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Twitter’s Trillionaires

Subcomandante America
@TheReticulator
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Seen just now on Twitter. (You can call it X if you want to.)

If you're flying in a plane do you want the pilot to have a truthful altimeter, or a loyal one that just keeps telling him how brilliant he is?

Also, the old Trump-Russia hoax is being replaced by new types of mass hysteria.

One is a campaign of hate directed against Ukraine, Zelensky and anyone who wants the U.S. to help them. One starts to get a hint of what it must have been like to live in Germany in the 1930s, when the Jews were being blamed for all economic troubles and anyone who didn't take part in Jew hatred was somewhat suspect. Somehow $175 billion spent on Ukraine is the center of attention for all of America's economic woes, according to some of the more extreme and more mathematically challenged voices. Scary times.

A second type of mass hysteria hasn't completely caught on yet, but it will be interesting to see what becomes of it. Certain folks are trying to gin up hate of billionaires, especially the ones like Elon Musk or people associated with big pharma or big health insurance, saying they shouldn't be allowed in the government. I've been trying to point out that we need billionaires to counterbalance the trillionaires, such as the Administrative State that has trillions of dollars to spend in maintaining its own socio-economic position. I haven't yet talked about the parallels with European history where battles between kings and nobility created a space where democracy could take root, since kings and nobility were competing for the affections of the common people who were the basis of their wealth and power.

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Discussion (6)

  • David Foster@DavidFoster

    "I’ve been trying to point out that we need billionaires to counterbalance the trillionaires, such as the Administrative State that has trillions of dollars to spend in maintaining its own socio-economic position." Very much agree with this. The people who object to concentrations of Wealth rarely seem to object to concentrations of Power.

    See my comment and those of others at Eric Holder's whine about billionaires.

  • David Foster@DavidFoster

    re the campaigns of hate directed against individuals....During the Spanish Civil War, the French writer/aviator Antoine de St-Exupery was tasked by his government to rescue French people in Spain who were in danger of being shot by one side or another. In one village:

    ***

    “Oh, yes, we shot seventeen of them.” 

They had shot seventeen “fascists.” The parish priest, 
the priest’s housekeeper, the sexton, and fourteen village 
notables. Everything is relative, you see. When they 
read in their provincial newspaper the story of the life 
of Basil Zaharoff, master of the world, they transpose it 
into their own language. They recognize in him the 
nurseryman, or the pharmacist. And when they shoot 
the pharmacist, in a way they are shooting Basil Zahar- 
off. The only one who does not understand is the phar- 
macist. 
    ***
    Isn't that what happens in many of these hate campaigns?...The targeted individual becomes a symbol,
    but an avatar for whatever people are angry about.
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