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Raevix t1_j5dztdf wrote

“This time, it’s a little crazier but a whole lot bigger than anything I’ve tried before,” -Billy McFarland, director of the Fire Festival and fresh off of 4 years in jail for it.

Ah good. I can't see any possible way this can go wrong.

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DirectLavishness602 t1_j5e152s wrote

sounds like a bigger jail time, if revenge had an ambassador it would be this guy

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Raevix t1_j5e1tbj wrote

It seems like he just craves any kind of public attention, which is... really sad. I suspect he is probably aware on some level that there's no good ending to this. But saying "Guys I'm gonna do a totally not festival" puts him into the headlines again and that's all he needs. I don't think all the jail time, fines or public outrage in the world could deter him from trying to get into the spotlight again for another ten minutes.

If you read the article it's clear that he's incapable of preventing himself from misleading people to generate short term buzz. He's subtly promising it's going to happen in the Bahamas despite the Bahamas already explicitly stating "No,and If you set foot here you'll be arrested"

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aghilardi t1_j5e741u wrote

Not sure why but i read it all. "McFarland told NBC News that during his time in prison he served two separate turns in solitary confinement: a three-month stint for sneaking a USB drive in with him containing notes for a possible tell-all book, and later a seven-month stretch for calling into a podcast about Fyre via payphone. Prison officials declined to discuss McFarland’s time in solitary. "

I can't even imagine being a week locked alone. Not defending this scumbag but... man, isn't that too much?

Edit: I think your comment hits the nail: https://youtu.be/N234FJye320 (the man looks fried btw).

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Shinard t1_j5ema2o wrote

Jesus Christ, PoWs can get less solitary than that. That's all but torture - American prisons really need some proper oversight to stop this shit. If you lock someone up with no human contact for 7 months for calling into a podcast, you're on the wrong side of the bars.

With that said, might be worth taking what he says with a grain of salt, he hasn't exactly got a reputation for honest and accurate commentary. With that said, we do know that American prisons are terrible, so...

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Cat_Crap t1_j5gvrkd wrote

You guys might be ruling out the concept that he wanted to be in solitary. For multiple reasons, but often safety. Protective Custody sometimes is more or less solitary in same facilities.

That's not to say Solitary as punishment isn't torture. It absolutely is torture and shouldn't be allowed.

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mekatzer t1_j5iopr2 wrote

He might also be lying about the durations

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Shinard t1_j69u4xa wrote

I am, honestly. The quote from the article was "McFarland told NBC News that during his time in prison he served two separate turns in solitary confinement: a three-month stint for sneaking a USB drive in with him containing notes for a possible tell-all book, and later a seven-month stretch for calling into a podcast about Fyre via payphone. Prison officials declined to discuss McFarland’s time in solitary. ". That's not framing the solitary as consensual.

Again, he could well be lying - that is rather what he's known for - but I can believe that he's not, and that in itself is pretty damning.

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InGenAche t1_j5hodbp wrote

I know Piers is a POS, but he does good interviews of other POS.

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SB_90s t1_j5eaob4 wrote

All that says is that the jail time wasn't long enough to offset the benefits of defrauding thousands of people. That's the fundamental problem. Jail is meant to be a deterrent for crime, but if it's still net beneficial to commit the crime and go to jail, then it's failed.

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ddt70 t1_j5er2ei wrote

See also: Wall Street, where the fines bear almost zero correlation to the actual crimes…… thus being just simply part of the cost of doing business.

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sprint6864 t1_j5eta8j wrote

I'm making my own documentary where it focuses the blame where it rightly belongs - the island people

Edit: This is a Vulture reference from B99

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