4,644 karma · joined September 11, 2013
If you admit to ever using LSD or psychedelics, even one time, you will be automatically disqualified from serving in the military or law enforcement (go figure).
Keep in mind that this is all coming from an armchair historian. It's easy to have a selection bias when comparing such things.
However, Americans underestimate how much our own influence is shrinking. I traveled to many countries in the last two years, and found that most people associate America with its most extreme ideologies (QAnon, gender theory, Trump policies, etc). The Russian bloc of the upcoming Cold War v2 will likely coalesce around the notion that America/Europe has no right to dictate global policy.
Konstantin Rokossovsky [1] was a Polish-born cavalry officer who was imprisoned and tortured during Stalin's pre-war purges - he later replaced the teeth that his interrogators pulled out with metal ones. He was eventually released and returned to military service, fighting loyally in multiple theaters of the Eastern front. By the end of the war, he was a top general and a loyal Soviet for the subsequent two decades.
A combination of fear, rabid ideologues, and lack of alternate economic opportunity, creates a breed of soldier that we would be wholly unfamiliar with. The Guardian is projecting the war's outcome from a younger generation of Russians serving on the ground or posting on Facebook, but the only way to understand the leaders is to reach back in history.
[1] https://www.beachesofnormandy.com/articles/The_man_with_iron...
The British government issued a formal apology and overturned his conviction around a decade ago.
> Mr. Miller told me that the bankruptcy filings of FTX International Group, the Alameda Group, and the FTX.US Group had to be in the United States because otherwise S&C couldn’t do the job. (35, p. 8)
> Mr. Miller stated that he needed to include FTX.US as part of the bankruptcy because FTX.US had the cash to pay S&C its retainer. Without this retainer from FTX.US, S&C wouldn’t file. I told him that it wasn’t proper for FTX.US to pay for the expenses of the bankruptcy of FTX International Group or the Alameda Group.
[1] johnreedstark.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/180/2023/01/FriedbergObjection.pdf
Obviously, this plays out much differently if you and your family are poor.
In America, you are very likely to be admonished by a stranger for littering in a public place. Trash cans are everywhere, and the laws/regulations are enforced, so the risk-reward of littering/pollution is overwhelmingly in favor of proper disposal. Most of the population doesn't have to work 14-16 hour days, 6-7 days a week, so there's a lot of volunteered time to go around for maintaining public areas. There is public funding and enforced regulations to handle waste management, and industry employees have union representation.
India is diametrically opposite to this - it would be risky to admonish someone for littering, especially if they look wealthy, because rich Indians are usually above the law and consider themselves so. Everyone bribes the police, so anyone can pollute the environment for a price. In everyday life, the tragedy of the commons is certainly prevalent - there's already a pile of trash, so one more wrapper makes no difference. But there is also apathy in the sense that you're not going to admonish the person dumping a rickshaw full of trash into the river, because that's the only realistic way for him to feed his family, and it's probably the only economical option over dumping it somewhere yourself. And there isn't much evidence that paying more in taxes is going to do anything for the problem, and a lot of evidence that it will just line your local politician's pockets. The people who actually do the work are usually the poorest in society, and they don't know the dangers of lighting carcinogenic materials on fire.
To summarize with an anecdote - I saw my uncle throw an empty chip bag on a beautiful beach in Goa, so I picked it up and asked him why he couldn't just hold on to it for a while. He shouted back, "it's someone else's job to pick that up!"
Dhanbad allocated around $34 million dollars to its public waste management company a couple years ago, yet even today it still hasn't managed to get standardized trash bins and collection routes for most households. Endemic corruption and tax avoidance cripples virtually every public service in India, and any systems of regulation (law enforcement, bureaucracy, politicians, journalism, etc) are firmly captured by the business interests that perpetuate it.
Last month I was in Mumbai visiting relatives, and found the ocean front is still covered in trash as it has been for decades. The vendors selling tea and snacks along the oceanfront are technically not allowed to sell there, so their primary concern is to make more money than they paid as a bribe to the beachfront police that day - the single-use cups and plates making it into a trash can is the least of anyone's concerns.
In regards to the printer cartridges (thread 34241769), I'd agree that objectively speaking you didn't really steal anything. You found an arbitrage opportunity and used it to the mutual benefit of yourself and the corporation buying the cartridges for $3 each to refill/resell.
In the case of the business rewards, that corporation created a customer rewards system, and you found an exploit in the system (i.e. using the store/receipt number along with a programmatic search for past transactions). I think if you had used this exploit casually, the FBI would not even bother pursuing it, and it probably wouldn't have been detected in the first place. There is some level of acceptance you need to have in the fact that you broke the terms of service by creating thousands of fake accounts, went to many stores in many different cities/states, adapted the exploit (when they added purchase amount verification) by noting purchase amounts of other customers in the store, resold the benefits on eBay, hired an accomplice in New Mexico, and so on.
On a personal level though, I'm sincerely rooting for you - the amounts in question are a rounding error to that size of corporation, and the "stolen funds" in question were anyways intended for customer rewards. I think your best outcome from a legal perspective is to admit what the evidence overwhelmingly seems to indicate, be radically honest with yourself about the situation, and resist the urge to be combative on technicalities - consider how it may lead to a worse overall outcome.
I would also concede that you may have a point with the warrant spacing, signature discrepancies, etc - at the very least, there is indication of a "guilty until proven innocent" mindset against you. However, you should also consider there is substantial hard evidence against you, provided by reputable third parties (Google, eBay, etc) - getting all of it declared inadmissible would be an uphill battle unless you have a highly motivated legal team.
Aside from obvious advice (don't do crime) I would say that the #1 most important thing to keep in mind if you are accused of a crime is to say nothing - no hello, no pleasantries, not even obvious answers - just "I would like a lawyer" and only speak when your lawyer is present. Innocent people have been convicted for not following this principle in dealing with the authorities.