the discussion this morning on up with chris hayes of the aaron swartz situation (featuring his fiercely articulate gf, lawrence lessig, and (sadly) a former administration official with her perfect hair and little canned speeches) was exemplary and clarifying. i will say this: i so wish this person was not dead. but also this: m.i.t. should commit suicide. they prosecuted swartz as an enactment of the fact that they hate and want to destroy every value they claim to represent; they are dedicated to the repression or the exclusive ownership by some elite of truth, or indeed to exempting certain kinds of academic research from the sort of free examination that is the essence of the scientific ideal of how alleged truths can be tested or established. it's...salafism. it's as though we found out that mlk was riding with the klan in the evenings, or that the pope was in fact a committed worshiper of beelzebub, or that the dalai lama was a school shooter. you have humiliated yourselves profoundly; show some pride and fall on your sword. it's not too late to make a significant contribution to human knowledge: put your campus to the wrecking ball.
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