I understand and generally agree, but then I thought what defense does Aaron have? That he only signed up for the fun parts of homewrecking and drug use in a home with children? That alcoholism, narcotics dependency and swinging could be neatly partitioned from the other aspects of their lives? He's not responsible for the daughter taking cocaine but hedonistic and addictive people make each other worse. Part of Aaron's innocence might be he lacked opportunity.
I think the two main mitigating factors in Aaron's favor are that he has expressed remorse, and that the evidence he exposed children to danger on the same level that Nick did is weak to non-existent.
As I recall, a fair amount of digital ink has been spilled in this thread which suggests, at the levels Nick's daughter tested at, his daughter's exposure to cocaine occured
after Aaron left the polycule.
A reasonable reading of what happened here seems to suggest that's Aaron's penchant for degeneracy isn't on the same level as Nick's. That he, unlike Nick, realized at some point that shit was getting out of hand.
I have long held that this wouldn't be nearly as big a shitshow if it was
just sex and drugs (rock and roll optional), but that once Nick's daughter tested positive for cocaine, Nick lost the support of everybody with even a shred of moral decency.
Nick REALLY wants this to be Aaron admitting to having an addiction to lying and creating a facade so he can discredit Aaron's testimony about the Qover. That combined with his denial about his own cocaine addiction means he can't accept the real obvious interpretation that Aaron's talking about drug addiction.
What blows my mind about all this is that if Nick really wants to claim he doesn't or didn't have an addiction problem, and could stop using drugs at any time, that would mean he's just doing drugs because he's a hedonistic asshole.
People can be sympathetic to addicts. There's been a general shift away from seeing addiction as a criminal justice issue, and more of a public health one.
People tend to be
less sympathetic to willful acts of being an asshole.
I don't know if Nick understands that. It's like he sees people with addiction problems as weak and beneath him, when most people with addiction problems I have encountered in my life are way better people than he is.
Worse, he also uses past addiction issues as a cudgel to try and discredit people.
See i.e., Mamma K.
Nick thinks this text shows 2 things:
1. Aaron knows that he's a loser and that the Steel Toe show isn't popular, which is humiliating
If Faran is to be believed (and honestly, I have done a complete 180 on her, to where I think she tells the truth more than she's gotten credit for in the past), Nick was crying to her on the phone that he knows he's a shit lawyer and that his e-career has been irreparably damaged. I believe it was Andrew or Meme that related that story publicly.
