I've seen a lot of people get really angry over Ross Ulbricht's pardon. Usually justified by "He was a drug dealer and people DIED!" Or, "Children were trafficked on his site!"
Prohibition is a powerfully addictive drug. Statists are highly susceptible to this addiction, and can't even see when it is destroying their ability to reason. They like prohibition. They demand prohibition. And they don't care who is killed for getting in the way.
Drug abuse is stupid; prohibition is evil.
The truth is, Ross allegedly ran a website that promised commerce with enhanced anonymity. Yes, people doing things prohibited by government are going to use such a site. So will those who recognize that government has no business looking into their business, regardless of how mainstream and ethical their business may be. Government is the enemy.
People try to justify Ross' caging by saying "He knew what would happen".
The CEO of Ford sells vehicles that he knows will be used in crimes. There's no question about it. They are designed to be very useful to criminals. Should he be locked up for two life sentences plus 40 years because of it? No, that's ridiculous.
Every CEO of any company that offers email or other electronic communication services, like cell phones, knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that those services will be used in the commission of crimes. People will be victimized by users of the service through the use of the service. Should those providers of valuable services be locked away and the key thrown into the ocean? No. Only someone evil would try.
And caging Ross was just as absurd. Freeing him was unambiguously right. If someone is on the other side, it's not "just an opinion" because someone's life was on the line; they are siding with evil in this case.
It's possible that other CEOs get a pass because they offer a backdoor for government criminals to access to violate their customers. Perhaps this was partly government's way of punishing Ross for not doing so.
The right thing to do, beyond freeing individual political prisoners, is to get rid of the illegal rules government uses as justification for taking them prisoner in the first place. This would obviously destroy government. I'm OK with that.
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