Ross Ulbricht got 2xLife+40 for a Harmless Website

[David Barrett]

That's an interesting perspective. But it does hinge upon two different
assumptions.

First, it hinges upon the assassination market being fake (or more
generally, that the severity of what was happening there is overstated),
which I would think the most effective way to evaluate would be to consider
with an institution devoted to getting to the heart of what is true and
false. Such as a court. Which it did.

Unless you are advising that our nation should use some other institution,
such as your personal judgment, to determine truth from fiction, I'm not
sure what you are proposing. So far as the law is concerned, the severity
of what was happening there was extreme enough to justify the sentance, and
you disagreeing with the outcome doesn't make it any less a valid outcome
for one who believes in the rule of law. Which I'll admit, you might not.

The second part is to take issue with the laws that our society has
created, and to a very large degree supports. While there is widespread
support for legalization of marijuana, the same cannot be said for the kind
of hard drugs that Silk Road was reputed to traffic in.  So I think it can
be frustrating when you disagree with the rest of society in a democracy,
but that doesn't make the democracy itself flawed. It just makes you an
outlier, which is a feature not a bug of a representative democracy.

I think it's easy to pick and choose from the outcomes that you like in
order to criticize our court system. But I would encourage you to focus
more on the process itself, and advising specific fixes to the process if
you are unhappy with its results.

On the other hand, if you can't identify specific changes you'd like to
make in the process, then you should just sit back and accept the results.

And if you are instead of advising that we just scrap the whole thing start
over, I would encourage you to get clear on what specifically you would
like to be different in the new society versus the old, and why revolution
is the most effective way to accomplish it.

David





On Sun, Jun 27, 2021, 11:54 AM jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I am not aware that Silk Road ever had a genuine "assassination" market.
>  Fake perhaps, not genuine.
> As for "illicit drugs":  Probably billions of dollars of 'illicit drugs'
> are bought and sold, daily, without any connection to the Internet.  If
> anything, Silk Road made the world a safer place:  There was much less
> likelihood of being arrested for drug deals, due to little or no human
> contact.  And because of the concept of "reputation", chances are good that
> the drugs sold on Silk Road (or other subsequent 'Dark Markets') were more
> reliable, higher and more-consistent purity, fewer unhealthy 'cuts', etc.
>
> So, it was a BENEFICIAL website.  It simply thwarted the desire of some
> people who wanted to suppress drug sales and use.
>
>                  Jim Bell
>
>
>
> On Sunday, June 27, 2021, 11:35:53 AM PDT, David Barrett <
> dbarrett at expensify.com> wrote:
>
>
> Just to make sure I understand, you are describing Silk Road, a hidden
> marketplace for everything from illicit drugs to assassinations, as
> harmless?
>
> David
>
> On Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 9:40 PM grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> While other people get less than 25y for Murder, Rape, etc, and
> nothing for War, Torture, Infinite Detention, Global Organized Theft, etc.
>
> Any questions?
>
> #FreeRoss
>
> #RIPJohnHurley
>
> #McAfeeDidntKillHimself
>
> BTW: People actually could buy, did buy, still can buy,
> and indeed should consider buying... a cannon.
>
> Or at least 3D-Print one :)
>
>
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