This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I agree with this. I thought the fraud aspect in particular would take awhile to gather evidence to prove. The DoJ moving this quick makes me believe they have strong hard evidence (emails, slack messages, testimony from executives) that prove intent. SBF is cooked.
I did think it would take a lot longer, which does give more credence to the speculation that Ellison was cutting a deal with the prosecutors by turning over everything she knew/had about Bankman-Fried. And if he was backing out of turning up to the Senate Banking Committee hearing (allegedly due to his counsel - whoever that is today EDIT: Cohen and Gresser of New York - refusing to accept service of the subpoena), then I imagine the gloves came off. All the shooting his mouth off didn't help, either. And I wonder about Wang and Singh, the other co-founders - are they cutting deals too?
If so, then there may well be enough evidence for charges this fast, and the Bahamian authorities are certainly being very co-operative. Did Bankman-Fried expect them to hold out longer and even give him refuge? If so, he made another bad decision there.
He does seem to have agreed to testify before the House Financial Services Committee (all these committees are confusing) but given that he's now been arrested, will that still go ahead?
It looks like he agreed to turn up to the Tuesday (House) committee but refused to testify before the Wednesday (Senate) committee, which may have stoked fears that he was only showing up so he could go on the run in the US and/or try to get out, which might have been easier than trying to fly out of the Bahamas. I have no idea, but the arrest might well be precautionary so he doesn't pull a "here today, gone tomorrow" stunt.
The Senate committee (via a letter sent to him) wanted a written statement from him, so that might be why he declined to appear: he's relying on showing up and burbling something at the House committee, because he seems to be good at slinging words words words in person, but if he writes anything down that's fatal, that is providing the rope to hang himself.
EDIT: While I'm waiting for the next matches in the World Cup (semi-final between Argentina and Croatia this evening, France versus Morocco tomorrow), there will be a livestream of the House Committee on Financial Services hearing today at 10:00 a.m. ET (3:00 p.m. my time) with John J. Ray as witness and potentially? Sam Bankman-Fried as well. I will have to tune in to see if he does turn up or if he can't make it due to being in the slammer 😁
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link