If Beehaw made a dime every time a .ML tankie invaded a post to slander socialists, they'd have more money than Facebook.
The offender in the comments is obviously overzealous, and I'm not familiar with "Beau", but I did some searching and it...kinda does seem like he deserves some accountability.
I see he served some time, but is it true he's never publicly addressed this in his Beau role? Cause when someone is trying to amend for past misdeeds, I tend to think there's an obligation to be honest and transparent about those misdeeds.
Details here (search for Justin King): https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/sites/dcjs.virginia.gov/files/publications/victims/florida-strategic-plan-human-trafficking.pdf
I don't think he's trying to amend for past misdeeds -- I think he's just trying to live his life. If we lived in a restorative justice society instead of a punitive one, I'd have different expectations of him. We are a society ruled by war criminals who have never seen a day of prison. Things are hard enough for people who've survived incarceration, it's a shitty thing to throw his past at him. Especially since the people who tend to do it are acting in bad faith, and whose actual beef is that he's not simping for genocidal dictators.
the people who tend to do it are acting in bad faith, and whose actual beef is that he’s not simping for genocidal dictators
I hesitated even challenging for exactly this reason. I want people who do good things to be empowered to continue doing them. And I completely agree with you that people who've survived incarceration and paid that penalty have a fundamental right to a blank slate return to normal life. But I feel like the establishment of a public persona can change that dynamic slightly. From the video that @[email protected] helpfully provided, it seems like his current work is maybe partially focused on deradicalization, which requires some degree of trustworthiness and credibility. Honestly, I think his past could enhance that work if he was open about it and integrated it into his approach.
Ultimately, you're right. He's "paid his dues" as far as society is concerned and has no real obligation to put that stuff on display if he doesn't want to. But I also think it's fair to be a little skeptical; we can only make inferences about other people's character and intentions, and this is naturally a factor for that inference. I'll end with this note, though: it's obvious that he garners a lot of respect for what he's doing with these videos, so I'm confident I'll find that his good character is plenty apparent through his actions now. Time to watch some videos and prove it to myself.
He did discuss his own criminal record at least once on his channel:
Beau is the YouTuber who got me to finally start subscribing to channels and I voraciously consume each one as they come out. He's quite excellent.
Beau of the Human Trafficking CIA Plant? No thank you.
Not sure what you're talking about with the CIA plant stuff. But it looks like he did his time and reformed after smuggling aliens. Good for him.
The CIA plant is more of a feeling tbh, given his background and current doings. Probably uncalled for. But people who are capable of doing what he did usually don’t reform… It’s hard to go from seeing human beings as tools for your enrichment to actual human beings.
There there, take your pills, grandpa.
I’m old because I don’t support human traffickers? Dude literally ran an operation to bring underprivileged workers to the US from poor countries to be exploited by US companies. All while doing the whole “keep your passport safe” bullshit. Literal human trafficking.
He worked for the people who ran it. When people frame him as a human trafficker they're falsely creating this image of a man who kept people in cages and shipped them over international boundaries but if you read the court documents it was nothing like that.
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