In an earlier post, I explained that by
disposition, I am very judgmental, but also very forgiving. A corollary
is that my politics are very anti-punitive, and I am very much in favor
of criminal rights. There's no particularly coherent worldview behind
this, and I am honestly not all that familiar with the criminal justice
system. I'm vaguely aware that California's prison system has major
problems with it, but I would not name that as the root reason for my
politics. The root reason is my emotions, might as well admit it.
Criminals are, by design, a marginalized group. And they
should be. But the marginalization should be somewhat restrained. For
instance, my landlord is a former felon. The crime was particularly
despicable too. But I don't believe in denying them business on those
grounds alone. I believe that it's best dealt with through a fair
criminal justice system rather than through the whims of individuals,
with all their nasty prejudices.
Brian Dunning is a skeptical celebrity, one that I otherwise like, and now he is a convicted felon. Brian Dunning runs the Skeptoid podcast. I have nice things to say about Skeptoid.
It's short, which makes it infinitely more listenable than basically
every other podcast I've ever tried. And Dunning takes the time to do
some research, which is more than I can say for most people. It's nice
sometimes to learn a few new things instead of just hearing people's
opinions.
But back to the felony. Prior to starting Skeptoid,
Brian Dunning defrauded eBay for millions of dollars. He used
custom-designed software to trick eBay into thinking that many sales
they were getting were coming from Brian Dunning's advertising. Dunning
earned millions in commissions until he was raided by the FBI in 2007.
More recently, Dunning has been convicted, and sentenced to 15 months
of prison.
You can read more about the story on Skepchick,
where there is a long dissection of Dunning's statement to the public.
Dunning says a lot of things which are, at best, technically true but
grossly misleading.
I was not giving Skeptoid any money previously, but I
had subscribed to it, and it was on my blogroll. I have unsubscribed
and unlinked it. While I believe in restraining our marginalization of
criminals, I don't have to like criminals. Promoting Dunning as some sort of skeptical leader requires at least a little good will on my part.
I also get the sense that "the whims of individuals, with all their
nasty prejudices" are working in Dunning's favor here. People like Skeptoid.
And oh, look, there's a photo of Dunning with his happy family. What a
nice guy, this white collar criminal, the kind of guy you could have a
beer with. Nope, not buying it at all.
Monday, August 11, 2014
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