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My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

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Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#41

Post by forgottenpass »

karl_gluck wrote: post #30
runjake wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtually every niche of society considers others of their kind as eloquent, optimistic, and down-to-earth. This is a common perception in a group of people with shared passions. From artists, techies, to politicians and even Nazi Germany.

Wow, Godwin's law struck hard and fast. Was that reference really necessary?

Godwin's law is rubbish. The Nazis are a strongly and consistently disavowed extreme group. They're a perfect tool when you need to cut across cultures and remove any chance of ambiguity. Their actions so despicable that comparing X performing Y1 to the Nazis performing Y2 is a good tool for reasoning about Y itself and the difference between Y1 and Y2.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#42

Post by pakled_engineer »

burger_moon wrote: post #29
paulhauggis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. A person that doesn't want to harm anyone wouldn't hire (or attempt to hire) a hitman. If the agent would have been a hitman, someone might be dead. "he never had to decide in real life" The reason he got in trouble was because he did decide it in real life. It's not like he put a hit out on a World of Warcraft character. "put a lot of emotional pressure on him" Emotional pressure? really? That's an elega…

This is similar to would-be terrorists who get honey potted by the fbi. They find people wiling to put bombs in a car and blow up a city block and they sell them the fake bombs/ equipment and then arrest them after they attempt to detonate it, some times not even getting that far.

Conspiracy to traffic narcotics cases are the same. A CI tells a tale of being connected to some cartel and offers to import a bunch of invisible cocaine and if you agree to it and show up with payment you're convicted without any actual drugs existing. The overt act does not even need to be completed, any action done by the accused to further the conspiracy agreement is good enough to get life in prison.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#44

Post by lamuerteflaca »

karl_gluck wrote: post #30
runjake wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtually every niche of society considers others of their kind as eloquent, optimistic, and down-to-earth. This is a common perception in a group of people with shared passions. From artists, techies, to politicians and even Nazi Germany.

Wow, Godwin's law struck hard and fast. Was that reference really necessary?

And a new law is born: La muerte Flacas' law: Try to use a valid NAZI reference and a clueless bastard will mention Godwin's Law. The Laziest form of counter argument.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#45

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

chatmasta wrote: post #2

"Sure, we wanted Ross to go free. We wanted him to be innocent, to be a hero: the poster boy for privacy in the Information Age." That may be partially true, but Ross polluted much of the goodwill the Internet community had for him when he decided to "order a hitman." I doubt he was ever that serious about hiring one. If you read the chats he had, he sounds completely out of his league, and probably never would have…

> That may be partially true, but Ross polluted much of the goodwill the Internet community had for him when he decided to "order a hitman."

Never tried for murder.

Never charged.

Why not? That's a slam dunk if it were true. But it carries with it greater scrutiny by appellate courts, greater scrutiny by the press. Perhaps those accusations were bullshit.

Perhaps our prosecutors should be prohibited by law from making any accusations unless they're actually leveling charges. Just a thought.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#46

Post by emodendroket »

jessaustin wrote: post #40
q7 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh c'mon, he ordered a hitman inside a play the FBI fully staged for him. There was never any harm done to anybody. Pure entrapment. Create a fake simulated decision dilemma he never had to decide in real life, put a lot of emotional pressure on him, and then when he made a bad decision inside this simulation that harmed nobody, try to condemn him for it. He hasn't lost my goodwill yet.

Pure entrapment. Create a fake simulated decision dilemma he never had to decide in real life, put a lot of emotional pressure on him, and then when he made a bad decision inside this simulation that harmed nobody, try to condemn him for it. I haven't followed this trial closely enough to know exactly what happened here, but despite the sanctimonious, performative "I'm-a- good -person" denials you're getting in respo…

Entrapment is real, sure, but, come on. It's not as though the FBI kidnapped his family and said they'd kill them unless he ordered a hitman.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#47

Post by ocb »

Lawtonfogle wrote: post #27
chatmasta wrote: post #2

"Sure, we wanted Ross to go free. We wanted him to be innocent, to be a hero: the poster boy for privacy in the Information Age." That may be partially true, but Ross polluted much of the goodwill the Internet community had for him when he decided to "order a hitman." I doubt he was ever that serious about hiring one. If you read the chats he had, he sounds completely out of his league, and probably never would have…

Is it really victimless? I'll admit that for something like pot, that is responsibly grown and used, there is no victims (well maybe with second hand smoke, but you get that just as much from cigarettes). But many drugs being sold do not come responsible producers. Instead, they come from groups that cause a lot of harm in order to acquire the money from selling those drugs. Yes, legalizing responsible production wou…

I have no evidence for this, but I think that your chances of funding a violent group with your purchase would be significantly lower on a dark net market than if you made the purchase on the street.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#48

Post by dublinben »

arca_vorago wrote: post #43

The main thing I would like to know is why did he hire the lawyer he did? His defense basically sold him up the river, as can be seen from the scathing comments from the judge. Is it still a fair trial if your lawyer is incompetent?

They were probably angling for the conviction to be overturned on appeal. There was almost no chance of getting a "not guilty" verdict in this situation.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#49

Post by LeonRobrotsky »

forgottenpass wrote: post #41
karl_gluck wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, Godwin's law struck hard and fast. Was that reference really necessary?

Godwin's law is rubbish. The Nazis are a strongly and consistently disavowed extreme group. They're a perfect tool when you need to cut across cultures and remove any chance of ambiguity. Their actions so despicable that comparing X performing Y1 to the Nazis performing Y2 is a good tool for reasoning about Y itself and the difference between Y1 and Y2.

Nazis had state sponsored scientific research and a national healthcare system (with certain, obvious exclusions).

It just seems nonsensically reductive to go 'the nazis did it! therefore its bad!'

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#50

Post by Retra »

lamuerteflaca wrote: post #44
karl_gluck wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, Godwin's law struck hard and fast. Was that reference really necessary?

And a new law is born: La muerte Flacas' law: Try to use a valid NAZI reference and a clueless bastard will mention Godwin's Law. The Laziest form of counter argument.

"[Godwin's law is] an endlessly tiresome way of feigning moral indignation" -- Kevin Drum
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