Venture capitalist Thomas Perkins wrote a letter to the editors at the Wall Street Journal, comparing the "progressive war" on the rich to Nazi anti-Semitism, called "Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?" And the WSJ published it. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 'one percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the 'rich,'" writes Perkins, one of the founders of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers.
"From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent," Perkins continues. "There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these 'techno geeks' can pay."
Perkins, who once spent $150 million building a super yacht, ends his rant with: "This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent 'progressive' radicalism unthinkable now?"
Obviously, there has been backlash to the letter. "It certainly proves you can get rich without being very thoughtful, perceptive, or intelligent," Slate's Matt Yglesias writes.
More people took to Twitter to express their outrage, including Kleiner Perkins, which tweeted, "Tom Perkins has not been involved in KPCB in years. We were shocked by his views expressed today in the WSJ and do not agree."
The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to The Huffington Post's request for comment.
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