{"id":147384,"date":"2023-04-14T01:34:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T09:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=147384"},"modified":"2023-04-28T07:31:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T15:31:28","slug":"147384","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=147384","title":{"rendered":"The Raw Truth About Silicon Valley Startups?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 17, 2019, 4:18 PM PST, By Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins for NBC News<\/a>: <\/p>\n

An alt-right activist who met with two Republican congressmen to discuss “DNA” and “genetics” posted on Facebook that he believes Muslims are “genetically different in their propensity for violence or rape” and linked to stories about how African-Americans “possessed a ‘violence’ gene.”<\/p>\n

…Johnson is best known for his conspiracy-filled right-wing news websites, connections to white supremacists, and downplaying the severity of the Holocaust in an online forum. <\/p>\n

…Over the years, Johnson has shown a steady interest in DNA \u2014 both the genetic makeup of politicians and the links he draws between DNA, race, intelligence and predisposition for criminality.<\/p>\n

…In May 2017, Johnson shared a post with the headline “African Americans possess ‘violence’ gene, researchers find” from a fringe website. The article’s author is anonymous, and anyone can post to the site. The previous year, Johnson linked to a news report about the assault of a white teen by black girls and wrote “They mean to exterminate us” above the link.<\/p>\n

In February 2016, he implored people to “Google the MAO-A gene.” The Google search results for “MAO-A” often feature debunked articles attempting to tie race to violence.<\/p>\n

“It’s the genetics,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

Earlier in that same month, Johnson posted to Facebook, “Asians are smarter. It’s in the genes, man.”<\/p>\n

Johnson has also attempted to link the genes of Muslims, who are members of a religion and not a specific ethnic group, to a genetic predisposition to violence.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to talk about inbreeding and how it leads to mental illness in Muslim populations. It’s too taboo,” Johnson wrote on Dec. 4, 2015.<\/p>\n

“We also don’t talk about how they are genetically different in their propensity for violence or rape even though the empirical evidence is overwhelming.”<\/p>\n

…Dr. Paige Harden, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin who focuses on antisocial behavior, told NBC News that Johnson’s understanding of the MAO-A gene is “wrong on basically every level that it’s possible to be wrong.”<\/p>\n

“Work (on the MAO-A gene) has now been largely discredited, because we now know that human behaviors are not influenced by single genes with large effects\u2014they are influenced by lots and lots and lots\u2014think thousands\u2014of genetic variants, each of which has a tiny effect,” said Harden. “Bottom line: MAO-A likely doesn’t matter for aggression or antisocial behavior.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t agree with everything I have posted on Facebook and I don’t think anyone does,” Johnson told NBC News. “Asking me to defend my views on Facebook is a little absurd.”<\/p>\n

“I defer to the best scientists in the field, like James Watson.”<\/p>\n

Watson, a 90-year-old Nobel prize-winner, widely known as one of the fathers of DNA, was recently stripped of his titles by the laboratory where he completed most of his research for “misuse of science to justify prejudice,” including the belief that Africans are less intelligent than Europeans.<\/p>\n

…Since the shuttering of his far-right conspiracy websites, GotNews and WeSearchr, Johnson has laid low, citing the alleged censorship of conservatives.<\/p>\n

In June 2018, Johnson posted that he had “just met with about fifteen members of Congress today” and planned to “meet with a Cabinet member” about tech censorship.<\/p>\n

In a Reddit “ask me anything” question-and-answer session in 2017, Johnson said he believed the “Allied bombings of Germany were a war crime” and that he agreed with a false theory “about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real.”<\/p>\n

“There were a number of sources that disputed the six million figure and I find myself in that camp reluctantly,” he wrote in January 2017. “Of course you can’t really discuss any of this stuff without being called a Holocaust denier which I am not.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chuck Johnson responds in 2021.<\/a><\/p>\n

I think Chuck Johnson is brilliant, connected, but frequently lacking in good judgment. He’s painfully right and painfully wrong so often that it is hard to get a handle on him. <\/p>\n

Johnson is worth watching because he has the stuff (intelligence and connections) that can change the world. <\/p>\n

Chuck Johnson blogs April 5, 2023<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Last night brought news that prolific investor Bob Lee was murdered in a stabbing.<\/p>\n

He was killed around 2.35 AM in the Rincon Hill neighborhood, which is about a five minute walk to Chinatown. Not a lot of good stuff goes on at that time of night in downtown San Francisco and Lee really liked drugs. I\u2019ve been around there and it\u2019s not good at night.<\/p>\n

Lee was also the Cash App founder and the chief product of MobileCoin.<\/p>\n

Cash App has been linked to all kinds of money laundering, which you can peruse in the report that short seller Hindenburg released.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post has the story:<\/p>\n

\u201cFormer employees described how Cash App suppressed internal concerns and ignored user pleas for help as criminal activity and fraud ran rampant on its platform,\u201d the report alleged. It also estimated, based on interviews with former employees, that 40 percent to 70 percent of accounts are \u201cfake, involved in fraud, or were additional accounts tied to a single individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mobile Coin was backed by Binance, which is under all kinds of investigation by the U.S. and allied governments.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve made some calls. A friend witnessed him doing hard drugs dozens of times.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: Lee liked drugs. Lee bought drugs. Lee also liked orgies. Lee liked crypto.<\/p>\n

Does that remind you of anyone? [Sam Bankman-Fried]<\/p>\n

In the Wirecard case we saw how many of the executives and regulators got compromised by drugs and prostitutes \u2014 and how they looked the other way on enforcement precisely because they were dirty.<\/p>\n

These raises another question. Is the same thing happening in American fintech?<\/p>\n

Could the Square CTO have been involved in some shady stuff? Of course he was.<\/p>\n

And he isn\u2019t alone. There have been all kinds of crypto people who have died under very suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a temptation to blame San Francisco for these kind of problems but the problems of San Francisco is how many tech guys wanted to be residents rather than citizens.<\/p>\n

\n

Bob Lee was a friend to me & multiple people in my firm. My heart goes out to his loved ones.<\/p>\n

Chesa Boudin, & the criminal-loving city council that enabled him & a lawless SF for years, have Bob\u2019s literal blood on their hands. Take action.<\/p>\n

Cc @garrytan<\/a> @sampullara<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/5CJ4Ct8qRb<\/a><\/p>\n

— Matt Ocko (@mattocko) April 5, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n