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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

I think another interesting thing about these times, compared to when such things may have happened 20+ years ago, is that the photos they've described would cause rather little outrage or attract much beyond a few giggles from the public. Especially if released after their existence is already known about. I think the iCloud leaks of 2014 severely tempered society's salacious demand for more pictures of this nature.

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This is especially true because it isn't a matter of hypocrisy: Bezos isn't a political figure or religious authority claiming high moral standards.

As I read Bezos's post, I noticed that at the section where he describes the photographs, I found myself simply scrolling past them to get to the next part of the story.

100% — Let’s be realistic. Between two consenting adults is there anything non-violent that is truly that weird? We have a few pleasure bits attached to our bodies. Some people get excited by objects (fetishes). When you step back a level, the window dressing becomes laughably irrelevant. You’ve seen my dick? Oh no. You saw me courting another female? Private, but oh, the horror.... it’s just so silly in the scheme of it all. I would laugh and laugh at anyone that tried to extort me in this way. “Hey team, someone stole some dick picks of mine, don’t look at them if you want eye contact to remain comfortable, lol.” Life goes on. Am I being a little flippant, yeah, but seriously, step back, in 10 years this won’t even be a footnote on his Wikipedia page beyond the fact that he spanked AMI like the bad toddlers they are.

Even violent consenting things shouldn’t be weird.

> is there anything non-violent that is truly that weird?

Weird and outrageous things I can think of that people have consented to:

- 'playing' with excrement (Gross! this is what the owner of Whole Foods thinks of basic hygiene)

- master slave play (Misogynist Bezos ordered this woman to ...)

- cuckolding (haha Bezos isn't enough of a man to satisfy his girlfriend himself)

None of those are weird or outrageous if all participants are enthusiastically consenting adults.

Which of the sample headlines I gave would not cause outrage you think?

Maybe the last one will 'only' cause you to lose the respect and thereby business deals of your peers.

Outrage? I doubt it, frankly. Max Mosley was literally filmed in 2008 having a BDSM orgy with hookers dressed up in Nazi regalia and even then the reaction was more muted than not. To the extent there was a public outcry it stemmed entirely from the Nazi themes more than the sexual acts themselves. Personally I give that a pass as well, but understand why it would ruffle feathers.

"I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."

--The President of the United States

Everything you mention pales in comparison to the quote above as long as it's between enthusiastically consenting adults.

Probably more to do with the fact that there's so much high quality porn on the internet that we're honestly desensitized to amateur quality celeb nudes. Briefly intriguing, but overall rather "meh?"

Granted, I could just be projecting, but I don't think I'm alone here.

Well, it's sort of weird because I think at one time the thought was that "serious people" would never take a nude of themselves or have affairs, that this kind of action was somehow "beyond the pale" and an action only a few outliers engage in. Nowadays, everyone seems to have decided that these activities are actually very common, though likely still in the minority (I think??)

By and large, humans are sympathetic when they can empathise - or in other words when they can see themselves in another's shoes. At this point, I'd wager most adults in the developed world have learned that they too have an impressive capacity to grow skeletons in their own digital closet, and adjust their worldview and morality slider accordingly.

I think I speak for the majority of humanity when I say I have zero desire to see Jeff Bezos’ package. There’s a reason tabloids stick to celebrities.

I don't know. To be honest, I'm a tad curious. The prospect of memes comparing him to Johnny Sins and subsequent bezos / Amazon porn parodies seems humorous.

Yeah, AMI really seems to be operating with an outdated world view here, whereas Bezos correctly assessed that the public at large will be more impressed by the act of standing up to a blackmail attempt than they're concerned about his marital fidelity. AMI's going to get dunked hard : being simultaneously amoral and stupid makes them the easiest target in the world.

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