Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
Facts first:
Maxwell Ghislane, Epstein’s madame, was wealthy because her father paywalled science journals which had previously been free. It is widely believed that user MaxwellHill was her Reddit account, one of the earliest and most constant users.
Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz was a free info activist. He was in big legal trouble for using MIT’s fast Internet to freely download massive amounts of paywalled science journal archives. He died by hanging.
Theory:
Even if not true, it’s interesting that both Swartz and Epstein were found dead, hanged. Miss White in the server room with the noose.
Aaron Swartz is a tragedy. It's one of those cases where he was getting screwed because his lawyer didn't understand how to run a political case.
Lawyers understand the courtroom and how to strike deals with the prosecution. So naturally they want to keep the fight in the courtroom and avoid upsetting the prosecution more than necessary.
They didn't understand that Swartz was much more sympathetic to a lot of fairly powerful people than the academic publishers trying to protect their exorbitant pricing for research that's often publicly funded.
So his lawyers were telling him to keep quiet so they can make a deal, while the publishers were pressuring the prosecutors to make an example of him.
If he had made an aggressive public plea with details of his situation then all of the Silicon Valley tech people Obama needed for his 2012 election campaign would have gone to the Obama campaign and said "he's just a well meaning kid who made a mistake, cut him a deal or I won't support you".
Swartz would have just gotten probation at worst. Instead he snapped under the stress of the aggressive sentences prosecutors were demanding and killed himself.
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Golly. It’s almost like hanging is a common method of suicide. Much harder to police the materials than firearms or even poisons. Psychologically, might be easier than jumping off a bridge. Has plenty of cultural cachet.
Also, I think a world where socialites can learn how to talk people into suicide looks pretty different than this one. As would a world where they need “intelligence service tactics” to chat with reddit admins.
Serious question, do you think Epstein killed himself? Because I don't think I have ever met someone who does.
My take is that him killing himself is perfectly understandable based on what we have.
He was a malignant narcissist who'd clearly run out his string. He'd lived an amazing life with living standards and prestige he would never, ever see again.
All that remained was a parade of indignities as Inmate X. Might as well check out.
I just can't quite bring myself to totally foreclose the other possibility though. It's also very easy to imagine. And more cinematic to boot.
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No, I give decent odds he was murdered.
It’s not something I’ve given a ton of thought. I guess if there’s one place in life where you’d expect to see suicides, it’s high-profile criminals with zero chance of seeing the outside again. But there was enough weirdness around his death that the conspiracy theory passed the smell test.
If I was in Epsein's position, I would have killed myself.
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