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CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth
- SiempreViernes 7y agoUnwalled: http://archive.is/gvYP4 http://archive.is/gvYP4
- hn_throwaway_99 7y agoInteresting story that the ethnically Jewish CEO was a neo-Nazi.
- akerro 7y agoIn the history there were plenty of Jews who were trading and killing other Jews as well as Nazi soldiers who were saving Jews.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoreminiscent of the The Believer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Believer_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Believer_(film)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- paulie_a 7y agoWell Hitler was Jewish
- throwaway2048 7y agoNo, he wasn't
- stephenhuey 7y agoHe’s referring to the idea that Hitler may have been a quarter Jewish. Not sure where this study from 10 years ago ended up: https://www.history.com/news/study-suggests-adolf-hitler-had-jewish-and-african-ancestors https://www.history.com/news/study-suggests-adolf-hitler-had... There were a lot of articles about that and here’s a recent one: https://m.jpost.com/diaspora/study-suggests-adolf-hitler-was-a-quarter-jewish-597966 https://m.jpost.com/diaspora/study-suggests-adolf-hitler-was...
- throwaway2048 7y agoQuestionable evidence that his grandmother might have had an illegitimate child with a Jewish man is a long way from "Hitler was jewish" Not to mention this is standard ahistorical conspiracy theory fare.
- stephenhuey 7y agoIt’s fine to point out it’s questionable. Both of you were just throwing at one-liners with no substance like you’re fighting on a playground. I rarely downvote and thought about downvoting him but I decided to search to see what he might be talking about. You didn’t even look at my links, otherwise you would’ve known the first one was talking about a DNA study. Yes, as far as I can see it was very much up in the air, but I don’t think I should be downvoted for explaining what he was referring to.
- paulie_a 7y agoThank you, I read the links and yes my absolute assertion may be wrong.
- koheripbal 7y ago> Both of you were just throwing at one-liners with no substance Welcome to HN - the new Reddit.
- 7y ago
- fortran77 7y agoSadly, I'd expect this from hacker news commenters.
- paulie_a 7y agoPosting facts? I guess if you don't praise the hot new startup from sv it's downvoted central.
- dang 7y agoHN gets millions of comments a year. You should expect to find all kinds of junk in any set of that size. The problem is that people (all of us) are more likely to notice and remember the things they dislike. That basically causes everyone's image of the community to turn into a reflection of their own dislikes—and the more strongly you dislike something, the more vivid the image will be. It's a serious problem and I don't know what to do about it. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20notice%20dislike&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... But it's definitely not the case that the HN readership generally supports a comment like the GP. Note that the comment was maximally downvoted.
- dang 7y agoIf you post flamebait to HN like this again we will ban you. This thread was wretched enough without heading into this circle of hell. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- danans 7y agoSounds 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.
- fortran77 7y agoWe don't know it was true. We know he makes the claim that his mother was Jewish, but who knows?
- koheripbal 7y agoWe also don't know it's not true. That's why we require evidence before we reject someone's claims.
- iron0013 7y agoWhat? We require evidence before we accept claims, not before we reject them.
- e5india 7y agoNo, it depends you see, when minorities claim police misconduct, those claims require evidence before we accept them. In the case of a 'former' Neo-Nazi claiming Jewish heritage we accept the claim without evidence.
- fortran77 7y agoBut this was a claim about someone else. Let's hear from his mother. If I said something about you should the claim be believed until proven false?
- koheripbal 7y agoThis was a person's claim about themselves. If you have no evidence to the contrary, you obviously cannot accuse them of guilty of being dishonest.
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago> Patton was charged with — and pled guilty to—acts of juvenile delinquency in connection to the incident Edit: as the getaway driver. Seems like a strange charge to bring up for the incident.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- brimanning 7y agoFrom the paragraph before your quote: > With Patton at the wheel, the Ku Klux Klan member fired onto the synagogue, destroying a street-facing window and spraying bullets and shattered glass near the building’s administrative offices, which were next to that of the congregation’s rabbi.
- davedx 7y agoIt's in the article. He was the driver.
- throwaway5752 7y ago*On the evening of June 9, 1990 — a month before Patton turned 18 — Patton and a Klan leader took a semi-automatic TEC-9 pistol and drove to a synagogue in a Nashville suburb. With Patton at the wheel, the Ku Klux Klan member fired onto the synagogue, destroying a street-facing window and spraying bullets and shattered glass near the building’s administrative offices, which were next to that of the congregation’s rabbi. No one was struck or killed in the shooting. Afterward, Patton hid on the grounds of a white supremacist paramilitary training camp under construction before fleeing the state with the help of a second Klan member." Paragraph 6 in the linked article.
- pjc50 7y agoThe charges seem comparatively light, even for the adults, for an act of terrorism and conspiracy to murder (although fortunately not succeeding).
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y agoSociety 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.
- cultus 7y agoIt 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.
- sasasassy 7y agoWhy not hide it? If you did something very stupid at 17, something of which there is public record for everyone to find with a background check, do you still have to go around telling it to everyone for the rest of your life? You have paid for your stupidity and life goes on. In this case life has certainly moved on and it doesn't seem like he is secretly creating a 4th reich in his free time. Of course if you can do something easy to hide it like spelling your name better great. It has been a long time, but some people don't seem to understand this and seem to want criminals to be punished forever. Why bother about this?
- bluntfang 7y ago>Why not hide it? Integrity.
- washitallaway 7y agoAre you suggesting this founder should have been more public about his past? Based on what is being reported he seems to have pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made something of himself under terrible circumstances. He has clearly done good and that is what people will judge. His bad decision doesn't define him, yet you would have him tell everyone so that he reaches your bar of being "open and remorseful."
- aeqas 7y agoIt'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-secret-company-and-fake-apps-to-scrape-facebook-twitter https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3bgky/banjo-ai-used-secr... That should be illegal. Are there not any laws against this?
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago>But once users logged into the innocent looking apps via a social network OAuth provider, Banjo saved the login credentials, according to two former employees and an expert analysis of the apps performed by Kasra Rahjerdi, who has been an Android developer since the original Android project was launched. Banjo then scraped social media content, those two former employees added. // CMA (UK)/CFAA (USA) both make unauthorised access a crime, so, yes there are laws against this.
- bravoetch 7y agoMany livelihoods in tech depend on the surveillance economy. There are some laws, but they're not enough. Everyone I know that works for companies like this is able to justify it with their paycheck or the cool project they are working on. Ethics are never a consideration and the law is someone else's problem.
- koheripbal 7y agoNothing 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.
- z9e 7y agoOuch. 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.
- mdszy 7y agoA CEO of a surveillance company clearly has not turned their life around.
- dlgeek 7y agoThat probably has more to do with having been in the military...
- cultus 7y agoIt doesn't change the fact that it is fundamentally a bad thing, because it will be used mostly for nefarious ends. I'd probably have a leg up selling anti-personnel mines to the US military if I were a former officer, but using this advantage would be unethical (because land mines are fundamentally evil).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- koheripbal 7y agoI disagree. It looks like he got this experience because of the work he did against the skinheads.
- arm32 7y agoI 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.
- rvz 7y ago> 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.
- break_the_bank 7y agoIt wouldn't be the first time SoftBank failed to do due diligence on the business that they invested in.
- cultus 7y agoThey have an amazing talent for this.
- throwawaybanjo1 7y agoSoftbank massively fucked up on this one. Feel bad for the current employees. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14783521 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14783521
- drongoking 7y ago"Direct connections to the KKK" ? Did you read the article or his statement? He was 17 and fell in with white supremacists after/during an abusive childhood. If you want to dispute this account, fine, let's hear it. If you want to claim Banjo is otherwise an evil company, OK, it may be, but that's a separate point. But claiming that this episode as reported constitutes a direct connection to the KKK, and implying it's ongoing, is off the mark.
- bobobob420 7y agoThis 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
- ttaahh 7y ago"the system" has given life sentences to people for marijuana charges while people who literally helped a hate group shoot at minorities go free. The system is broken, and i assure you, plenty of people care
- bluthru 7y ago>"the system" has given life sentences to people for marijuana charges No it hasn't.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoA 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 crime, or other anti-social racist activity.
- koheripbal 7y ago
- forgot_user1234 7y agoWhen 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 adult lifetime working to make amends for this shameful period in my life. In my teens, I dropped out of school, lived on the streets, ate out of dumpsters and raised money panhandling. I was desperate and afraid. I was taken in by skinhead gangs and white supremacist organizations. Over the course of a few years, I did many things as part of those groups that I am profoundly ashamed of and sorry about. 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. Since then, I have tried and failed to completely accept and come to terms with how I, a child of Jewish heritage, became part of such a hateful, racist group. One thing I have done, through therapy and outreach, I have learned to forgive that 15 year old boy who, despite the absence of ideological hate, was lured into a dark and evil world. For all of those I have hurt, and that this revelation will hurt, I’m sorry. No apology will undo what I have done. I have worked every day to be a responsible member of society. I’ve built companies, employed hundreds and have worked to treat everyone around me equally. In recent years, I’ve sought to create technologies that stop human suffering and save lives without violating privacy. I know that I will never be able to erase my past but I work hard every day to make up for mistakes. This is something I will never stop doing."
- DaniloDias 7y agoThere is a part of me that wants to extend forgiveness, but then I remember what Banjo does and I feel nothing for him. I’ve known many who were stupid when they were young. It often is a direct result of malignant or neglecting parents. Some recover and do great things. This guy appears to have “recovered” and then went on to monetize state surveillance ambitions.
- scabarott 7y ago
- sergiotapia 7y agoPeople can change, and he was a kid from an abusive home per the article.
- eropple 7y agoAs the article repeatedly states, Patton proceeded to continue his association with white supremacist groups during his time in the U.S. Navy. Shockingly, white supremacist does not stop white supremacisting. Film at 11.
- sergiotapia 7y ago"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. Isn't it human nature to reach for familiarity when in new places? You're reaching.
- eropple 7y agoHuman nature to reconnect with Nazis? I dunno--if I had a friend who was self-avowed hostis humanis generis they would by definition no longer be my friend. But this is your schtick, so continue to perform it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sergiotapia 7y ago"my schtick"? Jesus, you can't talk about stuff online anymore.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ciabattabread 7y agoBetter hope the algorithm he programmed isn’t racist. https://onezero.medium.com/how-tech-algorithms-become-infected-with-the-biases-of-their-creators-d19756352dc9 https://onezero.medium.com/how-tech-algorithms-become-infect...
- zynkb0a 7y agoWhat is the significance of SoftBank financing this business?
- fortran77 7y agoIt shows they don't vet their CEOs very well.
- manfredo 7y agoOr they were aware, and they conclude that someone's behavior as a homeless 17 year old has little if any bearing on their aptitude in running a company 30 years later.
- SQueeeeeL 7y ago"But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. ... But as a man obtains more power, camouflage becomes less necessary.”
- koheripbal 7y agoYou 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?!?!
- ciabattabread 7y agoWhy the hell was this post flagged?
- throwaway2048 7y agoBecause the mods at HN believe that shaming people for past actions doesn't promote "intellectual curiosity" or some equally inane non-reason. Considering it was on the front page, now doesn't appear 4 pages deep just minutes later, a mod clearly nuked this.
- dang 7y ago"Clearly" is an interesting word to use for something that you've imagined. The submission was "nuked" by user flags and the software known as the flamewar detector or overheated discussion detector.
- throwaway2048 7y agoI apologize for my assertion, however there is a decided lack of transparency around issues like this that definitely contributed to my thoughts on the topic. Not sure how to balance transparency on HN's moderation with the fact trolls and bad faith actors will abuse it.
- dang 7y agoWell, we're always happy to answer specific questions and there's no question we aren't willing to answer. In that sense we're pretty transparent. It's true that there's no facility that publishes a log of everything that happens, but that's for reasons I've discussed many times (and could probably dig up links to if you care).
- iron0013 7y agodang, does it ever make you feel sad that so many HN users will apparently defend Nazis, KKK members, and other white supremacists regardless of the circumstances or severity of their crimes? Like, do you ever kind of throw up your hands and wonder why you’re spending so much effort maintaining “civil discourse” as users cheerfully spout Stormfront forum talking points right in front of you?
- sweden 7y agoThank goodness the title mentions it is Softbank backed, otherwise I would have missed some good Softbank bashing.
- dang 7y agoIt's really hard to come up with neutral titles for a story this inflammatory. I changed it from the article's main title in the hope that it would have less of a less extreme effect on the thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23011234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23011234). But I missed the fact that the subtitle also included a different sort of flamebait. One consistent lesson of moderating an internet forum is that titles dominate discussion virtually completely.
- contemporary343 7y ago"Typos on records connected to Brown and Armstrong’s case — first a misspelling of Patton’s first name, Damien, as “Damion” in an initial affidavit of probable cause; then, in subsequent filings, spelling Damien as “Damian” — have helped prevent the discovery of Patton’s full biography for the past 30 years." How remarkably lucky for him. It is striking that such luck, and second chances, are rarely afforded young men of color who find themselves on the other side of the law in this country.
- illumin8 7y agoAgreed. This hate crime was committed 1 month from his 18th birthday. A defendant that wasn't white would have been tried as an adult and thrown in jail for years.
- iamleppert 7y agoOnce a nazi, always a nazi.
- kstrauser 7y agoThat's an incredibly dangerous mentality, as it tells people currently in those situations that all is lost and that they can never participate in the rest of society again, so why bother? I think it's important to give sincere people a path to redemption, not because I have any sympathy for nazis, but because I want to have fewer of them around. Really, you could say the same about criminals, drug dealers, gang members, and anyone else with a terrible back story. I want those people to get out of those lifestyles and become productive contributors to civil society. If we tell them they're beyond hope, then their numbers can only increase over time as people join but then never leave.
- battery_cowboy 7y agoOr, we reject them from society and younger folks learn it's not okay to be a Nazi.
- anorphirith 7y agoI think softbank largely made up for it by giving free millions to wework's Israeli Adam Neumann. It really shows their lack of due diligence on both cases.
- Dahoon 7y agoWhy does it matter and why does it mention Softbank? Seems like someone just want to bash people they don't agree with. Flagged.
- cultus 7y agoIt matters, and is in the public interest, because he runs a surveillance company whose clients include governments. Of course, to you, not supporting eugenics or the extermination of the Jewish race is just a matter of opinion. Comments like these show that individuals with these horrendous beliefs are everywhere, including all over Hacker News and the tech industry at large. Hacker New's moderators would do well to focus on these bad-faith actors instead of flagging anti-hate content.
- e5india 7y agoIt's so interesting how these surveillance/data-gathering companies (Palantir, Banjo, Anduril) are founded by right-wing types. Professed small government libertarians building that very same government's intelligence apparatus for profit. It's exactly this double-speak on government and individual liberty that makes minorities distrustful of conservatives.
- linuxftw 7y ago> right-wing types What you perceive to be the right wing, possibly. Some would call these types 'Neocons' or 'RHINOs' implying they're not actually conservative, they're authoritarian statists. This is why there was the 'tea party' deal a few years ago. Many people actually do believe in smaller government and individual liberty, but the media likes to point out the crazies and the statists as proof that all 'conservatives' are bad, immoral people. So far, their propaganda is working. Edit: Spelling
- asdff 7y agoWhenever 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 their own economic interests. I doubt Mitch McConnell actually believes in any of his social policy stances, they just exist to drum up votes to keep Rs in office to pass neoconservative economic bills. For example, when Republicans have DC strangled, they still don't make serious efforts to ban abortion despite their rhetoric over the past 50 years. Why would they? That's one of their best wedges to divide the voting block of the working class. If they actually banned abortion, they would lose a talking point at best, and swaths of single issue voters at worst. The tea party movement is another great example. Funded by conservative groups like the Koch brothers under the guise of a grass roots movement. It strengthened support among the R base, some new faces appeared in DC, but the overall economic ideology of the republican party did not change. 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.
- ceilingcorner 7y agoTough 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 possible, especially for mistakes we make as kids. The mob seems to want people like this to be disappeared, which is unfortunate for a country so influenced by Christianity, in which forgiveness is a prime value. On the other hand, this guy seems to have really been a subscriber to some bad, dangerous ideas, and more importantly, he doesn’t seem to have done much to atone for it. Donating to the synagogue, getting involved with the community or somehow seeking forgiveness by acknowledging his mistakes would have been better than just hiding it. He didn’t need to do anything public that would dig up the past either: I imagine he could have donated or helped the synagogue in an pseudonymous way. Certainly the people he hurt would be far more willing to defend his rehabilitation now if he had done so.
- robocat 7y ago> 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.
- ceilingcorner 7y agoNow would be the time to mention that he’s been donating to the synagogue for X years. If donations are too cold and abstract, then starting an organization that fights hate, or somehow getting involved seems doable. He is a wealthy person and had the resources for it.
- augustt 7y agoWhat a moving redemption arc! Going from guerilla acts of racism to making a company that aids in institutional racism.
- werber 7y agoThis makes me think of the movie The Believer.
- banjo_throwaway 7y agoI 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 schedule his weekend activities with the company because everyone was on call all the time (he wasn't devops).People who didn't drink the kool-aid were filtered out quickly. Banjo is also extremely aggressive with NDAs and threatening legal action against employees who speak out. Their Glassdoor page has been flooded with extremely dubious glowing reviews and I've watched many of the negative reviews slowly disappear over time for some reason. The CEO recruited both of my friends with some grandiose stories, including the same story about being close friends with Zuckerberg. I don't know if he's actually close to Zuckerberg, but the Banjo CEO has been telling many people in Utah that he and Mark Zuckerberg are close friends, at least as a recruiting hook. Banjo was already unpopular in Utah because they were awarded some very questionable state surveillance contracts. The state of Utah has already paused the contracts. As a Utah resident, I really hope this is the end of Banjo's involvement with Utah's surveillance.
- cultus 7y agoWow, 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.
- canadaduane 7y agoI'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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teal_organisation) and that's what many company cultures are trying to cultivate.
- 7y ago
- golemiprague 7y agoHow is this different from Bernie Sanders who supported communist Russia and went there to celebrate his honeymoon or whatever it was. The same communist Russia that killed tenths of millions of their own citizens in working camps and prisons following an ideology that dehumanised anybody who was not supporting their specific brand of ideology . Not to mention that we all buy products from China, a country that put Muslims in concentration camps as we speak. So we all make mistakes, Bernie Sanders doesn't even feel ashamed about supporting such a murderous regime, why someone who was a Nazi for two minutes and denounce it should be in trouble now?
- throwaway23019 7y agoIt's not every day that you read such an article about a person you know and worked for more than a year. I'm not excusing any of his behavior in youth, although I believe he feels very bad about it, but the person I know has definitely evolved from the distorted personality described in the article. It is possible, please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSH5EY-W5oM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSH5EY-W5oM. The time I worked at Banjo was a great experience and still think he's one of the most skilled founders I've ever met. Great sales skills and tech chops. I was an immigrant and have always been treated with respect. At the same time it isn't surprising for me to read a comment like the other one on here about working at Banjo: with such a strong personality at the head of the company it can be like that for some, but I wouldn't consider it very different from other SV realities like FB or Amazon. Sad that he participated in those crimes, and hope this becoming public can bring him to give back more to the community.
- aspenmayer 7y agoThis just in: Utah Attorney General suspends state contract with Banjo in light of founder’s KKK past https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/28/utah-attorney-general/ https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/28/utah-attorne... Discussion on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23012144 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23012144
- rexreed 7y agoAnother instance of Softbank investing in toxic management and people with past or current criminal behavior. Clearly management team due diligence isn't relevant to their investing strategy.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- paypalcust83 7y agoI 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 decent, functional, nuanced, or tolerant society in touch with the meaning of words or self-awareness.
- cultus 7y agoIt's pretty obvious that this new account is not arguing in good faith, but I'll take a stab anyway. 1. It's a literal description of what happened. He admitted to being a neo-nazi terrorist. 2. He has not sought redemption in any meaningful way, but has instead started a surveillance company. That his conduct has continued to be abusive just shows it is a permanent lack of moral character. 3. I think you might need to adjust your definition of fascism. The "social fascism" you describe dilutes the word of all meaning, which is probably your intent. He helped commit a terrorist act at the age of 17, and continued to be associated with Nazis for some time after. A tolerent and open society means that we cannot tolerate these kinds of people running surveillance companies with government contracts. The reasoning should be obvious. See also, Popper's paradox of tolerance.
- skdjsjkhfkdsjh 7y ago>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.
- cultus 7y agoI'll happily take a hard line on coddling Nazis. With some exceptions, my posts are very informative and tend to be well received. I have strong opinions, but I avoid personal attacks except in cases like these. It's also normal to have strong negative opinions on genocide. Every decent person does. It's also pretty obvious that you registered to argue in this thread about whether being nice to Nazis is good or bad. I imagine you wouldn't have wanted me to look at the comment history of your main account.
- terriblehners 7y agoHacker News denizens are, as usual, rallying around this person simply because he happens to be a wealthy CEO. Neo-Nazi racist skinhead? Shot up a synagogue? Say what? Ahh doesn't matter, he's one of us now! Let's get out the big old book of excuses and comment them to each other! And downvote and/or flag anyone who disagrees! You people disgust me.
- aazaa 7y agoThe panopticon-as-a-service product Banjo is hawking right now is way more disturbing than the past rantings of the company's founder.
- anthuswilliams 7y agoI 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.
- Konohamaru 7y agoYes, people deserve second chances. No, they can't become C.E.O.'s because C.E.O.'s are effectively unelected government officials of the United States and the same criterion that says it's a bad idea to let him run for president means it's a bad idea to have him continue being C.E.O.. It's not like "bad man become good and pays back debt to society as a small-time business owner" because of the power differential. Interesting story though. But if you deny people second-chances, then said criminals have no incentive to make amends. If they cannot make amends due to it being absurd, then society should be prepared to reduce them to menial slavery... because that's the only other way to prevent them from continuing the bad behavior (given that society made it impossible for him to move on from the past). I have discovered that there are exactly three objectively unforgivable offenses: 1. Inducing another human to despair thereby depriving him of a right to a future. 2. Accusation with the intent of marring another human's soul with eternal guilt. 3. The deliberate and intentional reduction of another human being to slavery. Notice that being a murderer isn't one of them.
- Gollapalli 7y ago>because C.E.O.'s are effectively unelected government officials of the United States This is a really, really interesting take on it. I happen to agree, but if they're public officials, then how do we square the absolutely massive incentives to action at the expense of the public good?
- jdkee 7y agoYuck. Why is there so much discussion about this cretin?
- paulie_a 7y agoSo an admitted Nazi might lose his shitty and unceative startup for wanting genocid Let me find the world's tiniest violin. To take a page from southpark. He fuck off