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Godwinned?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tom-perkins-liberal-war-one-percent-kristallnacht
Venture capitalist Tom Perkins compared liberals' push to reduce inequality in the United States to Nazi Germany's war on Jews.

In a letter to the editor published in The Wall Street Journal Perkins, a founding member of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, asks whether a "progressive Kristallnacht" is coming. Perkins's letter is in response to an editorial on speech codes at American colleges.

"Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich," Perkins wrote in the letter to the editor.

He continued that he perceives "a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them."

Perkins cites outrage over real-estate prices as an example of overblown liberal outrage.

"This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?" Perkins concluded in the letter.

Perkins is listed as a partner emeritus on the Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers website.

This post was updated.

Read the full letter to the editor below:
Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."
From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these "techno geeks" can pay. We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a "snob" despite the millions she has spent on our city's homeless and mentally ill over the past decades.

This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?

Tom Perkins

San Francisco

Mr. Perkins is a founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

You're not supposed to godwin the OP!!!

The flaw in his thinking is that he's conflating the ability to turn money into larger amounts of money at the cost of other human beings in with a religion whose members were used as a scapegoat by a country left impoverished after being on the wrong side of a war.

You're not supposed to godwin the OP!!!

So is this some new form of meta Godwin? Where the discussion is Godwined before it even reaches the internet?

Oh and a crazy rich guy saying things that don't make sense while trying to justify hanging on to his obscene wealth. Oh and he lives in San Fransico the city filled with rich people who hate themselves for being rich while doing absolutely nothing about it.

Maybe he should move to one of the dozens of other much saner metropolitan areas of the country?

 LordofHats wrote:

You're not supposed to godwin the OP!!!

So is this some new form of meta Godwin?

I guess the next step is to Zimmerman the thread



If only he had a gun

I think I just won Dakka Bingo.

The NSA needs to check this guy out in case he has any insider info on Benghazi and/or if any of these 'progressives' look like Obama's son and whether or not they have skittles.

 WarOne wrote:
I think I just won Dakka Bingo.

If this is the quality of rich people in the US, then might I be so bold as to suggest murdering them followed by divvying up their stuff might be an actual improvement?

 BaronIveagh wrote:
If this is the quality of rich people in the US, then might I be so bold as to suggest murdering them followed by divvying up their stuff might be an actual improvement?

The concept of eating the rich is not a new one.

 BaronIveagh wrote:
If this is the quality of rich people in the US, then might I be so bold as to suggest murdering them followed by divvying up their stuff might be an actual improvement?

Not unless you want to be regarded as insane, no.

 BaronIveagh wrote:
If this is the quality of rich people in the US, then might I be so bold as to suggest murdering them followed by divvying up their stuff might be an actual improvement?

You realize you are suggesting murdering someone simply because they are either successful of lucky.

Either way, it makes you horrible for suggesting it.

Actually, he's suggesting murdering someone because they said something he didn't like.

 Seaward wrote:
Actually, he's suggesting murdering someone because they said something he didn't like.

Isn't that the way of the wild west?

Ahh, but he doesn't suggest killing poor people who say stuff he disagrees with.

This is basically "I don't care what you say unless you have stuff I want, in which case I kill you and take it"

 Grey Templar wrote:
Ahh, but he doesn't suggest killing poor people who say stuff he disagrees with.

Maybe he hasn't heard them do so yet?

Is he actually, genuinely suggesting that the Jews are equivalent to rich people in the US, i.e. that the Jews were the one with power in Nazi Germany? Because I think I've heard that "theory" before...

 Grey Templar wrote:
"I don't care what you say unless you have stuff I want, in which case I kill you and take it"

True, it would make US Foreign Policy and US Domestic policy effectively interchangeable.

Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."

Was there a non-fascist Nazi Germany of which I am not aware?

At any rate, that's gibberish. The comparison is bad, and the language is worse. Someone had a senior moment.

If you were going to try and make a link(and I'm not doing that) I would think if anything you would compare it to Marxist Leninism.....not Nazism.


GG

The link he's going for is the scapegoating and vilifying of an undeserving group for everybody else's problems.

 daedalus wrote:

 BaronIveagh wrote:
If this is the quality of rich people in the US, then might I be so bold as to suggest murdering them followed by divvying up their stuff might be an actual improvement?

The concept of eating the rich is not a new one.

Let Hannibal Lecter show us the way?

There's an interesting blog post on it here...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-brittle-grip-part-2

IDK if this blogger is considered right wing, left wing, or neutral.

 Seaward wrote:
The link he's going for is the scapegoating and vilifying of an undeserving group for everybody else's problems.

Because the tiny percentage of super wealthy are in no way responsible for growing inequality or the global instability caused by the banking and business system which made many of them (especially venture capitalists and other people who generate more money by virtue of having money) there money. Yep, it is totally a fair comparison to say that questioning the morality of 85 people controlling 50% of the worlds wealth is the same as claiming Jews betrayed Germany in WW1 and should die for it.

 Steve steveson wrote:
Because the tiny percentage of super wealthy are in no way responsible for growing inequality or the global instability caused by the banking and business system which made many of them (especially venture capitalists and other people who generate more money by virtue of having money) there money. Yep, it is totally a fair comparison to say that questioning the morality of 85 people controlling 50% of the worlds wealth is the same as claiming Jews betrayed Germany in WW1 and should die for it.

I explained the link he was going for, I did not say I agreed with it. Save your tirade for somebody who either cares or at least deserves it.

I'll be over here lighting cigars with Benjamins.

 Seaward wrote:
The link he's going for is the scapegoating and vilifying of an undeserving group for everybody else's problems.

It's a little early to self-righteously make that comparison, and a little ignorant of American politics to somehow think we hate the rich anymore now than we did 50 years ago. America and the Rich is like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. We don't really want to be together but we hav ea baby now and neither of us wants to be accused of parental abandonment

 Seaward wrote:

I explained the link he was going for, I did not say I agreed with it. Save your tirade for somebody who either cares or at least deserves it.

I'll be over here lighting cigars with Benjamins.

I didn't say you agreed with it. I understand you were just clarifying the link he was making. I just felt it needed re-iterating how dumb that link was by tacking on to what you said and the use of argumentum ad absurdum.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Seaward wrote:
The link he's going for is the scapegoating and vilifying of an undeserving group for everybody else's problems.

It's a little early to self-righteously make that comparison, and a little ignorant of American politics to somehow think we hate the rich anymore now than we did 50 years ago. America and the Rich is like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. We don't really want to be together but we hav ea baby now and neither of us wants to be accused of parental abandonment

I don't think we had anything near as powerful in terms of allowing hate to feed off itself as the internet 50 years ago, so I don't think I'd agree.

 Seaward wrote:

I don't think we had anything near as powerful in terms of allowing hate to feed off itself as the internet 50 years ago, so I don't think I'd agree.

I would ague that, 50 years ago, there were far more echo chambers, and that they were more pervasive; hence all the opposition to the civil rights movement.

There really isn't much to say about this. The guy is making ridiculous comparisons. The Right Wing in this country is pretty strong, so I don't think he has to worry about the Extermination Camps yet.

 Seaward wrote:

I don't think we had anything near as powerful in terms of allowing hate to feed off itself as the internet 50 years ago, so I don't think I'd agree.

I disagree with this. I am old enough to have been an adult before the internet was such an ubiquitous thing, and I have been exposed to much wider spectrum of ideas and points of view since I started sailing the internents on the regular. For example, while I was aware of tin-foil hat crazy leftists, I had never conversed directly with one before. Similarly, I had never encountered a lassez-faire right winger in person who could articulate his ideas clearly before, either.