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highplainsdem

(53,860 posts)
Sun Jan 26, 2025, 12:15 PM Jan 26

How the roots of the 'PayPal mafia' extend to apartheid South Africa (must-read from The Guardian re Musk & Thiel)

This should be read in its entirety (no paywall):

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa

-snip-

The South Africa into which Musk was born in 1971, and to which Thiel moved as a child from Germany, was led by a prime minister, John Vorster, who had been a general in a fascist militia three decades earlier that allied itself with Hitler.

-snip-

“We stand for Christian nationalism which is an ally of National Socialism,” he said in 1942. “You can call this anti-democratic principle dictatorship if you wish. In Italy it is called ‘Fascism’, in Germany ‘German National Socialism’ and in South Africa ‘Christian nationalism’.”

-snip-

South West Africa had been a German colony until the end of the first world war and Thiel lived for a time in the city of Swakopmund, where he attended a German-language school while his father worked at a nearby uranium mine.

At that time, Swakopmund was notorious for its continued glorification of Nazism, including celebrating Hitler’s birthday. In 1976, the New York Times reported that some people in the town continued to greet each other with “Heil Hitler” and to give the Nazi salute.

-snip-
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How the roots of the 'PayPal mafia' extend to apartheid South Africa (must-read from The Guardian re Musk & Thiel) (Original Post) highplainsdem Jan 26 OP
Everyone should read the entire article malaise Jan 26 #1
Kick dalton99a Jan 26 #2
The ultimate middlemen... Hugin Jan 26 #3
... Solly Mack Jan 26 #4

Hugin

(35,472 posts)
3. The ultimate middlemen...
Sun Jan 26, 2025, 01:23 PM
Jan 26

When it was introduced, I couldn’t see the advantage of PayPal’s business model. Chipping a bit off of financial transactions that were going to happen anyway. I guess I thought maybe it provided security from hacking. (Long ago proven to be a false assertion.)

Being an earnest individual, I totally missed the colossal money laundry angle that ultimately Twitter played into as well.

Shame on me for missing that.

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