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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

#91

Post by koheripbal »

eropple wrote: post #45
forgot_user1234 wrote: post #24

When reached for comment, Patton wrote: "32 years ago I was a lost, scared, and vulnerable child. I won’t go into detail, but the reasons I left home at such a young age are unfortunately not unique; I suffered abuse in every form. I did terrible things and said despicable and hateful things, including to my own Jewish mother, that today I find indefensibly wrong, and feel extreme remorse for. I have spent most of my…

> But Patton does not mention that, by his own testimony, he continued to socialize with white supremacists while in the Navy. Patton told prosecutors that he gathered with skinheads while stationed in Virginia for training. “I had known some of the Skinheads there from prior rallies in Tennessee and because of not knowing anybody there, I ended up meeting with them and hung out with them for some time,” he said.

He joined the navy at 18, in 1991 - immediately after getting off the street and out of the gang.

Did you expect his transformation to be instantaneous?

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

#92

Post by koheripbal »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #78
forgot_user1234 wrote: post #24

When reached for comment, Patton wrote: "32 years ago I was a lost, scared, and vulnerable child. I won’t go into detail, but the reasons I left home at such a young age are unfortunately not unique; I suffered abuse in every form. I did terrible things and said despicable and hateful things, including to my own Jewish mother, that today I find indefensibly wrong, and feel extreme remorse for. I have spent most of my…

>Eventually, I was able to get myself away from this world while serving in the United States Navy. This turned my life around. While serving my country, I worked with law enforcement agencies in hate group prosecutions and left this world behind "The US Navy and law enforcement freed me from my racist past" is a bit difficult to believe.

It's easy to make that assumption if you haven't lived in those worlds yourself and only consume social media to give you an impression of what those communities are like.

You might be surprised, but the vast majority of law enforcement officers and soldiers are not, at all, racist.

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

#93

Post by koheripbal »

bravoetch wrote: post #29
z9e wrote: 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,…

People do change between being 17 and being adults. If you write about your life, knowing you are now a public figure, and leave this huge racist detail out, then the change is not enough. We can't accept both that people change, and it's ok to lie about it to everyone.

Wait... so you expect people to walk around with a giant billboard on their chest reading "I used to be in the KKK"?

It's one thing for a person to atone for their mistakes. ...it's another more sinister thing to demand that they apologize to everyone perpetually.

I find these demands for public apologies disgusting in their own right. All these social media types demanding that they deserve an apology for someone else's historic transgression.

If you think about it - it's really just a power rush you get forcing people to cow to you.

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

#94

Post by koheripbal »

save_ferris wrote: post #32
z9e wrote: 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,…

Forgiveness falls upon members of the public who read the story, not the press. I have no problem with this past being reported, especially given that he now runs what sounds like a large surveillance company. Being a successful CEO carries extra scrutiny that he might not have to deal with if he took a path with a lower profile.

I don't think random people in the public deserve an apology.

The people he hurt do. Since when does the general social media community deserve to be apologized to. People are getting an emotional power rush by forcing apologies from people who never transgressed against them.

This is poisonous behavior.

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

#95

Post by koheripbal »

mdszy wrote: post #20
z9e wrote: 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.

I disagree. It looks like he got this experience because of the work he did against the skinheads.

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

#96

Post by koheripbal »

aeqas wrote: post #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?

Nothing in that article is illegal, and comparing it to Cambridge Analytica is a huge stretch.

Most of it reads like run-of-the-mill data collection.

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

#97

Post by koheripbal »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #55
bobobob420 wrote: post #21

This was so long ago and he hasn’t killed anyone or done any thing of the sort since then. Who cares ? It is up to the system to deal with him

A lot of people care, in general, if money they pay - or which is acquired by virtue of their custom (eg money a company gets by unlawfully mining 'clients' social data, as appears to be the case here) - goes then to fund malevolent actions such as racist violence. The subject here, Patton, may be reformed, but there's a substantial possibility they are not and are using their ill-gotten money to fund further hate cr…

> but there's a substantial possibility

You have zero evidence of that. Anything is "substantially possible" if your bar for evidence is non-existent.

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

#99

Post by koheripbal »

fortran77 wrote: post #44
zynkb0a wrote: post #38

What is the significance of SoftBank financing this business?

It shows they don't vet their CEOs very well.

You expect them to go through 30-year old records on their creditors? Have you ever gotten a loan that required interviews with the people you went to high-school with?!?!

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

#100

Post by koheripbal »

fortran77 wrote: post #46
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #3

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

We don't know it was true. We know he makes the claim that his mother was Jewish, but who knows?

We also don't know it's not true.

That's why we require evidence before we reject someone's claims.

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