I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong
George Soros has been named as the FT's Man of the Year. I will admit I don't know much about him, other than the fact that he escaped Nazism, left Hungary to live, study and work in London, made a great deal of money with successive hedge funds, successfully backed against sterling during the ERM crisis, is an extremely generous philanthropist, has given billions of dollars to various liberal organisations through his Open Society Foundation, I had to pretend to be him in a commercial property auction in around 1990 and (this is the bit that makes me think that, in general terms, he's probably a good egg) Nigel Farage hates him.
So, what does the pool of unlimited Charlton Life knowledge make of George Soros? The "biggest danger to the entire western world"? Or Man of the Year?
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Not sure i'd count far right dictators in eastern europe as "the entire western world", but he certainly is a threat to them.
He is just another interfering, arrogant, unelected multi billionaire who uses his money and the fact that many people, even nations, are scared of him and the financial power he can exert to get his own way.
FT man of the year ? .. the FT is all about money and you would not expect it to vote for a pauper as 'the man' .. I have no respect for and do not trust Gorge Soros one iota.
That said it's really important to understand that here in the States Soros has long been a cutout for "Evil leftist Jewish bankers trying to control the media and the world" as kent alludes to above.
This is from the week when Soros was targeted with a pipe bomb by a Trump supporter. Trump, like pretty much the entire right wing in this country, has demonized (and spent decades demonizing) Soros.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/24/george-soros-antisemitism-bomb-attacks
The following week, a man walked in to a Pittsburgh synagogue and opened fire.
He seemingly believes that George Soros was funding a migrant caravan coming to invade the United States. It was something Donald Trump tweeted about and referenced constantly. Adam Serwer broke this out well.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/caravan-lie-sparked-massacre-american-jews/574213/
I'm not one for "All hail our benevolent philanthropic Billionaires." And not all attacks on Soros are antisemitic. But I think it's really important to understand that George Soros, in this country, has become symbolic for so much more.
He did so and everyone in the room (probably a couple of hundred people) craned their necks to see "George Soros", only to be disappointed and puzzled in equal measure when they saw only me.
I won't say who the auctioneer was, but in his defence, he could hardly be accused of attempting to mislead: he could not have picked anyone in the room that day that looked less like George Soros.
Being serious, the man seems to have done an awful lot of good in recent years, and if people are now benefiting, that can only be good news.