What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society Party

Sickening.

 

What is? Dressing up in drag and making stupid jokes? It's silly, nothing more and nothing less.

 

He's probably referring to the mocking of poor people and laughing at causing a worldwide financial meltdown.

 

Oh right, because you've never made crude jokes about black people or Republicans or hillbillys or some "other" group when you're messing around with your buddies.

 

Great read. Reporter just solidified his career.

 

Forming a secret club with rituals, initiations, etc. goes a little beyond "messing around with your buddies."

 

I'm pretty sure I've never made crude jokes about people's whose lives I'm responsible for ruining. And if I did, I think other people would be right to call it sickening.

 

But its absurd to think that these same highly moral decent people would ever sit around at these events and talk about highly sophisticated ways to get more power for themselves. Why you might as well believe in aliens to believe that!

 

Exactly right. I agree.

 

Not interested. This entire strain of decadent wealthy media seems designed to balance the books by offsetting superior wealth and status with a perception of inferior morals. Class stereotyping is hurtful, slanderous and dis-informative regardless of the target.

 

The secrecy is probably just a function of their having somewhat public and relationship-based professions. Rituals and initiations are meant to create a common experience and symbolically gauge a level of commitment to the group.

 

Believe it or not, lots of people avoid those types of situations, comments or acquaintances.

 

I have no problem with a group getting together and telling off color jokes and doing bad skits. Further I don't think every billionaire is like this that said you still have to consider this point.

[rquoter]The first and most obvious conclusion was that the upper ranks of finance are composed of people who have completely divorced themselves from reality. No self-aware and socially conscious Wall Street executive would have agreed to be part of a group whose tacit mission is to make light of the financial sector’s foibles. Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people in the form of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment crisis.[/rquoter]

You have to remember that the members of this group's actions affect millions of people and it's not like they are some sort of oppressed class. Given what has happened in the last 6 years with the financial meltdown and bailout and since this group's founding at the start of the Depression there is good reason to be upset about them mocking the rest of society.

 

Honestly it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I think the creepiest part was how odd their sense of humor was. They were laughing at stuff that wasn't funny.

Also, the reporter did an amazing job getting this story but he kind of dramatized it. Like that Hilary Clinton joke was not well received and the Barney Frank joke wasn't either even though I thought it was at least decently clever.

All that said it was certainly disturbing seeing all these guys together in this same strange fraternity.

 

Oh well I've made crude jokes before. God if they ever had a recording of what gets said on a trading floor lol. But the ones we say are usually over the top sarcastic and absurd. Some of these guys at the party certainly had some mean spirited intent behind their jokes.

Also, I am curious if there was any anti-Republican jokes at the party too. If you listen to the audio the anti-Democrat jokes were pretty heavily booed.

 

The reason why I know there is no beneficent activist God who actually gives a s*it about this world is because these dudes got less jail time combined for screwing the entire world than Aaron Swartz did for trying to make scientific data public, and they're singing about it.

Seriously messed up stuff.

 

Oh no! Rich people having fun? How dare they? They need to be taxed more if they cross dress!

I'm sure they tell dumb jokes at gay parties too. Nothing to see here

 

Whats the obsession with the 1% anyway? Are you jealous? Is it bad having a society with rich people? How about the bottom 1 percent? Should we obsess about their parties and how much they benefit from society? I'm sure white trash and ghetto trash have weird parties too

 

I was expecting worse. Was disappointed after reading the article. If this were a liberal party, there would have been plenty off Sarah Palin, Bush and Limbaugh jokes and 1% jokes. This is just how people act when they all get into a room and have common views and values. You see it on message boards too when one group gangs up on another.