> Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis.
> Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them.
> Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t—whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to.
Back an animal against the wall and out come the fangs. The rate at which "once in a lifetime" events have unfolded in the past two decades is making it increasingly hard for society to mint kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, and most importantly, _secure_ people.
This would be me to my detriment. I totally can't read a room and I do what I think is right. I've also passed over job opportunities in defense/intelligence (and the porn industry) because I know they were wrong. I could have much more money and wealth than I have now. What's wrong with me? I sometimes do think this is a flaw in myself.
I have friends that work for Google and Facebook and I don't know how they do it.
> I have friends that work for Google and Facebook and I don't know how they do it.
That's easy. Grow up in Western Europe, start working ~2000. Learn how things work there, how government spying (sorry "lawful intercept") works, for example. Work for the "IT police", and quit on the spot after realizing you're about to refer a 14 year old to a police kolonel at the request of Sony Music, run crying out of the building. Run back in and after starting the reformat of some well-chosen harddrives, quit. Realize Google, with some very large flaws, is a massive force for good in the world. Leave the country, work for Google, and sleep soundly every fucking day knowing your skills are put to far better use at Google.
You are aware that Google collects massive amounts of data and provides it to government and law enforcement without warrants [1][2], as well as working with the US and foreign militaries for legally-questionable ends [3][4]?
22 comments
> Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis.
> Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them.
> Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t—whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to.
Back an animal against the wall and out come the fangs. The rate at which "once in a lifetime" events have unfolded in the past two decades is making it increasingly hard for society to mint kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, and most importantly, _secure_ people.
This would be me to my detriment. I totally can't read a room and I do what I think is right. I've also passed over job opportunities in defense/intelligence (and the porn industry) because I know they were wrong. I could have much more money and wealth than I have now. What's wrong with me? I sometimes do think this is a flaw in myself.
I have friends that work for Google and Facebook and I don't know how they do it.
> I have friends that work for Google and Facebook and I don't know how they do it.
That's easy. Grow up in Western Europe, start working ~2000. Learn how things work there, how government spying (sorry "lawful intercept") works, for example. Work for the "IT police", and quit on the spot after realizing you're about to refer a 14 year old to a police kolonel at the request of Sony Music, run crying out of the building. Run back in and after starting the reformat of some well-chosen harddrives, quit. Realize Google, with some very large flaws, is a massive force for good in the world. Leave the country, work for Google, and sleep soundly every fucking day knowing your skills are put to far better use at Google.
[1] https://gizmodo.com/reddit-meta-and-google-voluntarily-gave-...
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/google-sent-personal-and-f...
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/technology/google-deepmin...
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus