Mario Batali, Hitler, and Stalin

I assumed Mario Batali was a Leftist, but I didn't realize he was a crazed loon sort of Leftist. I always kind of liked him and now I find out he's a total loser nutjob.

The Crocs he wears all the time should have tipped me off.

On Tuesday, Batali compared bankers to Hitler and Stalin. HITLER and STALIN!

Very disappointing.

From Eater.com:

Mario Batali, chef and member of the 1%, is now pissing off the Wall Street moneybags by calling them as bad as Hitler and Stalin. Batali, whose restaurant empire is in the middle of a lawsuit for illegally underpaying his 99% workforce, was quoted as saying at a Time magazine Person of the Year panel:

"The ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys…[T]heir evil has had a huge effect on the world."

Yeah, probably the bankers not going to like that much. Particularly the ones who eat at Batali's upscale New York restaurants, Babbo and Del Posto. Oops.

Attention was called to the quote from the panel by Forbes writer Jeff Bercovici, who asked Batali to clarify his comment, and quotes Batali as saying "The way people change lives, I do think bankers change lives as much as a repressive [inaudible] autocrat. But, that said, it was more direct." (Bercovici takes "it" to mean the evils of Hitler and Stalin.)

Good grief.

Batali's idiocy has come back to bite him.

Financial execs reacted by calling for a boycott of his restaurants. Very appropriate. They didn't call for a mob to "occupy" his expensive establishments, sending freaks to defecate and urinate there. They simply chose to take their dollars elsewhere, to places where the owner doesn't equate them with HITLER and STALIN.

Apparently, Batali didn't like the idea of losing his clientele, fellow members of the 1%, so he apologized.

From Bloomberg:

Celebrity chef and restaurant owner Mario Batali apologized for comparing bankers to Hitler and Stalin, while finance executives reacted with angry comments and calls for a boycott.

“To remove any ambiguity about my appearance at yesterday’s Time Person of the Year panel, I want to apologize for my remarks,” Batali said this afternoon through his spokeswoman, Pamela Lewy. “It was never my intention to equate our banking industry with Hitler and Stalin, two of the most evil, brutal dictators in modern history.”

Too little, too late.

If it was never Batali's "intention to equate our banking industry with Hitler and Stalin, two of the most evil, brutal dictators in modern history," then why did he?

Was he possessed?

He has no excuse.

Batali is concerned about losing money. I believe he's sorry that he has put his business in jeopardy. I believe he realizes that was a mistake. In that sense, I think his apology is sincere.

He explained why he considers bankers evil. He made it very clear. Has he changed his mind?

...Hundreds of users of the Bloomberg terminal’s interactive DINE function, where they can rate and comment on restaurants, posted sharply worded denunciations. Many called for a boycott of Batali’s approximately 20 establishments, which include the Manhattan power restaurants Babbo, Del Posto, Otto and Lupa.

“I love his restaurants, but I’m done with Mario Batali, I will never eat at another of his places,” Blant Hurt, an Arkansas businessman who frequently dined at Batali’s restaurants in New York and Las Vegas, wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. “He’s insulted a considerable number of his customers at the very time Wall Street is shrinking organically. It’ll be interesting to see where his businesses are in five years. Very, very dumb move on his part.”

It was an incredibly dumb move on Batali's part.

Actions have consequences. Words have meaning.

Batali is a jerk.