value for wealthy persons. Still a better idea better than fixed fine amounts, of course.
Realise that people can be super nice to you and cruel/evil to somebody else. The serial killer living next door might be a great neighbour. That doesn’t change the facts of what he/she is.
In fact, this is what they mean when they say it's almost impossible to know who the real sociopaths are. The true ones are so charismatic and good at manipulation that, unless you are extraordinarily close to them or get on their bad side, they just seem like the sort of person that everyone likes. Interestingly, a minority of people seem to be somewhat able to see through the facade. I have ADHD and a brother who's…
I have to disagree about your veteran assessment. Almost a decade ago I accidentally got into the security integration industry (security cameras, gates and the software that runs all of it). That field attracts a lot of veterans, especially the higher echelon guys. I've got to know plenty of folks from the enlisted and up to a full bird. The thing with anyone from one of those specialty combat mission backgrounds, they're typically extremely grounded people. As in, do you remember being a teen or young adult before getting into a career field? You had all these folks blowing smoke up your ass about how great something is in that field. The whole unicorn, sunshine and rainbows about a job field. Then you always had one dude who was, "nah, that's like 10% of the job. 90% of the time it's like this." When you're young, you think the person with actual experience, the salty guy, is a party pooper jackass. When you're older, you realize that guy was leveling your expectations, warning you of pitfalls and trying to make you look out for the good and how to cherish it. Combat vets are kind of the same way. There's a good chance any moral or ethical theory people armchair postulate about when it comes to society... they saw the extremes actually played out in real life with consequences. Those that readjusted back to civvy life well have the best attitude towards life. They try living life to the fullest because, again, they've seen first hand how short and fragile life is. They dont sugarcoat it either, which I think is what a majority of people find so jarring. The amount of sugarcoating in general society is amazing when you see the contrast. The charisma they exude isnt really the sociopath, snakeoil salesman kind. It's far more worldly and more honest, mixed with zero fucks given what you think of them. That sugarless honesty is what most people, especially these days, are attracted to. But then it can come off as crazy because of how much it contrasts with "normal" bullshit. They're the most egalitarian and welcoming "demographics" I've ever met. On a whole, the tech industry is full of far more actual sociopathic and narcissistic assholes.
30 years for tax evasion? No wonder he preferred to die. I mean, you’ll get jail time for severe cases of tax evasion in Germany, too, but it’s a couple of years at max and most of the time it’s on probation. How do you justify your draconic punishments in the US which is supposed to be a free country?
As a counterpoint, Germany uses fines much, much more as a punishment than the US, which can easily be seen as a regressive punishment – it is a punishment which is much worse for the poor than it is for the rich. Meanwhile prison is something both the poor and the rich want to avoid equally.
Prison is far worse for the poor than it is for the rich. And the poor are far more likely to end up in prison over the most ridiculous crap in the US. In practice, the US's justice system is far worse for everybody but the rich.
Selective enforcement is bad. The fact that the law says that you could go to prison for one year for not filing taxes on time, but that it's rarely enforced means that they should fix the law. Using it only on "bad guys" is a recipe for the government punishing people that disagrees with them.
Or you know...you could pay your taxes and stop stealing from the rest of us.
trying not to get robbed by the government is now stealing?
Prison time here in Germany is limited to 15 years at max — independent on the number of crimes. People imprisoned for violent crimes may stay there for their whole life if they pose an ongoing threat to public safety.
- Prison time here in Germany is limited to 15 years at max - People imprisoned for violent crimes may stay there for their whole life if they pose an ongoing threat to public safety. So... Germany DOES have a life sentence. Kinda misleading to state it doesn't.
the penalty is a maximum of 15 years. The is something called "Sicherheitsverwahrung" - meaning "keeping for security (of society)". In that case the criminal served his sentence but is still locked up because he is considered dangerous for society. But because it's officially not a punishment anymore they have to be treated less harshly, with more comfortable cells etc.
30 years for tax evasion? No wonder he preferred to die. I mean, you’ll get jail time for severe cases of tax evasion in Germany, too, but it’s a couple of years at max and most of the time it’s on probation. How do you justify your draconic punishments in the US which is supposed to be a free country?
As a counterpoint, Germany uses fines much, much more as a punishment than the US, which can easily be seen as a regressive punishment – it is a punishment which is much worse for the poor than it is for the rich. Meanwhile prison is something both the poor and the rich want to avoid equally.
fines in germany are completely ineffective against criminals on welfare.
(and that's a problem)
In fact, this is what they mean when they say it's almost impossible to know who the real sociopaths are. The true ones are so charismatic and good at manipulation that, unless you are extraordinarily close to them or get on their bad side, they just seem like the sort of person that everyone likes. Interestingly, a minority of people seem to be somewhat able to see through the facade. I have ADHD and a brother who's…
I have to disagree about your veteran assessment. Almost a decade ago I accidentally got into the security integration industry (security cameras, gates and the software that runs all of it). That field attracts a lot of veterans, especially the higher echelon guys. I've got to know plenty of folks from the enlisted and up to a full bird. The thing with anyone from one of those specialty combat mission backgrounds, t…
"Former Special Forces capitalizing on it to garner a Youtube following" is a very small and specific subset of Veteran. The GP post wasn't making a generalized statement about combat vets.
GP was even very careful to concede that the traits they think they've observed aren't necessarily a strong proportion of that specific niche.
30 years for tax evasion? No wonder he preferred to die. I mean, you’ll get jail time for severe cases of tax evasion in Germany, too, but it’s a couple of years at max and most of the time it’s on probation. How do you justify your draconic punishments in the US which is supposed to be a free country?
Not just that but as a US citizen even if you aren't living in the US anymore you still have to pay US taxes. The 2014-2018 income taxes he owed were while staying abroad. The US forces you to renounce your citizenship to get out of paying taxes to a country you don't live in. IANAL but that's my understanding.
> The US forces you to renounce your citizenship to get out of paying taxes to a country you don't live in.
Which you can't even do for the last year+, since all the embassies are closed to renunciations indefinitely.