They’re worse than a waste of time.
Hedge-fund billionaire Bob Mercer, a major Republican donor who supported Donald Trump, announced Thursday that he would be selling his stake in Breitbart News to his daughters; pulling his funding from Milo Inc., the controversial entertainment venture run by Milo Yiannopoulos; and relinquishing his co-C.E.O. title at Renaissance Technologies, where he oversaw more than $50 billion in assets, to take a non-management role.
In an open letter to investors, the 71-year-old strongly denounced the white nationalist movement that has come to be associated with several of his far-right political causes, tainting his reputation and putting Renaissance Technologies in the crosshairs of a divestment campaign. “Of the many mischaracterizations made of me by the press, the most repugnant to me, have been the intimations that I am a white supremacist or a member of some other noxious group,” he wrote. On the contrary, he said, “a society founded on the basis of the individual freedom that flourishes under a limited federal government has no place for discrimination . . . Discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, creed, or anything of that sort is abhorrent to me. But more than that, it is ignorant.”
Mercer also sought to distance himself from Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser who issued his own half-hearted rebuke of Yiannopoulos last month in an attempt to shake off his reputation as a white-nationalist sympathizer. While Mercer said he respected Bannon, he clarified that, “I make my own decisions with respect to whom I support politically. Those decisions do not always align with Mr. Bannon’s.”
Fortunately for Robert Mercer, he’s old enough that banking on being eaten last is probably a viable strategy for him. Not so much the kids and grandkids, but then, he is a Boomer, so what does he care? I’m not surprised that he pulled his funding from Milo, I’m merely surprised that such a successful man could produce such a remarkably stupid statement about the idea that a society founded on the basis of individual freedom can possibly survive WITHOUT discrimination.
I mean, kudos for recognizing that culture trumps politics. For a Republican, that’s genuinely advanced thinking. But race and religion both trump culture.