He didn’t actually sell the guns or drugs. Their philosophy is, ‘Well, he just ran the website. Ross’s ideals were very similar to this federalist mentality: ‘Let the states decide, let the people decide.’ There are a lot of people who still believe that. When Ross Ulbricht was at Penn, he was a huge Rand Paul supporter. There are a lot of people all over the country who agree with it. WAS HIS WORLDVIEW JUST A MORE EXTREME VERSION OF THE LIBERTARIANISM THAT’S PERVASIVE IN SILICON VALLEY? HE WAS STEEPED IN LIBERTARIAN THINKING, ALBEIT WITH A DARKER BENT. Even if you weren’t mentally ill, there’s no way that any normal human being could rule over such a universe and not find themselves swayed in one direction or another, for good or for evil. There was a part of him that was living in the reality in which he was Ross Ulbricht, but the Dread Pirate Roberts-his alter ego-was the king of a world where he decided the rules.
I oscillated as I was reporting the book. I SAW EVIDENCE OF HIS CONVICTION IN THE BOOK, BUT AT OTHER TIMES I FOUND MYSELF THINKING THAT ULBRICHT WAS MENTALLY ILL. I spoke to so many people he was friends with… he truly did believe in a very idealistic way that the government should not be able to tell you what you can and cannot do with your own life, your own property, your own body. That was a mistake.ĪND WHAT WAS HIS MOTIVE FOR NOT USING THOSE DEFENSES?Īnd as far as the site goes, he truly did believe. He could also have taken the defense that, ‘Hey, I’m just a dumb kid who built this thing, and it drastically spun out of control, and I didn’t know how to stop it.’ But he didn’t. The outcome might have been different even with all the drugs and guns and everything-he was offered a plea deal that he decided not to take. DO YOU THINK IF HE HAD LIMITED THE CONTRABAND ON SILK ROAD JUST TO DRUGS-EVEN HARD DRUGS-THAT PERHAPS THE OUTCOME WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT? ULBRICHT IS EXCITED, BUT HIS GIRLFRIEND IS UNCOMFORTABLE, AND SHE BEGINS TO HAVE SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT HIM. IN THE BOOK, YOU RECOUNT THE MOMENT WHEN A GUN SHOWS UP FOR SALE ON THE SITE FOR THE FIRST TIME. I think his feeling was, ‘I haven’t been caught yet I’m never going to get caught.’ What he didn’t realize, of course, was that he had left a trail of things that he had done before the site was even started. Also, Ulbricht started building it in 2010 and launched it in early 2011, and he didn’t get caught in the first month or the first six months or the first year. FOR ULBRICHT, THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEALING DRUGS OR ORDERING MURDERS BECAME AN ABSTRACTION?
I just think that the technology separates you from human beings and actual physical contact, and it makes the idea of being able to change or end someone’s life with the push of a button something that you don’t necessarily have empathy for.
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