america's elites are desperate to keep us from a better world. that would jeopardize their position. again and again, we see moves just to re-assert the control of capital.
RTO drive, decimating workforces periodically were small resistances to good. wrecking the world is higher stakes.
Their feet simply do not touch the ground anymore. F. Scott Fitzgerald's careless people. They are just watching Elon turning into Icarus along with the rest of us.
And the obvious next step is to award those competitive advantages to other countries, putting the recovery from any economic fallout in the hands of people not at all interested in the outcomes for US companies and industries.
Who knew University president's, @washingtonpost.com @nytimes.com & large media outlets who have all benefited from democracy were such craven cowards?
they’re even destroying the evil IO’s like the IMF. it’s insane. like you have an institution that extorts poor countries facing liquidity crises into doing shock therapy and these guys want to knock that down too. it’s nuts
yeah that's why we've had all these "inefficient" departments full of thankless human beings maintaining things for them
fucking plantation owner deciding he's got too many black people working for him, gunning down all the slaves, and then wondering why the cotton harvest isn't getting picked
People, they are paying back the financiers: Putin and Netanyahu for Trump, and all the sovereign wealth funds that sabotaged Twitter through musk. Breaking US was the goal.
I'm just assuming that their plan is that when we spiral into forced labor camps, food shortages, and guerrilla warfare in the streets, they have already secured locations for their corporate headquarters and board members' living spaces in Dubai.
Because they are quietly nodding in agreement and thinking “yeah, maybe it’s ok that that part of the government went away” but not realizing that is akin to approving of the arsonist burning down your house because you hated that couch your wife bought.
America doesn't have elites. America has capitalists that will move their capital elsewhere in a heartbeat if it will get them a fraction of a percent more return on investment. They know the price of everything, but consider the value of something to be zero unless it can be measured in dollars.
They are in shock imo and I think a lot of them believe in 26/28 things will swing back and the pendulum will fix the issue, not realizing the damage is too severe to not be fixed quickly. I don't understand it. Corporations/shareholders lose when the economy is blown up due to the current admin.
Instability = lack of money, and bad business. I feel every corporation knows this. They know this won't end well for their bottom line either. The issue is were in uncharted territory and people are hoping it just blows over.
Our elites have failed comprehensively. Since Reagan was elected their values have gradually decayed until all that is left is a pursuit of money and power. The concept of any sort of “general good” has vanished.
It really feels like the elite have a combo of:
1) They’re tired of having to share the same eye space as the poors.
2) They see this as their best opportunity to enshrine their wealth.
3) Know a huge global shift is about to happen—whether climate, pandemic, or death of capitalism.
They're the world's elites now. They are effectively insulated from the consequences. I mean, we've been building to this for decades now. Look at how calm the markets are.
Billionaires believe that government is parasitical on the private sector, so they’re all in. GOP legislators like that Musk can do the thing they’ve always wanted, and everyone else (university presidents, etc.) don’t want to be thrown against the wall by Trump.
As someone who studied far more economics than I did told me shortly after the election, "you underestimate how much big money hates the regulatory state"
No, it isn't rational. Big money has an irrational hate for the regulatory apparatus of the state that far exceeds self interest.
It's fear and a lack of moral courage! When you see that Trump was able to become president again despite countless violations of the law and will not be stopped, you don't believe in the protection provided by the state authorities or the courts.
Absolutely infuriating that we apparently can’t do anything about it because this is what the people wanted but we can’t blame the people because they were lied to about what he would do
It's like the narcissist's prayer, except the narcissist's prayer at least has the grace to be baldly selfish rather than making excuses for someone else's destructive selfishness, which is just pathetic
This Canadian heard about some of his outrageous plans even before he was elected. Guess the only thing that stuck was lowering the price of eggs 🤦♀️🤦♀️
They are not competitors in the nation sphere.
Supranational organization has metastasized to individuals, who expect to maintain “liberties” for their own selfs.
It’s Thiel versus Musk right now, only one winner expected.
They are just doing on a nation state scale what they have been doing to companies for decades now. Borrow against the value of the company to buy it. Saddle it with the debt it took to buy it. Loot and gut it of any assets of value.
Then abandon it for greener pastures while letting the empty shell collapse.
Now they are working on doing it to the US as a nation. They know they can always move someplace else. They can offshore most of their assets and just leave if it gets too bad.
They didn’t speak up during the election because they didn’t think things would be this bad, and they were worried about potential Dem policies that might raise their taxes.
Now they’re just scared! Things are already way worse than they thought, and no one wants to be targeted by this maniac.
its just a total collapse of responsibility from anyone in a position of power or influence because what? they got mad that employees could actually push back for once in 30 odd years?
I think it’s simpler than that. The current crop of elites simply don’t remember a time when America was not global hegemon and can’t imagine the downside
agree emphatically. it was not theirs, it was the labor of generations built out of the ashes of ww2. destroying it is a monument to stupidity and also an epic, historical self own.
It is malevolent strategy guiding malevolent stupidity. We are stuck wrestling about how to deal with this malignant combo. Most can’t keep their heads above water in this tsunami of transnational kleptocracy. ‘Tyranny’ would be alliterative but we can’t ignore the kleptocrats.
Right. Follow the money. We don't yet know how much control they have of the money supply through Treasury's payments account. If that money moves, will the banking system see it? They'll try and hide it, they hate transparency. They may end up destabilizing the dollar. Uintended Consequences, or no
Easy! Afro pessimism explains this. They are so mad at the spiritual ghost of Obama they will think they get to be king of the ashes! They think they will coup Elon and take over. The politicans are afraid of primary challenges because the R party is ironically hyper aggressive 1/
Because this era of R is post Bohener where even big republicans can be taken down, and speaker is a poisoned chalice as Johnson is now realizing. It’s a perfect series of bad incentives slinging to lead to this
(Honestly the markets have to be scared for anyone to make a move, as long as line goes up the house is stable. If it goes down they will literally throw out Elon first
Labor gave a slight pushback just to have boundaries that protected Labor's peace and these crybabies can't handle it.
Like it wasn't " Fuck you bitch! *spits in face* " but rather "Hey man could you not, you're in my space and I'm trying to work."
It's like nobody in leadership anywhere in Europe or America is able to make any decision besides doing what's most convenient for them in the short term.
Convenience is the key word here. I think even some of the more craven interpretations give them too much credit. All of them have gotten very used to not having to do much at all. I don’t know how many of them even know how to do things.
They are cashing in. Such short-term thinking is an American corporate disease and it will bring the whole fucking edifice down now. What we're seeing is the American business ethos in action: fire the lazy fuckers, drain their pension funds, make off with the cash.
I’m going to go out on a limb based on what I saw attending courses at elite universities aimed at professionals. We made them so wealthy they have enough “fuck you money” to stop identifying as American. Some had spent entire lives overseas. Came to the States only to get their degrees.
I remember sitting in stunned silence as a guy sat next to me and said if Obama got elected he and his wife were simply moving to Australia. They don’t have skin in the game the way we ordinary citizens do that can’t afford to leave.
I did not word that well at all. The point I was poorly making was we have a set of elites who fancy themselves citizens of the world free to abandon the U.S. at any time for any reason rather than stand up in defense against a Trump. But then, that man shares Trump’s racism……
Oh, and they are incredibly arrogant and victims of their own hubris. That arrogance creates gigantic intellectual blindspots for them, like understanding the very basis of their success (they are always “self made”) is being shredded.
We have always bounced back. I think that they want what they want and if we get to the next election things can be corrected. But that's not a sustainable tactic.
They’re mad that after clawing at the company for 20 years Tyrone finally got the corner office when they got an MBA from Wharton and can’t be trusted to do Excel spreadsheets.
And that Stacy from HR asked politely for them to stop squeezing Stacy from accounting’s butt.
And the liberal boomers, in their peak years, had Earl Warren's Supreme Court, which somehow got them thinking the long arc of the moral universe bends towards justice *by itself*.
As a society we've been entertained/edutained/angertained and gamified. The US was taught billionaires are "cool" and we need to keep it simple. We've also become so specialized we can outsource about anything. This all has led to a detachment from cause/effect. We simply can't deal with reality.
I think a lot of them genuinely cannot imagine things getting worse in a way that matters to them. Sure, the little people got soaked in 2008 and 2020 was a bit of a mess, but the ship as a whole stayed on the level. There hasn't been anyone who thought it could sink since 1991.
If you believe that it is possible for things to get worse for the USA in a way that endangers American presence on the world stage or worsens the personal lives of American elites you are more perceptive than 99% of Congress.
I mean, to be fair, most of them have only had to care about shareholders’ purse and stock buybacks in the past number of years (includes many in Congress)…
Trump and them are not only isolating thenselves domestically they are doing it internationally as well. What happens when other countries do not recognize the US dollar. Where do they go? Russia? Dubai? The power of the dollar is not powerful when only a few have it. It is powerful when many do.
They don't care. They've been trained that the only part of the future that matters is the next quarter. They don't give a damn about things that are *absolutely* going to destroy them in a year or two.
This is what happens when you have a society run by MBAs and people who idolize them.
Comments
RTO drive, decimating workforces periodically were small resistances to good. wrecking the world is higher stakes.
@uh.edu @princetonupress.bsky.social @aacu.org @neatoday.bsky.social
they don't realize it is a thing that must be MAINTAINED
or that acting like a bunch of demented toddlers breaking everything in sight might RUIN IT
fucking plantation owner deciding he's got too many black people working for him, gunning down all the slaves, and then wondering why the cotton harvest isn't getting picked
America will just become another land of sweatshops. Nothing they're not used to.
the idea that this should be more than a country-sized playground for various kinds and nationalities of autocrat seems to be considered cringe
1) They’re tired of having to share the same eye space as the poors.
2) They see this as their best opportunity to enshrine their wealth.
3) Know a huge global shift is about to happen—whether climate, pandemic, or death of capitalism.
No, it isn't rational. Big money has an irrational hate for the regulatory apparatus of the state that far exceeds self interest.
Supranational organization has metastasized to individuals, who expect to maintain “liberties” for their own selfs.
It’s Thiel versus Musk right now, only one winner expected.
Now they are working on doing it to the US as a nation. They know they can always move someplace else. They can offshore most of their assets and just leave if it gets too bad.
Now they’re just scared! Things are already way worse than they thought, and no one wants to be targeted by this maniac.
Also: this is the fruition of the Reagan Revolution.
So… let’s just go with degraded fascism run by fascist South African billionaires and actual eugenics as an experiment
Like it wasn't " Fuck you bitch! *spits in face* " but rather "Hey man could you not, you're in my space and I'm trying to work."
And that Stacy from HR asked politely for them to stop squeezing Stacy from accounting’s butt.
They don't know how to believe in one.
And the liberal boomers, in their peak years, had Earl Warren's Supreme Court, which somehow got them thinking the long arc of the moral universe bends towards justice *by itself*.
This is what happens when you have a society run by MBAs and people who idolize them.
they’re all contrarian truth tellers. To them, we (their employees, random social media users) are the elites oppressing them