[offsign]

"he took it a bridge too far" is a massive trivialization.

The guy operated a marketplace for illegal goods in order to enrich himself. The illegality wasn't just incidental, it was literally his business model -- by flouting the law, he enjoyed massive market benefit (minimal competition, lack of regulation, high margins etc) by exploiting the arbitrage that the rest of us follow the rules.

Said a different way, he knowingly pursued enormous risk in order to achieve outsized benefits, and ultimately his bet blew up on him -- we shouldn't have bailed him out.

[silver_silver]

His sentence was excessive and cruel to make an example out of him. There’s a serial child rapist in the same prison serving less time.

[ty6853]

The state hates more than anything someone who operates on first principles that the empire is wrong.

A serial rapist, even one that would happily do it again, will often repent and quickly admit guilt. They have no interest in undermining the philosophical basis of the state. They will posture themselves as bound but imperfect citizens under the law.

Ross violated the only remaining national holy religion, the rule of law. He was sentenced for being a heretic.

[mrpopo]

Pretty sure Silk Road enabled loads of pedophiles to go about their activities. This is a false equivalence

[mcv]

Yes, but so are a lot of sentences in the US. I've heard of people being put away for decades for mere drug possession.

That said, rapists surprisingly often get just a slap on the wrist, or not even that. The US absolutely needs some balance and consistency in its sentencing, but pardoning this one guy sends a really weird message in that regard. At the very least, just commute the sentence so at least the conviction still stands.

[victorbjorklund]

Pretty much all criminal laws are like that since only a fraction of crimes will ever lead to an arrest we make examples out of those are caught to make others less likely to commit crimes in the future when they see the punishment. The deterrence effect is basically "risk of getting caught" * "punishment if you get caught".

[npoc]

In the UK, serial child rapists are being given 3 year sentences

[kerhackernews]

He operated a site that allowed you to hire hitmen.

[Deutschland314]

Snoop you compare apples with oranges.

People don't really care about child rapists see the Christian churches.

Also you were able to buy everything on silk road including guns. The multiplication effect of this is potentially more worth.

Nonetheless it's still a straw man argument. I personally would not mind at all increasing prison sentences for child rapists.

[jajko]

Selling say drugs that kill people (kids including) and illegal weapons that are often used for murders. Such activity is by western standards one of worst crimes, especially in massive scale and run for profit. Even ignoring all other criminal activity, 25 to life seems like a adequate sentence.

It seems that from day 1 US is moving quite far from the place it was and projected itself to others for past decades. More ruthless, money above all, not much fairness in international dealings. Maybe US will be richer after those 4 years, but at current trajectory it will lose a lot of friends and partners.

Please realize this - for Europe, China starts to look like a great not only business but also military partner, much more reliable long term. This is how much such moves can fuck up things.

[potato3732842]

>minimal competition, lack of regulation, high margins etc

Those benefits don't come from nowhere. You're basically getting compensated to take on the risk, same as any other business. The difference in this case is that the risk is that a bunch of thugs with guns will show up and either kill you or put you in a cage in addition to the usual financial ruin.

[cluckindan]

Many criminal gangs from biker groups to foreign cartels are doing the same thing and reaping profits in the $100Bs scale annually.

Your argument is not an argument for incarceration, it is an argument for abolition of prohibition and regulating the sales of some psychoactives.

The same stone would hit the fentanyl epidemic, it would hit the pushers of ”zombie drug” laced cocktails, it would hit cross-border trafficking, to name only a few. Society would massively benefit. So would the economy.

[sobellian]

> Many criminal gangs from biker groups to foreign cartels are doing the same thing and reaping profits in the $100Bs scale annually.

That comparison does not flatter Ross Ulbricht.

[krupan]

"Society would massively benefit"

Yes. Just like San Francisco and Seattle did when they legalized drugs

[glerk]

> he knowingly pursued enormous risk in order to achieve outsized benefits

Like it or not, this makes him a heroic figure in the eyes of many people.

> we shouldn't have bailed him out

Bailing him out comes at no cost. Letting him rot in prison provides no benefit to anyone.

[sirbutters]

Bailing him out comes at no cost? That's one way to see it. In my opinion, it sends a message that as long as you can provide value to this new administration, you get preferential treatment - no matter how shady and unethical your business ventures are.

[agumonkey]

I'm afraid that the current administration is fond on this business model. Borderline criminal business models behind curtains.

[celticninja]

Not sure it was high margin as much as it was low fees on a large number of transactions, coupled with bitcoin appreciation this meant he made a lot of money.

[rbanffy]

It was a very high RoI. The cost to run it was negligible compared to the income it generated.

[gloosx]

>The illegality wasn't just incidental

The illegality of drugs is a government reaction, since governance failed to do anything with the problem by action. No-one deserves a life-long sentence in prison for that. This market, as well as minimal competition, lack of regulation, and high margins was created by the same power which sends people to jail.

[paulddraper]

"Exploiting arbitrage" is not high on my list of concerns.

The rest of it is.

[ty6853]

Trump is a bit of an agorist is well. It's part of the American wild west mythical psyche, to the point America made a sport from moonshine running cars. Not hard for me to see how he half won and walked away with an unconditional pardon.

[ssl232]

> to the point America made a sport from moonshine running cars

Huh, is that NASCAR?

[pixxel]

> he enjoyed massive market benefit

Life imprisonment, no parole.

You have to be a complete and utter wanker to think his punishment was justified.

[pooper]

》 we shouldn't have bailed him out.

I don't have a horse in this race but the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear "we shouldn't have bailed him out" is silicon valley bank and its depositors. That to me was the biggest show of hypocrisy by silicon valley.

[sneak]

There were no victims of his conduct.

The idea that possession of drugs is or should be illegal is purely arbitrary, and is used thus to justify massive violations of human rights. It is literally insane that the state claims authority over what you are allowed to do to your own body.

No victim, no crime.

[mirpa]

While you might argue which drug is dangerous and which isn't, ban on drugs is not arbitrary decision. You can't do whatever you want with your body, because you might loose control and hurt others. Drug abuse affects others as well (financially, mentally, physically...). I am victim of someone's drug abuse. I never took any drugs. So if you are looking for victims of drug abuse, here I am.

[mightyham]

It's clear you don't personally know anyone who has been affected by a serious drug addiction. It is devastating not just for them, but their family and everyone that cares about them. It's unbelievable to me anyone could claim that dealing drugs is a victimless crime.

[GTP]

Drugs weren't the only items sold there, there were also weapons. If you illegally sell weapons in a country where it is already much easier to legally get a weapon than most other countries, you can be sure that those weapons aren't going to be purchased by a layperson trying to defend themself but by criminals going to use those to harm other people.