Talk:George Soros/Archive 1

message: How was George Soros 14 when Germany occupied Austria, 'at the end of the war?'  Austria was one of the first occupied countries, and he was 9 when the war broke out.  So, if this is all correct, he was trading foreign currency as a 'young man' at the age of 11ish?  Someone needs to recheck their facts. 128.194.54.175 19:07, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Read carefully - Hint: Hungary is not the same as Austria (not since WWI, in any case). -- Marcika 22:06, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Who researched this guy?!?!? 

message: Can anyone cite a source for the quotation, "As a market participant, I don't need to be concerned with the consequences of my [financial] actions"??  Based on other things Soros has said, it seems likely that this has been taken out of context or is even totally made up.  I can't find any sources for this statement that aren't either derived from this WikiPedia article or are just completely unsourced themselves.  The reasons for skepticism -- the cognitive dissonance, if you will -- is so high here I don't even think this should be changed to Citation Needed; I advocate just pulling it altogether unless someone can source it and provide context.  Mtiffany 22:58, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: As best I can tell, all mentions of this quote stem from the New Statesman profile of Soros at http://www.newstatesman.com/200306020019.  Nothing shows up in Lexis-Nexis, and the NS profile doesn't say where it came from, so I'm thinking they made it up.  I'm removing it unless somebody can find the original source for this.  --Sapphic 21:48, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

text: I agree, and I've removed the second half. -Willmcw 03:22, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Quotations

message: I think the new section on opposition to the Soviet Union is great, but it is obviously POV.  Some of the facts should go in other sections, maybe a link to the New Stateman with the quote.  In short something should be done in that section, but I don't know what.
There's a minor problem with pronounciation.  Soros uses the Hungarian pronouciation in Hungary (show rosh), but (sore oss) elsewhere.  BTW, the name means "beer" in Hungarian and is unique to his family.
:I never heard him use "sore oss". Other people who do not know how to pronounce it use it that way. BTW, the name does not mean "beer" in Hungarian (that would be "sör" or "sörös", notice the umlauts).  -- Marcika 10:59, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Since Schwartz is a Yiddish name, the spelling is probably correct. (It might be "Schwarz", but I couldn't verify it over the web either way...) -- Marcika 10:59, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Why would its Yiddish origin affect its spelling?  In Hungary it would almost certainly be spelled "Svarc".  Any reason I shouldn't change his birth name to "Svarc György"?  Zsero 00:00, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Picky, picky 

message: re last edit.  In Hungary the family name is always first, so his birth name really is Schwartz Gyorgy.  The derivation of his new family name as coming from the Esparanto "we soar" is undocumented and I think it's proper to remove it until it is documented.  There are several possible sources where this might be discussed, e.g. in the 2 long biographies.  I'm pretty sure it's not in one of them and there was a fairly long dicussion on the choice of the name.  Smallbones 09:21, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  We soar? 

message: I've reverted this paragraph back to the paragraph about insider trading, even though...
The French insider trading conviction looks pretty bogus to me (e.g. so many years after the fact, no jail time, "minor" fine, and who else have they ever convicted?) but it does need to be covered.
The Famous partners stuff is interesting, but not well done yet, e.g. V.N. is probably one of the most interesting, most intelligent, and most modest traders of the century, but not one of the greatest!  I don't think he was a partner.  Smallbones 10:56, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Victor, are you writing this? 

message: Moved from top of the talk section
Since mention is made of Soros's Jewish origins, and his criticism of Jews and Israel, I thought it part of the story to mention his lack of involvement in the Jewish community and his failure to contribute to Jewish charities.  Incorrect 06:18, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Some of this seems POV, e.g. the word "abjure" which is something like "a solemn rejection."  I haven't read the WSJ piece, but I'd think that plain old critisizm of Isreal wouldn't qualify as "abjuring."  Also critisizing somebody for not giving charity to a specific group seems to me to be POV all in itself.  Who should we mention this about and who would we leave out this information about.  Everybody doesn't donate to some group.  For instance, why aren't you donating to Inuit charities?  I'll strip the current comment down to what seems like plain facts.  Smallbones 10:04, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  The passage now reads: "He does not provide philanthropy to the state of Isreal or to causes that are exclusively Jewish.  (See his commentary in the Wall Street Journal on March 3, 2004).".  The piece cited is not by Soros; it is an anti-Soros opinion piece by Joshua Muravhcik of the American Enterprise Institute.  Also, it is real wrong to spell it "Isreal".  I'm not going to edit the passage myself because that would suggest endorsement of it being in the article at all.  Personally, it strikes me as a weaselly way of calling Soros a self-hating Jew.  dbtfztalk 01:49, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry, I was thinking that some of this could be taken at face value.  Obviously not.  Stripping it down to the bare facts, just showed that they raelly aren't facts at all. Smallbones 09:04, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: No need to apologize.  I think removing the edit was probably best.  There is a fact here, namely that someone claimed in an opinion piece that Soros "abjures" Jewish charities.  But if that were stated clearly, it would not seem particularly relevant or notable.  It appears that Soros has written about this matter somewhere, and it could very well be worth noting in the article, but someone should take the time to do the actual research and cite Soros himself.  dbtfztalk 15:16, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jewish charities 

message: Seems I once read somewhere, Soros was a Reagan supporter, but his views have cahnged over the years from Center-Right to Center-Left and some would argue "far Left", any documentation on this? Seems he became active due to his opposition of Bush?
- Soros has always been committed to open societies (as per Popper's concept), and this has been a hallmark of both his philosophy and his philanthropy. I don't think it's too difficult to see Soros as supporting Raegan (in a fight against closed societies in formerly communist countries) and opposing Bush due to seeing him as a fundamental threat to open society (e.g. the Patriot act in the US with increased surveillance of US citizens, increased police and government powers with no oversight, deliberately supporting the shredding of the geneva convention by instructing senior counsel to find ways around it, by advocating US use of torture, by setting up US torture facilities in Gauntanamo bay etc, by escalaating the use of extraordinary rendition and the use of torture in allied countries rather than on US soil, etc) in this light. It seems entrely consistent to me - Soros has been committed to the same principles in an ongoing fashion - an open society. Raegan was for it, Bush by his actions seems to be clearly against it. In short, Bush seems to advocating and doing exactly what Soros spent his life fighting, due to his former experiences in Europe. LMackinnon 00:41, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Change of views? 

message: The possessive should be "Soros's" not "Soros' ", see Apostrophe.
This is especially so, if the last s in the name is pronounced sh
as is proper in the Hungarian.  Occasionally some authorities
allow Charles' instead of Charles's, but nobody would say goulash' instead of goulash's
:The guide I use allows omission of the apostrophe only for Jesus and Moses. Maybe Soros supporters think he's as good a man as these biblical figures. --Wing Nut 15:16, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Possessive see [[Apostrophe]] 

message: Conservatives oppose Soros for his liberal activism:
*From abortion rights groups to drug reform initiatives, Soros' domestic funding generally ends up in the hands of liberals.  
*Soros ... has expressed outrage at the Bush administration's foreign policy, especially its decision to invade Iraq.
*The self-proclaimed atheist also created the Project on Death in America to generate debate about the dying process and "alleviate unnecessary suffering."
*Among the beneficiaries of Soros' largesse is the Center for Reproductive Rights, the pro-abortion group
*Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, an authority on Christian values, said Soros wants to destroy the values on which the United States was founded. Williams called Soros "morally bankrupt".
*:"He hates God and his biblical principles. He hates everything that's godly," Williams said. "He's jumping up and down at the thought that same-sex marriages could happen in this country. It's a direct assault on the church, the institutions that restrain and restrict our behavior and remind us of the standard of morality and moral absolutes."
*"No one knows what demons drive Mr. Soros to consistently fund anti-family agendas," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America. "But he seems determined to turn the world upside down and replace morality with immorality."
*Robert McGinnis, a former vice president of the Family Research Council who researched Soros' philanthropy while working there, said
*:"U.S. citizens need to be wary of the fact that he is embracing a pro-drug, anti-life agenda."
*The Capital Research Center, which tracks philanthropists like Soros, found that the Open Society Institute has a pattern of giving to liberal groups that support drug legalization, euthanasia, immigrant entitlements and feminism.
*:"There is a consistent thread through everything he does," said John Carlisle, editor of the center's Organization Trends and Foundation Watch. "He's a devout secular ideologue."
Some of the above should go in the criticism section. --Wing Nut 15:12, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: So are you a right wing nut or a left wing nut?? Smallbones
Who exactly made Armstrong Williams "an authority on Christian values"? Armstrong Williams, I'm guessing. More disturbingly, somebody put "Jewish" in front of "financial speculator" in the introductory statement about Soros' notability. 
This isn't a matter of simply including the fact of Soros' ethnic Jewishness in the story. That fact already was where one would naturally expect it, under the heading "family"! The tactic of inserting "Jewish" as an adjective in front of "financial speculator" is a matter of playing to deadly stereotypes. --Christofurio 17:15, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Opposition to Soros

message: Substituted at 20:27, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment