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thih9 | on: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's letter to staff about affair
He may be a victim, but note that he had to choose to participate.

Also note that his wife and children are victims of his unfaithful actions. He is the only one responsible for that - he just said so himself.

Keyframe | parent | next
He may be a victim, but note that he had to choose to participate.

To play devil's advocate here.. If she's a spy trained in psychological manipulation and seduction we'd be right to call him a victim instead of a participant since he'd be a target of those techniques applied to him. Maybe?

hermitShell | root | parent | next
I would personally agree that it is possible he is a victim of advanced psy-op technology. I don't personally believe we have nearly as much 'choice' or 'free will' as NA culture of the past 40+ years has led most people to believe.

At a deeper level we do get to choose our overall environment and what kinds of things we are exposed to frequently, the recurring patterns of life can be consciously managed and shaped. But in the moment, we are more like an LLM doing a forward pass on next token. If a specific weight relating to refusal has been abliterated, it's not realistic to expect the next token to somehow still come out to refusal.

We can control our training better than we can control our inference. We have ego-ideals and specific mental makeup that can be exploited if identified.

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_heimdall | root | parent | next
That can help explain what led to him deciding to cheat, but no it doesn't make him a victim. People have to be responsible for their actions rather than being labeled a victim of their own choices.
ClarityJones | root | parent | next
That's generally true if the victim is a laymen, but somewhere between being a college pool-boy, to the president of a nation, to running a company that is more powerful than many nations... there arises an obligation to defend against such foreseeable attacks.
superxpro12 | root | parent | next
He's married... he made an oath, signed a social contract to another person, his wife, that he made the conscious choice to break.

Its clear his wealth generated a level of narcissism here that rose to a level that permitted him to invalidate the feelings of his wife, who, again, he made a vow to.

It does not matter if some hot chinese spy tried to get into his pants. He still let it happen. He his actions spoke for him: "I know i have a wife, but this chinese spy is so hot. I dont care about my wife anymore, but im going to keep this a secret from her because I know its wrong". For a loooooong time.

I'm personally so tired of excusing infidelity. He is a big boy. He can make big boy decisions.

Unless they're a poly couple, who knows.

noisy_boy | root | parent | next
What if she wasn't a trained spy but someone naturally gifted in psychological manipulation and seduction? No longer victim but participant? Even though the effect he faced was the same?
catchnear4321 | root | parent | next
There are other ways to compromise a target that do not involve infidelity. These “techniques” just facilitate the process for an at least somewhat willing and/or interested target.

So, no, he’s not a victim, his existing personal potential for infidelity was exploited. It worked because he would have done the same thing if the right non-spy were to arrive on the scene. The spy takes advantage of that.

MisterMunchkin | root | parent
And if he was a gambler and she offered him money to pay his debts, would you say he is a victim? Come on man.
montjoy | parent | next
We just don’t know the story enough to judge. What if he was given benzos and was immediately blackmailed for example? This is a nation-state organized affair after all, not just a poorly judged night at the bar.
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eecc | parent
Jensen's offspring are both adults, at some point the relationship changes from one of total responsibility and dependence to one among equals.

We should really stop with this "just think of the children" knee-jerk

not-kinsale-joe | root | parent | next
I have friends who as an adult one of the parents had an affair and and it was pretty tough for them, and the parent child relationship has never been the same again.

I don't know why you seem to be so against considering Jensen's children. Some people really value the commitments of marriage and see adultery as something very serious and damaging.

origini | root | parent | next
And project their world views onto others.
solenoid0937 | root | parent | next
I don't consider his children because they are nepo-babies that were hired into Nvidia, make tens of millions of $$$, and stand to inherit billions. They will be fine.

There are so many other children in the world that deserve consideration before his (grown adult, very rich) children.

Jensen should be apologizing to Americans for compromising NatSec.

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joebe89 | root | parent | next
I disagree. Even as an adult I would be distraught if one of my parents decided to cheat on the other. Your children being adults doesn't mean you no longer have a responsibility towards them.
mapcars | root | parent | next
Then its time to grow up, people change, interests change, lifelong love and happy life together is and always was a fairytale. Once you are 20 and somewhat independent its time to relax your responsibility claims on your parents. They already spent a great deal of their so very limited life time on you, at least be grateful for that.
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Tade0 | root | parent
I can tell you from experience that it hits different when you're legally an adult.

For one, there's no custody case. There's often also no child support (some jurisdictions extend it to college students) to speak of.

There's really mostly the sorrow of the parent who was cheated on.

pixelstack | root | parent | next
> Jensen's offspring are both adults

So, they are not allowed to be upset if daddy decided to cheat on their mommy after long marriage with some chinese honeypot? I hope you are not planning on start your own family any time soon

ethbr1 | root | parent
I believe parent post's point was that the children are allowed to be upset, but it's a bit rich for the internet to be clutching its pearls on behalf of them if they're adults.

"Think of the children" is a rhetorical appeal to pathos.

There's plenty to talk about here that doesn't require assuming how an adult is going to feel about another adult's behavior.

yabatopia | root | parent | next
Forget the children. Please think about the shareholders!

I notice quite a few people worry more about the financial implications (nVidia's stock price) than the ethical ones.

bigfishrunning | root | parent
I think many of his defenders are very worried about the financial implications and are defending him to try and steer the conversation in a way that will minimize those implications.
overfeed | root | parent
> We should really stop with this "just think of the children" knee-jerk

From the horse's mouth:

>> My actions hurt her and our children.

Parents (or "equals") can hurt and and disappoint others at any age - including adults.