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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

#201

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe »

canadaduane wrote: post #187
zynkb0a wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't necessarily disagree, but can one do anything that puts them past a point where society should afford them a chance at redemption? Does an individual always deserve to be given a second chance?

These are great questions. When I look at religious institutions (I'm thinking of the Catholic church, or the LDS church that I grew up in) there are formal ways to achieve absolution. I wonder if we need a secular version of that, other than "prison time"? (And even "prison time" typically carries life-long stigma, rather than absolution).

Absolution doesn't mean you ignore character traits, unless it's a simple society.

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

#202

Post by [deleted] »

burner831234 wrote: post #184
maerF0x0 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and it's follow up is how can a remorseful person make amends and resume normality? I'd argue if there is no path back to normality they they will, by definition, forever find fringe behavior necessary and rational

This is so telling. There are so many individuals in our society who were participating in mainstream behavior and are still rotting away in jail. Equality through jail isn't the goal, but we'd be remiss to ignore that he's admitted to a hate crime and living a pretty full life. It is yet another example of the cracks in the rule of law

[deleted]

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

#204

Post by asdff »

linuxftw wrote: post #196
asdff wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I see someone publicly talking about smaller government, I look at their actions and see that they are really talking about eliminating public welfare and expanding corporate welfare. Fiscally, every R in DC is a neoconservative. They hold their traditionally conservative social positions simply to secure voters who would otherwise have no reason to vote for neoconservative policies that are often against th…

> The Republican party is powerful in this country, most of all because it is a single beast where every member from the highest to the lowest office tows the party line. I know of another party that operates in a similar fashion. > Fiscally, every R in DC is a neoconservative No argument here. But we were talking about 'conservatives' rather than a particular political party. Parties have done a great job at brandin…

I'm with you on the military. I think its the biggest waste of budget we have, personally. Vietnam should have been the death knell of an overinflated military seeing as we failed to subdue farmers with rusty weapons, and continue to fail against farmers with 50 year old weaponry today. At least with the democrats there is a lot more heterogeneity in political opinion, although I'm jaded by the lack of imagination from the national office.

California is a great example of the heterogeneity of the democratic party. Most state and local politicians are democrats in name only. Sure, they support democratic social platforms like not being discriminatory to marginalized groups, who wouldn't? But looking at policy positions regarding land use and the role of public government, many hold very conservative positions. This is still the land of Reagan, and his politics never really went away even if the Rs seemed to disappear from ballots.

I think it's interesting to look at the different types of democratic voters in CA. Nationally, Bloomberg was sort of a DINO candidate. Take a look at the vote breakdown (1). I know LA so I'll give an overview for that city. Sanders held working class areas including neighborhoods with the highest population density in all of LA county, the region along Vermont Ave. from the 10 freeway to the hollywood hills. Biden was a mixed bag, drawing a lot of support from predominantly Black areas due to the association with Obama, but also from upper class white areas in the south bay such as manhattan beach, hermosa beach, and redondo beach. Support for Bloomberg only was found in some of the wealthiest zip codes like Brentwood and Beverly Hills, as you might expect given his positions.

1. https://www.latimes.com/projects/2020-california-primaries-p...

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

#205

Post by robocat »

ceilingcorner wrote: post #135

Tough situation. I can understand him trying to hide the mistakes in his youth. I certainly wouldn’t want to be haunted by whatever idiotic things I did or said as a kid, although they definitely were nowhere near what this guy was doing. Admitting such things before building a career would instantly be a non-starter. I also think as a society we have to acknowledge that rehabilitation and forgiveness needs to be pos…

> I imagine he could have donated or helped the synagogue in an pseudonymous way

How do you know he hasn’t donated anonymously?

> Certainly the people he hurt would be far more willing to defend his rehabilitation now if he had done so.

I think “I did some donations” would be perceived as self-serving, or would simply be cynically attacked.

Your comments feel would be damned either way.

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

#206

Post by weare138 »

canadaduane wrote: post #177
cultus wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, an abusive, toxic person both then and now. It's funny how such people often rise to the top through bluster, despite being objectively bad at their jobs.

I've thought a lot about this. I think there is actually a form of manipulation / abuse that makes a leader objectively GOOD at their job. They become successful, wealthy, etc. That said, that form of leadership has costs. I think there are other modes of leadership that can be even better (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teal_organisation ) and that's what many company cultures are trying to cultivate.

> I think there is actually a form of manipulation / abuse that makes a leader objectively GOOD at their job.

Based on my experience, I'm more inclined to think the inverse it true. Those types of leaders are actually pretty bad at their jobs but appear subjectively good through manipulation and abuse.

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

#207

Post by Pils »

jprince wrote: post #199
Pils wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets be clear, he showed remorse once he was caught, but none before then. What dues did he pay? He appears to have moved on from that stage of his life fairly quickly, and appears to never have been rejected employment/housing via background checks due to a technicality. There are men on death row who committed the exact same crime. I disagree with your second paragraph entirely. I do not want to live in a society w…

So what do you do with those people who did do those despicable things as teens? I don't just mean this, but any reprehensible action. I think obviously we can maybe keep them from getting any kind of comfortable jobs, keep them doing drudge work. But even then, do you really want a neo-nazi cleaning your toilets? No, that's not good enough. We need to round them up and contain them somewhere. Their remorse can't be…

You appear to have issues with my statement, but also don't seem willing to provide a coherent rebuttal. If you are willing to speak your mind plainly and clearly, feel free to edit your comment.

Since you evoked concentration camps, I'd be remissed if I didn't point out that the vast majority of Nazi bureaucrats, including many directly involved in the administration of concentration camps, faced essentially no punishment and quickly re-entered the postwar workforce. No one involved in the illegal incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII was ever sent to prison.

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

#208

Post by maerF0x0 »

teachrdan wrote: post #150
maerF0x0 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and it's follow up is how can a remorseful person make amends and resume normality? I'd argue if there is no path back to normality they they will, by definition, forever find fringe behavior necessary and rational

One way a sincere ex-neo Nazi could return to normality is by ceasing to socialize with active neo Nazis. That was not the case here. From the above quote regarding his seeking out and spending time with the same white supremacists: "I ended up meeting with them..." How does one "end up" meeting with neo Nazis? He fails to take responsibility for his behavior after his hate crimes conviction!

> How does one "end up" meeting with neo Nazis?

Probably the same way that alcoholics often end up at bars.

For alcoholics their existing friends are often all alcoholics too, and to them normal people just dont "feel right" and are hard to meet when the only place you feel comfortable is a bar.

Similarly, when tryin to extricate oneself from a undesired community (toxic or otherwise) one has to learn where to meet people from the desired community, unlearn the undesired values+vernacular, learn the values+vernacular of the new community. etc.

We're herd creatures and, for many, not having a herd feels like being on the brink of death.

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

#209

Post by skdjsjkhfkdsjh »

cultus wrote: post #197
paypalcust83 wrote: post #190

I think there are three problems with the title: 1. Clickbait exploitation. 2. Conflating people who have sought redemption from past deeds with those who are jerks for other reasons. 3. Social fascism isn't the proper response to actual fascism. Throwing people away, instantly and permanently, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. If people "can never change" when they clearly have, this isn't the sign of a dece…

[flagged]

>It's pretty obvious that this new account is not arguing in good faith, but I'll take a stab anyway.

Not to be a dick but a quick browse of both his/her and your first page of comments indicates you are likely to be the one arguing in bad faith. You have a range of comments on this topic all of which seem to be taking a hard line on one side of things. He/she has one comment on this topic and a range non-inflammatory comments on other topis.

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

#210

Post by throwawaybanjo1 »

davebots wrote: post #171
banjo_throwaway wrote: post #146

I know two people who took jobs at Banjo. Both of them quit within months because the place was so incredibly toxic. Second hand info, so take with a grain of salt: The CEO tries to run the company like a personality cult. Everyone was expected to be available 24/7 to respond to his demands. He liked to demand things on Friday night, weekends, or holidays to test people's loyalty. My friend was told he had to schedul…

i'm a reporter on the team that broke this story, if you don't mind passing along my email to those people: dave@medium.com. much appreciated, and sorry to barge in on your comment.

Check this out dave https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14783521
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