Govt. Stockholm Syndrome Strikes

01 Jul, 2011 by CalWatchdog Staff

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John Seiler:

You’ve probably heard of Stockholm Syndrome, where hostage victims end up identifying with the hostage takers. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition:

In psychology, Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a real paradoxical psychologicalphenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors; sometimes to the point of defending them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness.^[1]^[2] The FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome.^[3

There’s also what I call “Government Stockholm Syndrome,” where victims of government abuse end up identifying with the government abusers.

That’s what’s happening with the “Amazon Tax” imposed Thursday by Gov. Jerry “Jobs Killer” Brown.

To avoid being forced to pay an unfair tax, Amazon.com “fired” its small, California affiliates, about 10,000 of them. Including other out-of-state businesses, about 25,000 California affiliates have been fired in the last two days. We’ve written about this recently here on CalWatchDog.com.

But some of the affiliates destroyed by “Jobs Killer” Brown, instead of blaming him and the rest of the government, blame Amazon! See what I mean: Government Stockholm Syndrome.

Here are a couple of these folks suffering from the Syndrome.

The L.A. Times reported:

But Larry Darnell, who sells guitars and artworks on the Internet from his home in the Santa Cruz County town of Felton, said he believes Amazon should collect sales tax.

“I don’t think they’re a particularly good corporate citizen,” said Darnell, who like other affiliates was cut off by Amazon. “We all live in the system and contribute to the state, and they don’t want to do it. Quite frankly, the money the state is going to acquire is not too much, but every little bit helps.”

The Orange County Register reported:

However, another Amazon affiliate, Glenn Richards, an independent recording artist in Orange County (MightyFleissRadio.com), is angry with Amazon and its head Jeff Bezos.

“I think that Amazon.com’s decision to throw their affiliates, (including myself) under the bus is a national disgrace,” Richards said. “Jeff Bezos should be ashamed of his conduct. His bully boy practice and tactics of extinguishing small business in California should be (condemned). Small business has no power…and no hope to confront Internet giants like Amazon.com.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Former Chronicle business reporter Dan Fost is an Amazon associate. “Meaning I have an Amazon ad on my Web site, and if anyone clicks through to buy my book, I get a little share,” said Fost, author most recently of “Giants Past & Present,” about our favorite baseball team.

“I barely make anything on this, but I presume others do very well.”

Fost, who also received a notice Wednesday, said he was “intrigued that Amazon is threatening to take that away from me and other associates if the Brown tax passes.”

“I don’t see the connection at all – they’d rather not make the sales from our sites if they have to pay tax on those sales? I think they’re just trying to punish Californians for whatever the governor and Legislature do.”

July 1, 2011