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CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

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Re: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

#13
Society will generally forgive people of the things they do while young, even heinous things, provided they’re open and remorseful about what happened. But when you hide it there’s usually an opposite effect. Seems this founder is about the learn about that the hard way.

Re: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

#14
It's hard to judge someone for doing something stupid at 17 when there's adverse influences around them. But Damien Patton wasn't 17 when he did this-

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3bgky/banjo-ai-used-secr...

That should be illegal. Are there not any laws against this?

Re: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

#16
Ouch. I'm sure this will destroy him financially and his reputation, but what if he actually turned his life around and is completely ashamed of this past? I don't want to come off like I support his past whatsoever, because I don't, but I feel there's no forgiveness left in our society to give people like this a second chance.

I guess I just believe people can change for the better and I want to encourage that more, rather than seeing people shunned after trying to become better and potentially being a danger to society once again as a result.

Re: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

#17

Society will generally forgive people of the things they do while young, even heinous things, provided they’re open and remorseful about what happened. But when you hide it there’s usually an opposite effect. Seems this founder is about the learn about that the hard way.

It also doesn't bode well that he's also entered a fundamentally evil business as an adult. Just shows an absolute rotten moral character.

KKK supporters and such can be redeemed, but it takes work and reflection.

Re: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

#18
> He says he became a self-taught crime scene investigator and then learned to code. Eventually, Patton helped build the digital infrastructure of what would become Banjo, a company that, in the past decade, has raised nearly $223 million, according to the investment data-sharing platform SharesPost, from prominent venture capital firms such as SoftBank.

Interesting and somewhat horrifying. Maybe SoftBank failed to do some due diligence here and have essentially funded a CEO with direct connections to the KKK. I can only see Banjo's next chapter going through three options:

* Option 1: Softbank cares enough and ends their investment in Banjo and the CEO stays on.

* Option 2: Trial by Twitter will pressure Banjo CEO to resign and everyone's happy.

* Option 3: Nothing happens.

Help me write the next chapter in which option is likely.

Re: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

#19

Interesting story that the ethnically Jewish CEO was a neo-Nazi.

Sounds like he suffered a level of abuse as a child that might have helped him go down that road. And his mother's Jewish heritage may have been the target for reasons we can only speculate (perhaps the abuse was at her hands?).

Given the depth of his past involvement in white supremacist terrorism, though, he should probably explain himself publicly, given his current success and public profile.

Re: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

#20
post #16

Ouch. I'm sure this will destroy him financially and his reputation, but what if he actually turned his life around and is completely ashamed of this past? I don't want to come off like I support his past whatsoever, because I don't, but I feel there's no forgiveness left in our society to give people like this a second chance. I guess I just believe people can change for the better and I want to encourage that more,…

A CEO of a surveillance company clearly has not turned their life around.
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