Genius Aaron Schwartz (founder of reddit) killed himself due to Obama's DOJ

[zerozero]

here's his blog:

Raw Thought: Aaron Swartz's Weblog

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio

Tackling something big like this is terrifying; it’s far too much to start with. It’s always better to start small. What’s something you’ve been avoiding thinking about? It can be anything — a relationship difficulty, a problem at work, something on your todo list you’ve been avoiding. Call it to mind — despite the pain it brings — and just sort of let it sit there. Acknowledge that thinking about it is painful and feel good about yourself for being able to do it anyway. Feel it becoming less painful as you force yourself to keep thinking about it. See, you’re getting stronger!

OK, take a break. But when you’re ready, come back to it, and start thinking of concrete things you can do about it. See how it’s not as scary as you thought? See how good it feels to actually do something about it?

Next time you start feeling that feeling, that sense of pain from deep in your head that tells you to avoid a subject — ignore it. Lean into the pain instead. You’ll be glad you did.

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/savagesex

In the early 1900s, anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski did his field work in the Trobriand Islands of the Western Pacific. After getting himself ashore, he dropped himself into their culture and begun having to learn their language and understand their customs. The result were a series of groundbreaking books in the field of anthropology, much of which is still entertaining to read today.

In The Sexual Life of Savages (savages, Malinowski assures us, is a technical term and not meant to cause offense) he describes the customs of Trobriand’s intimate life, which is fascinating both for how it is different and how it is the same.

To a certain degree, it seems like the culture of the islanders presages our own. Back when Malinowski was doing his field work, he was amazed that islanders could freely have premarital sex and yet still found it desirable to get married. The same question would prove no puzzle to any American today.

more archives: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/archive

 

[newarkhiphop]

wow they wanted to give him 50 years for free articles ??


bbbbbut chinaaa

bbbbbutttt north korea


bbbbbutttt irannn

 

[superunknown23]

He was more courageous than 99% of coli posters including you and me will ever be.

so courageous that he took the ultimate cowardly way out

 

[zerozero]

Chris Hayes segment:

The brilliant mind, righteous heart of Aaron Swartz will be missed

 

[daze23]

it's a sad story, but I'm not gonna rationalize suicide

 

[No1]

it's a sad story, but I'm not gonna rationalize suicide

This is how I feel.

As for whoever brought up Libby, I know the lawyers personally who defended Libby, they thought he was going to take an L, but when you have one of the 5 best trial lawyers in the country defending you But that's a tangent.

I don't know much about this guy though, what did he do? Why have I never heard this name before? Finding some other bullshyt to get someone on is foul though.

 

[Hiphoplives4eva]

He was more courageous than 99% of coli posters including you and me will ever be.

This is how I feel.

As for whoever brought up Libby, I know the lawyers personally who defended Libby, they thought he was going to take an L, but when you have one of the 5 best trial lawyers in the country defending you But that's a tangent.

I don't know much about this guy though, what did he do? Why have I never heard this name before? Finding some other bullshyt to get someone on is foul though.

Did you read the article?

This man was the co-founder of Reddit and essentially invented the RSS feed system that is used all over the world. The dude was a savant and an internet pioneer. Im glad Obama and his cronies felt this man was such a threat that they needed to put the full force of the law on him to get "justice."

God I hate how this government acts

 

[No1]

Did you read the article?

This man was the co-founder of Reddit and essentially invented the RSS feed system that is used all over the world. The dude was a savant and an internet pioneer. Im glad Obama and his cronies felt this man was such a threat that they needed to put the full force of the law on him to get "justice."

God I hate how this government acts

No I didn't read the article, I'm watching the football game.

 

[Hiphoplives4eva]

No I didn't read the article, I'm watching the football game.

Im sure the rest of America is doing the same, meanwhile injustice abounds.

I hope your team wins...

 

[No1]

Im sure the rest of America is doing the same, meanwhile injustice abounds.

I hope your team wins...

This article isn't going anywhere.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Im sure the rest of America is doing the same, meanwhile injustice abounds.

I hope your team wins...

Like your ass ain't about to watch the Texans get beat by New England.

 

[Type Username Here]

The man taking a coward's way out is not the point.

The point is that this man was pushed to the brink because the Department of Justice bent over backwards to charge him for "stealing" words essentially. Both companies involved decided to not to press charges. MIT later went on to release most of what this man stole into public domain.

So, here's the deal:

This man was facing 35-40 years and $1,000,000 for stealing words while Jack Lew, Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner get a cabinet positions and Rick Scott wins governorship.

And you motherfukkers shrug it off like this is supposed to be normal behavior.

People like Bernie Madoff only get prosecuted because they steal from other wealthy people. When you defraud the lower classes or the taxpayer's money, you get key positions in government.

By the way, @zerozero was right, this man did more than anyone of here ever will to attempt to change the system and he did it quietly and humbly. He was one of the key driving forces against SOPA.

 

[daze23]

Lessig Blog, v2

Prosecutor as bully

(Some will say this is not the time. I disagree. This is the time when every mixed emotion needs to find voice.)

Since his arrest in January, 2011, I have known more about the events that began this spiral than I have wanted to know. Aaron consulted me as a friend and lawyer. He shared with me what went down and why, and I worked with him to get help. When my obligations to Harvard created a conflict that made it impossible for me to continue as a lawyer, I continued as a friend. Not a good enough friend, no doubt, but nothing was going to draw that friendship into doubt.

The billions of snippets of sadness and bewilderment spinning across the Net confirm who this amazing boy was to all of us. But as I’ve read these aches, there’s one strain I wish we could resist:

Please don’t pathologize this story.

No doubt it is a certain crazy that brings a person as loved as Aaron was loved (and he was surrounded in NY by people who loved him) to do what Aaron did. It angers me that he did what he did. But if we’re going to learn from this, we can’t let slide what brought him here.

First, of course, Aaron brought Aaron here. As I said when I wrote about the case (when obligations required I say something publicly), if what the government alleged was true — and I say “if” because I am not revealing what Aaron said to me then — then what he did was wrong. And if not legally wrong, then at least morally wrong. The causes that Aaron fought for are my causes too. But as much as I respect those who disagree with me about this, these means are not mine.

But all this shows is that if the government proved its case, some punishment was appropriate. So what was that appropriate punishment? Was Aaron a terrorist? Or a cracker trying to profit from stolen goods? Or was this something completely different?

Early on, and to its great credit, JSTOR figured “appropriate” out: They declined to pursue their own action against Aaron, and they asked the government to drop its. MIT, to its great shame, was not as clear, and so the prosecutor had the excuse he needed to continue his war against the “criminal” who we who loved him knew as Aaron.

Here is where we need a better sense of justice, and shame. For the outrageousness in this story is not just Aaron. It is also the absurdity of the prosecutor’s behavior. From the beginning, the government worked as hard as it could to characterize what Aaron did in the most extreme and absurd way. The “property” Aaron had “stolen,” we were told, was worth “millions of dollars” — with the hint, and then the suggestion, that his aim must have been to profit from his crime. But anyone who says that there is money to be made in a stash of ACADEMIC ARTICLES is either an idiot or a liar. It was clear what this was not, yet our government continued to push as if it had caught the 9/11 terrorists red-handed.

Aaron had literally done nothing in his life “to make money.” He was fortunate Reddit turned out as it did, but from his work building the RSS standard, to his work architecting Creative Commons, to his work liberating public records, to his work building a free public library, to his work supporting Change Congress/FixCongressFirst/Rootstrikers, and then Demand Progress, Aaron was always and only working for (at least his conception of) the public good. He was brilliant, and funny. A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don’t get both, you don’t deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you.

For remember, we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House — and where even those brought to “justice” never even have to admit any wrongdoing, let alone be labeled “felons.”

In that world, the question this government needs to answer is why it was so necessary that Aaron Swartz be labeled a “felon.” For in the 18 months of negotiations, that was what he was not willing to accept, and so that was the reason he was facing a million dollar trial in April — his wealth bled dry, yet unable to appeal openly to us for the financial help he needed to fund his defense, at least without risking the ire of a district court judge. And so as wrong and misguided and fukking sad as this is, I get how the prospect of this fight, defenseless, made it make sense to this brilliant but troubled boy to end it.

Fifty years in jail, charges our government. Somehow, we need to get beyond the “I’m right so I’m right to nuke you” ethics that dominates our time. That begins with one word: Shame.

One word, and endless tears.

 

[A.R.$]

Some of you people disgust me. You call man that took a stand a coward. What the fukk have you people ever done? Have you ever faced 50 years in prison, and a $1,000,000 fine? If not don't judge this man. RIP to Schwartz

 

[Mowgli]

Government loves you and always has your best interest in mind.