Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/29/venture-kapitalist-karen-loses.html
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Poor Noted Minnesota Racist Tom Austin.
Cue the usual chin-strokers wondering if we’ve gone too far in imposing consequences due to public shaming (while completely ignoring the consequences of having the cops called on you when you’re African-American).
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As was said about another Karen:
Same goes for this guy’s lease.
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Does anybody else have Six Million Dollar Man flashbacks whenever they see a story about this douche? I guess you have to be just the right age for it to hit you in the nostalgia lobe.
Steve Austin, astronaut / Tom Austin, asshole
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Yes, especially the crash and burn part.
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Apparently he was previously CEO of the F2 Group which, by its own account, specializes in the below:
F2 specializes in helping companies develop a significantly deeper understanding of what their customers are really thinking, how their business with key customers might be at risk, and what can be done to accelerate value creation for their customers.
Somehow “go to the gym so badly you get your office’s lease terminated” doesn’t seem like a skillset that aligns with any of those objectives. Even slightly.
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Good riddance.
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What they have in common?
“A man, barely alive.”
Sadly, I don’t think one can be rebuilt. 
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Good. To hell with this racist ass.
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Austin insisted to the Tribune he was not being racist and was upholding
a building policythe Natural Order of Things as his walnut brain sees it.
Racists are never being racist, even when they’re doing racist.
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Good Call.
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The previous BB post about this clown noted that he advocated changing the name of a major Minneapolis lake (which adjoins the posh neighborhood he lives in) back to honor John Calhoun. That post calls Calhoun a “noted slave owner”, which is selling him short. He was a U.S. senator and secretary of state who owned dozens of slaves, argued that slavery was not a necessary evil but a positive good, and advocated in favor of the War of 1812.
Here’s Tom Austin explaining in his own words that he’s an asshole unworthy of sympathy for his current star turn on the internet’s stage of shame:
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A misogynist as well, I see.
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“This is not how we do business. … I’m alarmed by what I saw.”
Is there a word for “alarmed but not surprised”? Because that’s what I am.
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I just hope they don’t co-opt the word “Nasty” for female reporters who have the gall to ask tough questions.
Somewhat unrelated, but still funny:
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=347
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Always give likes to Hark! A vagrant posts!
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I was trying to think of a different complaint that could get one lose the lease.
…and I couldn’t.
The whole “Karen” thing is boring. I found it funny at first when it described people like my Aunt Karen (true story) who make retail and food service peoples lives difficult. Calling this racist jackass a Karen just seals the deal for me. Shark jumped.
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So we should call him a Karlen?
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The process seems to have stalled on the naming of male Karens, which is a pity(I’d vote “Bret”, but he’s really more about misogyny cut with class privilege, albeit probably racist as well, just not enough to make that his primary characteristic); but it is my understanding that “Karen” was originally a figure of white-privileged petty tyranny before morphing into a broader figure of petty tyranny and quick recourse to local authority figures, whether cops or managers, against perceived inferiors and/or violations of her (typically outrageous) demands. The concise summary of original Karen I was given was “the one who would call the cops because she sees kids running a lemonade stand while black”.
Our boy here is, by that standard, Karening it up far more accurately than the many imitators who want to see your manager because they don’t like the return policy.
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