Former mobster on how the New York Mafia actually operates

Originally published at: Former mobster on how the New York Mafia actually operates | Boing Boing

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I mean… did they ever? They were always organizations dedicated to earning profit via crime rings…

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Yeah I rather suspect that it’s always been a marketing myth more than a reality. If you’re willing to brutally beat up and/or murder people for money then you’ve got a pretty fucked up notion of “honor and respect” to begin with.

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And pop culture has always been complicit in that, too. There is a long history in hollywood of glorifying mobsters as a brutal, but honorable lot.

Kenan Thompson Reaction GIF by Saturday Night Live

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Yeah, I’ll take your word on it. Laughable.

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Ohhhh. . . you mean “end stage capitalism.”

Got it.

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Oh, I’m sure it was all so much better back in the old days. I mean, yeah, they’d break your arm and burn down your business if you didn’t make those protection payments, but at least they did it with honor and respect! Also, if you asked for a favor on the day of his daughter’s wedding, the Godfather had to do anything you commanded. No questions asked!

Um. Is the /s really needed here?

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image

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By “honor and respect” he meant between members of the Mafia, just as “chivalry” meant rules for how nobility treated other noblemen. It’s always open season on the peasants.

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I really wonder what their opinions are on Q-anon:

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TBH I think “I killed him because he was a notorious mob boss who enriched himself through terror and violence” would probably be a more morally defensible position than “I killed him because I thought he was part of a secret conspiracy to undermine President Trump.”

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Why are so many things blurry? Why does it look like someone’s idea of a VHS tape, or someone’s idea of an amateur film?

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Nice Mob family you got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it… /s

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does this guy fear for his life now? i mean, he left because he was accused of being an informant, but here he is… being an informant.

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“Late Stage Capitalism”. So the Mafia is just another corporation, only it doesn’t float on the Stock Exchange.

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A Bonanno “retiree” with an ankle bracelet lives in my neighborhood. He owns a couple of buildings. His crew hangs out in and in front of one of his unrented storefronts. I give him credit on working towards inclusiveness over the past decade. These days he “employs” white guys, black guys, Albanians, Spanish speaking - all kinds. Even a few women. The thing they all have in common is missing teeth, obvious drug addiction problems and dirty sports clothes. A far, far, cry from the glorified 1970s that probably never existed that Hollywood is obsessed with.

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They were as noble as the knights of old. The king’s thugs, with enough money to spend on image rehab.

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Given how decimated the current Mafia is, it could be a case of everyone after him is already dead or in prison by now.

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By the time the Godfather was made, the Mafia was already in serious decline. Goodfellas made them look like idiots. The Sopranos showed that they definitely had some screws loose.

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Granted, he didn’t leave in the manner Cosa Nostra would have intended. :coffin:

I imagine folks inside such an organization fear for their lives constantly, even if they’re toeing the line within the organization.

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