this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
1249 points (97.9% liked)

News

22626 readers
3827 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There's no answer which is both easy and 'just.'

Let's assume that financial slavery is not something that the United States allows. We shouldn't force a person to live the rest of their life allocating 100% of their income to garnish debts. That's indentured slavery with extra legal steps. I think that's probably a reasonable take for most of the population.

Let's also assume that you don't get a ~1.5 aggregate billion dollar judgement against you without you being responsible for it. This dude clearly has been judged by society and the result is that he needs to remit payment to atone for his mistakes. His previous business status and incomes may have eventually been able to pay that off, but the mere existence of the judgement completely obliterates his ability to pay. We're in limbo here - it seems wrong to let him continue being himself, as that's a big reason why he's been judged against in the first place, but not letting him be himself hurts his ability to make good on the payments required of him.

If the government seizes his assets, he will in no way be able to cover the full amounts that have been ordered. The people will get some small portion of what they are owed. Nobody really is made whole. Alex Jones 'loses,' but continues to live. How much money should he be allowed to keep to himself for rent, utilities, food, transportation, liberties, etc? Should that money instead be actively sent to the other parties in perpetuity until the debt is repaid? Does Alex Jones have any incentive to keep living in that case? Are we then indirectly advocating for death as a result of the inability to repay civil debts?

I'm just going on a rant at this point. Sucks for the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre and all those who have had to deal with his bullshit. I don't think anybody will ever be made whole or happy from this train of events, but I know for sure that there's a line that we as a society shouldn't entertain crossing.

[–] PatFussy@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is the comment I wanted to see. I feel like this case might be used later as an example of what not to do. Yes he is an asshole but thats his brand, take that away and he wont be able to be good on paying. The only way out is him serving life in prison over this but i think thats unprecedented.

[–] Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm hoping that these kinds of conversations are happening behind closed doors, because I sure don't see them happening in the media at large.

I do feel that my line of thought is creeping into the "don't let perfect be the enemy of good" territory, but I have no dog in this fight, so I think that's a luxury I can take.

[–] PatFussy@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

So i was thinking about this again, and I was wondering... do you think this might be taken to the Supreme Court as it might be infringing on the 4th amendment as an unreasonable seizure? Would that be why they are holding off? Is there any standing on that

[–] Medatrix@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

What I don't get is yes it is a lot of money but the court should force him to sell all of his expensive toys such as the lake house and boats. Take him down to a single house and car. That way he is not spending as much money he owes his victims. Then garnish his wages to the median salary people make in the area he lives.

Granted the forced sale and garnishment should be after the bankruptcy court but they should run through this case fast. I don't have much hope for bankruptcy court in Texas since that seems to be where all corporations go to screw people over. (Also look at how the sacklers abused the process)

[–] Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago

The bankruptcy process will force him to sell the expensive toys but I am not sure if even that can force him to set aside money for civil judgements. In some cases, bankruptcy can also discharge those debts... so we will see.