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Comment by kmnc | Hacker News Reader

The article doesn't really go into what mafias are actually doing to stay alive. What cyber crimes are the mafias in control of? Are any large "cyber gangs" not connected to local mafias?

I have always loved the fantasy of the mafia just from a job advancement and loyalty point of view. You start at the bottom, get rewarded for hard work and being intelligent and eventually get "made". Then you have power, unconditional respect, and life long guarantees of a job, security, and family. Getting "made" should be a real thing in the corporate world.

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I think "made" is when you're on a few company boards and in the old boys' club, and you can spend the rest of your life patting each other on the back and voting for pay raises for each other.

Would you consider tenure in academia to be an equivalent? Or maybe rank/advancement in the military?

I would. Feudalism, corporate promotion, and academia all sounds like gangsterism by other names to me.

I laughed, then I remembered stories about offers from the thesis committee that you can't refuse. Fortunately they can only kill your career.

It's a two way street though, you can't leave.

Imagine a job where you're guaranteed a job, but you're also never allowed to resign on fear of injury and/or death.

The smartest of them saw the writing on the wall and used their I'll gotten gains to go mostly legit, investing heavily in high money throughput businesses such as Hollywood, casinos, banking, the legal field, insurance, etc.

Bonus: The mafia that even the mafia is afraid of that you've probably never heard of? The Jewish mafia.

This is antisemitic bullshit. While there has been a small jewish mafia in NY they where a „regular mafia“ like the italian mafia.

Most of them were and are legit and the affinity just coming from jewish immigrants having a history in those fields living in europe. Not for money laundering what you implied. They are very well connected and help each other.

So as soon as anyone uses the 'J' word, they're automatically antisemitic?! (And therefore, must be downvoted...?)

Misha Glenny - author of the posted article - is also the writer behind BBC's McMafia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05pksm8), which portrays the world (literally!) of organized crime through the eyes of a Russian Jewish 'mafia' family. Compelling viewing, and provides a lot of context for the comments of the parent post.

People who immediately accuse others of antisemitism at any mention of Israel or the Jewish religion are not interested in any kind of intellectually honest discussion.

How you were describing Jews in all those industries is a clear case of antisemitic canard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitic_canard

They are apparently so powerful they are the "Mafia of the Mafia", no sources just that they are "The Jewish Mafia". Are there Jewish mafiosi? Sure, like a lot of other nationalities and ethnic groups, but I doubt any mafiosi will see them as above them as the "puppet masters of international crime".

You call this intellectually honest?

>How you were describing Jews in all those industries is a clear case of antisemitic canard.

A strawman attack. I was speaking of mafia in general in the first sentence.

>They are apparently so powerful they are the "Mafia of the Mafia"

Putting words in my mouth I never said, another strawman. There is a difference between saying they are the "mafia of the mafia" and saying they are a part of the mafia that even other mafia are afraid of.

>"puppet masters of international crime"

Far too simplistic a summarization of this much more nuanced and complex subject.

>You call this intellectually honest?

Yep, unlike your two comments.

What sources do you have on that supposed Jewish Mafia? It's not unthinkable that there would be one, after all we have many other ethnic-based mafias, but I've never heard of it.

It's fairly well documented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish-American_organized_crim...

But it really was just another ethnic-based organized crime group, not substantially different from the others in any way, and most definitely not "The mafia that even the mafia is afraid of that you've probably never heard of?"

Someone already linked a wikipedia page, so here are a few relevant youtube links worth watching if you are really interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOEGUAf3QxU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISyamKWhWlY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I3o-i5t8qY

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