There are assholes, and then there are those who wish to be assholes. Kevin O'Leary is an obnoxious combination of both. Once a proprietary, founding member of what used to be called
The Learning Company, an educational software studio, O'Leary is a long-running
Dragon on CBC's
The Dragon's Den, which is actually an international entrepreneur-coaching reality-TV series. Also a co-host on CBC's
The Lang & O'Leary Exchange, O'Leary has plenty of fronts to play the jerk that he proudly describes himself as.
| | | Unfortunately for him, while it was attention-grabbing (in a negative way, at least) in the beginning, he's been so insistent on his jerk-ass self-portrayal that he's worn out what was already an unwelcome fad at the get-go. |
When the world-famous, and arguably short-lived and mostly inconsequential
Occupy Wall Street protests had first sprang up, O'Leary had a guest by the name of Chris Hedges on his
Lang & O'Leary Exchange program. The synopsis of the discussion was centered on the premise of the
Occupy movement, which to this day many pundits and ignorant onlookers
still are unaware of. Chris Hedges described a very close, and by extension, accurate representation of the unified goal of the movement. It is a protest against the monumental political influence that large corporations have on the government and its officials, and how much of that negatively impacts the majority of the citizens of the U.S. and to a smaller but nonetheless significant extent, Canada.
W
hen Chris Hedges went on to describe how
"Corporations don't do anything…" in his tirade against the plutocratic powers that be, Kevin O'Leary interrupted and said to Hedges,
"You sound like a left-wing nutbar." Suffice to say, that comment was uncalled for given that Hedges had not resorted to reactionary name-calling at O'Leary's expense up to that point. Hedges wasn't the only victim of O'Leary's derision, however; the general attendees of the
Occupy movement were belittled as "nothing burgers" and said of the movement that it was "very weak, very low-budget" (as if that was supposed to be perceived as an insult).
Chris wasn't going to play coy, and remarked, "If you want to discuss issues, that's fine. I mean, this sounds like Fox News and I don't go on Fox News." O'Leary tried to roll back his unfounded, childlike aggression to keep Hedges cooperating for the rest of the segment, but towards the very end, when he was invited to return, Chris said that he wouldn't go where the commentators "descend into character assassination." You can watch the exchange, hopefully un-edited, on Youtube if you're so curious.
Kevin has also stated that if he were Prime Minister (thank the lord, if there is one, that he isn't and hopefully never will gain any momentum towards that position), he'd make unions illegal. With that you couldn't deny me saying that he's fallen victim to the left/right paradigm. If you're privy to how pointless that paradigm is, then you'll get a feel of how pathetic this man is.
On
The Dragon's Den, an internationally-syndicated entrepreneurial business pitch program, Kevin is the most rambunctious, seemingly most passionate, and definitely the most outspoken of the designated 'Dragons'. He's quite direct on that show, and while that would be admirable in likeable people, O'Leary just isn't one of them. Since he's a one-trick pony, his direct demeanor on that program is purely for show. He tries very hard to insult prospective entrepreneurs whose presentations do not live up to his expectations. Upon viewing just one episode of the program, it's pretty clear as to why the show is defined as a reality-TV show; judges, competition as the primary theme, and ‘edgy' antics especially through O'Leary.
He did manage to build up a lucrative educational software company (The Learning Company), with the help of his business-savvy mother via a $10,000 loan, but eventually sold the company to Mattel. A quick glimpse at this venture would reveal that this is amongst the worst mergers/acquisitions in business history. Just look at the
article by Bloomberg Weekly, which includes this very deal.
To talk about this jackass any further is to annoy me even further.
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