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John McAfee looking completely like a 1980s villain now

Rob Beschizza at 10:51 pm Thu, Dec 6, 2012

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Anyone else think that crazy former antivirus mogul John McAfee--returned to his cell today following "heart attacks"--has begun to resemble legendary Polish-British actor Vladek Sheybal? Sheybal is seen here in 1980's best musical, The Apple.

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  • Antinous / Moderator

    You really can’t get away with shoe polish black hair and facial topiary at that age.

    • mappo

       Please forward that message to John Travola.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGNIDXUaVts

      • Antinous / Moderator

        He’s taken a flocking gun to his head.

      • ocker3

         He actually looks like a Pharoah

  • http://twitter.com/TalkyMeat Dave Cochran

    I’d say he more resembles The Master, as portrayed by Anthony Ainley in 1980′s Doctor Who:  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Master_Ainley.jpg

    • TWX

      I think he looks like a cancer-ridden Rip Torn…

    • Jonathan Badger

      Well, Boogaloo (the villian depicted by Rob), sings a song in “The Apple” about knowing how to be a Master, so maybe they are really one and the same…

  • goretsky

    Hello,

    Mr. McAfee passed out in jail, and was diagnosed with tachycardia from stress when brought to the hospital.  Is this really the time to be making light of him?

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky

    • Antinous / Moderator

      First of all, he’s stressed out because he’s running from the police who want to question him about a murder, so tough. Second, I have tachycardic episodes all the time, just like about a billion other people, so tough.

      • soylent_plaid

         So, hate to play devil’s advocate, but notice how it’s “question him about”, not “convicted him of”.  Yes, he ran.  This looks worse on him than if he just went in for questioning or fought it off via legal means.  As other people have said, however, the man suffers from mental health issues.  I don’t like big obtrusive antivirus software either, but it’s not like the man came to your house and personally installed it on your PC.  If we find it impossible to give anyone accused of a crime the benefit of the doubt, can we at least reserve judgment until the trial’s over?

      • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

        If I were suspected of ANY crime in Belize I’d be running too.

        • http://twitter.com/kangarara kangarara

          Good lord, why? Have you been there? It’s pretty relaxed unless you’re a crazed megalomaniac ex-billionaire bent on making your own experimental viagra and other designer drugs. Their main industry is tourism – they are not exactly hunting for ways to make outsiders unwelcome.

          • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

            It’s a horribly corrupt country.

      • abstract_reg

        Third, these days feeling sorry for a millionaire is a lot harder than it used to be; no matter what situation the millionaire is in.

        • http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic

          This notion that millionaires are more deserving of public mockery or that it’s okay to dehumanize them and take some enjoyment in their worst moments strikes me as very wrong because on a human level, that guy is having the worst moments of his life right now.  It’s very easy to poke fun and tear down a person because of what they look like and engage in minor mob-mentality type behavior online but he’s still innocent until proven guilty.  And who knows how fair that process will prove to be anyway.

    • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

      Your concern for McAfee’s dignity is touching.

      I just imagined a world where everyone was as nice as you, and it was wonderful, but implausible.

      • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

        We can try.

        • Andrew Singleton

          Trying is the first step in achieving.

        • wysinwyg

           I’d prefer not to.  Imagine having to watch nothing but Care Bears for the rest of eternity. 

          Mark Twain had a lot of good stuff in Letters from Earth about how humans have a great imagination when it comes to hell but can’t clearly conceive of anything that would really be like heaven — the closest thing we can come up with would be incredibly boring.

          • ocker3

             The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement. If Eudaimonia, or happiness, is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable  that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence; and this will be that of the best thing in us.

            — Aristotle,

            “Nichomachean Ethics”, Datalinks

        • Boundegar

          Do, or do not; there is no try.

      • http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com imaguid

        his concern for mcafee’s dignity is no doubt rooted in the fact that he actually knows the man.

        it is often easier to be critical of strangers. that’s something to think about in it’s own right.

    • Halloween_Jack

      There are quite a few people who are written about in BB that I feel sorry for. McAfee isn’t one of them. This is at least the second time you’ve come concern-trolling regarding McAfee in a BB thread; maybe you should address your own peace of mind and accept that not everyone is as big a fan of this guy as you seem to be.

      • EvilTerran

        “Concern trolling” requires there to be a worthy cause to attempt to undermine with your faux “concerns”. “Mocking an ill man” is hardly such a cause.

        While we’re throwing around liberal rhetoric buzzwords, though: Nice silencing.

        • Halloween_Jack

          Silencing whom? And the mere fact that McAfee may, in some way, be “ill” doesn’t negate the bad things that he’s apparently done, which have been extensively documented.  

          • goretsky

            Hello,

            Strangely enough, pretty much everything in the media about the “bad things” Mr. McAfee has done is wrong.  There are a few nuggets of truth here and there, but all the actual things that happened have largely never come to light.

            Regards,

            Aryeh Goretsky

      • goretsky

        Hello,

        I worked for Mr. McAfee for about 11 years and have known him for over twice that, so my perspective is certainly different from others.  That said, I do not see the need to belittle him.

        He’s now a senior citizen with health issues and fears for his life.  Even if those fears turns out to be unwarranted, he happens to believe they are true.

        There should no question that Mr. McAfee has done some questionable things in his life–not to mention outright illegal– and made some very poor decisions both professionally and personally. 

        He has already acknowledged that he stopped using drugs and alcohol in 1983, and that his “bath salts” post were a part of an elaborate wager (he used to engage in much smaller scale ones all the time).  It is a matter of public record that he took a leave of absence from McAfee Associates in 1993 due to health reasons, which became permanent the following year.

        As for trolling BB, I believe I have commented on at least one other thread earlier this year completely unrelated to this.  Simply because I don’t feel that I have anything constructive to contribute to the comments on an article doesn’t make me any less an avid reader.

        Regards,

        Aryeh Goretsky

  • Gerald Mander

    I’m going with All That Jazz’s Joe Gideon on a bender: 
    http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsS/15426-450.gif

    • http://twitter.com/kangarara kangarara

      YES!

  • TheMudshark

    There´s someone else that he resembles.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6z0Zay9itk

    • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

      I can just imagine McAfee being made to visit all his new neighbours and tell them what happened to his last neighbour.

  • http://devojane.blogspot.com devophill

    That .gif is the best .gif possible, and I love you for it.

    • TheMudshark

      It really is. I´ve probably been looking at it today for a combined ten minutes.

  • bzishi

    I don’t think he looks like an 80′s villain at all. The villains are always plotting and scheming, while McAfee looks so disorganized and delusional. To me McAfee looks like a man who is seriously psychologically troubled. I don’t see malice when I look at him, I just see paranoia and confusion.

  • Alex Felltir Sunderland

    Making light of someone with mental health issues. Nice. He’s an unwell man, however you look at it. Writing him off as “crazy” and then making comments about his looks is hardly a good response to a serious story.

    • Dave Jenkins

      His ‘mental issues’ are self-inflicted from a wide spectrum of drug experiments.  Moreover, he makes a career from ‘playing crazy’ whenever it suits him.  For that, it’s perfectly fair game to make light of him.

      • Faustus

        Oh sorry, didn’t realise you’d were a psychiatrist and had made a full assessment of his mental state.

        Headline: “Man we don’t like to blame for his own mental issues”

        In other news: “Our elderly relatives/friends helpless victims of mental illness”

        • Dave Jenkins

          Wait, hang on, Faustus– I never said he had mental issues, you did.  Are you a phychiatrist?  How do you know he has mental issues?

          That’s my point: we don’t know if he’s got mental issues or not.  We _do_ know, however, that he’s experiemented with drugs extensively, and is known for faking crazy if it suits his strange needs at the time.  for that, yeah– he’s fair game in my book.

          • YourOldBuddy

            Insane people can be motivated to be less insane during visits and such. A friend who worked at an asylum told me. 

          • welcomeabored

            [After killing the rest of the crew] ‘Look, Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.’ –HAL

          • http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com imaguid

             yes, he ‘experimented’ with drugs… 30 years ago. since then he not only built a software empire, he pioneered the concept of shareware.

            we do not know if any of the more recent allegations of drug use are correct, no matter how much more compelling they make the narrative.

          • C W

            His current (as of the last few years, not 30 years ago) history of drug use/abuse is posted by him, directly. There are no allegations more than he has already made.

          • http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com imaguid

             @google-4b3c8a17ed014a95db54ba5b738648c0:disqus yes, mcafee himself posted about more recent drug use/abuse. he has also posted that the entire thing was a hoax he perpetrated as part of a bet.

            since these two contradictory stories come from the same source, each has equal credibility and thus we cannot know which true and which isn’t.

        • Halloween_Jack

           And what are your credentials and/or basis for making a formal diagnosis?

          • Faustus

            I’m a doctor working in psychiatry. 

            Actually though I didn’t make a formal diagnosis there, I stated he had mental issues, which any fule kno from reading interviews with him. The accurate diagnosis of what those are is obviously impossible over the internet like this though.

            What annoyed me about the statement I initially replied to was that more frequently the cause and effect of drugs and mental illness is the other way round. People self medicate, knowingly or unknowingly, until things get too bad. 

          • welcomeabored

            ‘fule kno’?

            As for your reply, I agree.  I’ve wondered if this is more about a man who was troubled before he got into IT security, and everything that happened after his success there, just exacerbated his problems. 

          • Lyle Hopwood

            welcomeaboard: ‘fule kno’ – Faustus is quoting Nigel Molesworth, the renowned philosopher.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Molesworth

          • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

            Ignoring any other aspect this conversion:

            “And what are your credentials and/or basis for making a formal diagnosis?”

            “I’m a doctor working in psychiatry. ”

            Oh snap!

      • welcomeabored

        ‘His ‘mental issues’ are self-inflicted from a wide spectrum of drug experiments.’

        • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

          So?

        • Ito Kagehisa

          What an underachiever!  Most of us don’t need drugs to give ourselves mental issues.   If he was a real man he would use the traditional avenues of doomed romance or sociopathic employers and family members, like the rest of us.

          • http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com imaguid

             the chances that the drug use claims are completely made up are at least 50% – perhaps better since those who know him describe him as being pretty rabidly anti-drug since cleaning himself up 30 years ago

          • welcomeabored

            Up thread, Dave denied saying McAfee had mental issues, so I quoted him and said nothing more.

            Your reply gave me a chuckle.  This is for you:

            Happy Holidays, Ito!

            http://www.neatorama.com/2012/12/10/The-Seasons-Upon-Us/

          • Ito Kagehisa

            Ha!  Much appreciated, and I’ll pass that along to a couple other victims.

            Happy Holidays to you too!

      • dragonfrog

        He made a career running a software company, then he retired.  Whatever he’s done since then, hasn’t been a ‘career’.

      • Glippiglop

        I agree, his situation has been brought upon himself through his own actions.  There’s no need for anyone to feel sorry for a man that has made conscious decisions that have ultimately led him to this point.  He has no one to blame but himself.

        As a bonus to the rest of us, the whole situation is hilarious!  I say leave your empathy by the door and enjoy the soap opera as it unfolds.

        • Blank Look

          Part of “mentally ill” is often the inability to make sensible decisions or even to consciously control your decisions. Self-medication is often one of those bad decisions.

        • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

          People troubled by drugs deserve no sympathy and are solely to blame for any resulting mental illnesses.

          Got it. 

          • Glippiglop

            I wasn’t talking about ‘people’, I was talking about John McAfee.  He is an intelligent grown adult that understands consequences, a billionaire and **recreational** drug user.  Every action he has taken has been his choice and his alone.  All of the responsibility of those choices and the ongoing results now rest with him.

            So yeah, no sympathy whatsoever.

          • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

            Sorry, revised:

            Rich adults troubled by drugs deserve no sympathy and are solely to blame for any resulting mental illnesses.

            And FYI, if you’re developing mental illness as the result of recreational drug use, it’s not recreational any more. The guy may deserve no sympathy, but that’s not why.

          • Antinous / Moderator

            Rich adults troubled by drugs deserve no sympathy and are solely to blame for any resulting mental illnesses.

            That works for me. There are about six billion people who really need my compassion. He’s not one of them.

            He went on the run from the authorities. When he was caught, he pretended that he was having a heart attack. Although he was supposed to be unresponsive, he managed to revive enough to tell them not to undress him in front of the press. His vital signs turned out to be perfectly normal. He was simply being deceptive.

            Don’t really get why you want to come up with excuses for him being a complete fuck-up.

  • Roy Benevidez

    Meth. One heckuva drug.

    • wrybread

      That’d be my guess too.

      And man o man does this story get crazier by the day.

    • http://www.facebook.com/mike.bengtson Mike Bengtson

      Not meth, he’s reported elsewhere as being involved with MDPV/MDPK/Methylenedioxypyrovalerone – “bath salts”. From what I gather from trusted sources it’s like meth but with all the fun psychosis stuff coming on in the first couple of days instead of at the end of a week-long binge. Nasty stuff and the most likely explanation for why they could never find actual meth at his Belize lab.

  • DisGuest

    I don’t think it was asserted that McAfee was actually a villain, but that he looked like the villain in that gif. Whether or not he is mentally unstable, he does resemble Vladek Sheybal.

    • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

      This cannot be denied.

  • TacoChuck

    What do you think he is picking off of his face?

    • Roy Benevidez

       The Spiders. From Mars. He picked them left hand. He picked it too far.

    • peregrinus

      Thanks for that.  Lunch looks different now.

  • Florian Bösch

    You either you die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself becoming the villain.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Kai911 Jun-Kai Teoh

    My brother asked me this: So does this mean McAfee will serve a six months trial first?

  • smotherbrother

    What’s the deal with freshly imprisoned maniacs and the sudden onset of a  debilitating health issue?

    • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

      Withdrawal.

      • http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com imaguid

        more likely a stalling tactic – he had the awareness to tell the doctors not to undress him in front of the press, after all.

        • Antinous / Moderator

          While he was supposed to be unresponsive.

  • Jorpho

    First thing I thought of was The Golden Child, but no, that was Charles Dance, apparently.

  • Brainspore

    Man, General Zod has seen some better days.

  • sourbob

    Actually, when I saw the pic, I thought it was Stephen McHattie (A History of Violence, Watchmen, Pontypool) on a bad day.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cTZSCyXRe6A/SbiDTFyCv0I/AAAAAAAABfw/aFyatteouRM/s400/pontypool+mchattie.jpg

    Digression: if you have even a passing interest in horror films, I highly recommend Pontypool. Watch the first scene on YouTube and you’ll see what a strange beast it is.

  • Ito Kagehisa

    Speaking in my capacity as a person who looks like an 1890s villain, well, yes, you’ve got a good point.

  • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

    …Hold on just a minute…

    Sheybal is seen here in 1980′s best musical, The Apple.

    WTF, Rob? Impossible.

    The Blues Brothers came out in 1980.

  • Brett Myers

    When I saw his picture in the news, I cast Stephen McHattie, the fine character actor who played Grant Mazzy in Pontopool, as McAfee.