[txcwg002]

What do you think of this counterpoint from Balaji?

"CZ deserves his pardon.

His show trial of a prosecution was a combination of regulatory railroading and ethnic persecution for being Chinese-Canadian.

Imagine if Macron was held personally responsible for every crime committed by the 67M citizens of France, and you'll get the absurdity of holding CZ personally responsible for the actions of a few of the 250M+ Binance users.

Indeed, if the bureaucrats who went after CZ were similarly held accountable for every violent crime committed in their home states, they'd be in prison for eternity! But there was an insane double standard. In the physical world, the Biden admin gleefully abolished the police. Meanwhile, in the digital world they demanded that CEOs achieve impossible levels of probity.

The ethnic dimension to CZ's persecution was similarly execrable. In reality, he helped many millions of Chinese people get into Bitcoin and thereby get to freedom. And also helped millions of poor people from around the globe get out of failed currencies, and into cryptocurrency.

So he did more for practical human rights and civil liberties than most. CZ did nothing wrong, and did so many things right.

Of course, my friends at Coinbase and I were competitors of Binance. But I always respected CZ, and I congratulate him on his accomplishments, and I congratulate him on his pardon today. Well deserved."

https://x.com/balajis/status/1981423831572238856

[joyeuse6701]

Comparing gov’t officials to civilians is a stupid comparison.

Biden abolishing police is hyperbole.

CZ enabled a lot of dark shit. He is somehow simultaneously so powerful as to help millions of Chinese, but powerless to do anything about a few thousand of criminals and pedophiles?

This is not a serious take.

[UncleMeat]

It isn't just hyperbole it is completely divorced from reality. Biden said "fund the police" at a state of the union address. Federal law enforcement didn't see cuts. Funding for state police (the bulk of police around the country) increased, with very few localities actually shifting funds from police to other things.

[hackyhacky]

Changpeng Zhao broke the law and got caught. Everyone agrees on that. What you present above is revisionist history about "political persecution," which is the favorite justification of the current administration for pardoning convicted felons, even in the total absence of any evidence supporting a conclusion of political persecution. See also George Santos, J6 rioters, etc.

I don't think it's really necessary to pretend that this pardon was deserved. The pardon happened because (a) Trump wants the support of crypto billionaires and (b) Trump received a large bribe. It's really not complicated.

Painting Trump as sympathetic to ethnic discrimination is really ridiculous. No one believes that, even people who cynically use that justification to support his lawlessness.

[jonnygoodwin]

You sound biased. If you believe this narrative, I got a few questions for you… - How was Binance any different than any other crypto exchange? - Should Coinbase and every other crypto platform be charged for the same crimes?

[opello]

Is there a place for a logical counter-point in there not having been charges against people responsible for the 2008 financial crisis? It seems like a selective enforcement of rules or consequences in both situations to me.

[neilk]

He's not making an argument.

With these characters, from Trump on down, discourse is not the point.

He is flexing his power by showing he can make an obviously fatuous point and get away with it. Because there are no consequences, for someone like him.

[jazzyjackson]

The law says he should have prevented those bad apples from moving dirty money around, and he did not follow the law.

Do you have a rebuttal for coffeezillas assertion that 2 billion dollars of Abu Dhabi money was invested in Binance using the Trump family coin in order to buy a pardon?

The president is clearly pro crypto and doesn't think this dude did anything wrong, but he also wasn't gonna give a pardon away for free. It's a disgusting abuse of office he should be impeached over. Selling pardons, what a shit show.

[jonnygoodwin]

Would you agree that all crypto exchanges have moved dirty money around? I don’t see anyone else being punished for similar crimes in crypto.

I don’t doubt Trump tried to advantage himself when doing this. But I do feel like the Binance charge wasn’t consistent at all.

[p_j_w]

>In the physical world, the Biden admin gleefully abolished the police.

When did this happen?

[eviks]

In the imaginary rhetorical timeline

[antonvs]

I wonder which police it was, as well, since the only police the Biden administration had control over were federal agencies such as the FBI.

I’m tempted to think “Fox News is a hell of a drug.”

[shmoe]

How does a seemingly intelligent person reach such an empty conclusion?