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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

#211

Post by [deleted] »

weeksie wrote: post #165
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,…

It's lunacy. I have no idea about the man or who he is but 30-odd year old incidents should never ruin a person's career. This reeks of moral panic.

[deleted]

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

#212

Post by twomoretime »

weare138 wrote: post #206
canadaduane wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some people are motivated better by reward. Some people are motivates better by fear of punishment.

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

#213

Post by Aperocky »

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…

This would have been a worse allegation than whatever he did 30 years ago. We all change from the past, but should also be judged by present.

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

#214

Post by eldavido »

cultus wrote: post #168
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…

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.

Times like this are when they wash out.

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

#215

Post by cultus »

skdjsjkhfkdsjh wrote: post #209
cultus wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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-inflammator…

[flagged]

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

#216

Post by yellowapple »

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?

For one, if you happen to be in the same military unit, "meeting with them" is kind of an inevitability.

Also, this was still 30 years ago. If this is seriously the most recent example we have of him continuing to interact with neo-Nazis, then I feel like it's reasonably plausible that he's sincere barring further evidence to the contrary.

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

#217

Post by anthuswilliams »

aazaa wrote: post #203

The panopticon-as-a-service product Banjo is hawking right now is way more disturbing than the past rantings of the company's founder.

I don't know if this is better or worse in that respect, but I have been following Banjo since 2017 and I'm pretty convinced that the product Banjo is hawking is basically vaporware[1], and that Banjo is actually in the business of defrauding state and local governments (and Softbank of course, but that goes without saying).

If you look at the press releases and publicity Banjo has released as well as the talks Damien Patton has given, their big success story stems from a trial run in 2013 where the Utah CPS ran a simulation of a child kidnapping and Banjo identified the probable location of the (simulated) kidnapper. Since then, there has been nothing.

Meanwhile Patton's message has continually evolved in perfect lockstep with the hype cycle, from mass shootings to the opioid crisis to, these days, some mysterious power to provide predictive security while still protecting individual privacy.

[1] He probably has a reasonable social media/text analytics product with some geographic aggregation. But it's hard to separate from the promises because no one has actually seen it.

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

#218

Post by arm32 »

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 think that's a little bit of a strawman argument. Surveillance has its time and place, especially when used to deter crime or bring justice to really bad people out there. That's like saying Kevin Mitnick didn't turn his life around when he started consulting.

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

#219

Post by eldavido »

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 you're right, but like politicians (or anyone entrusted with handling large amounts of power), the real test is how you fare over the long run.

Quoting Buffett, recessions like we're heading into now are where the tide goes out and you can see who's swimming naked.

Like you, I've also thought about this a lot, but if anything, it's changed my opinion toward "career politicians", a category people love to dish on. It takes real talent to deal with conflicting interests over years/decades and not self-destruct.

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

#220

Post by twomoretime »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #147
scabarott wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why they're down-voting you. I'm at least concerned that someone with that kind of past has anything to do with building such sensitive and influential law enforcement infrastructure. I don't know what his current state of mind is and I believe in second chances but this kind of history should disqualify you from at least some types of sensitive roles.

> I believe in second chances but this kind of history should disqualify you from at least some types of sensitive roles. What exactly do you think a second chance is?

A second chance doesn't mean a clean slate to do anything. You probably wouldn't put a convicted pedophile in a daycare, second chance or no.
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