Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
-
@raymierussell @ploum @cstross I like this explanation: Do you know that thought experiment where you get 1000€ when you press a button but someone you don't know dies? -- A millionaire is someone who was willing to press this button 1000 times, a billionaire a million times.
-
@raymierussell @ploum @cstross I like this explanation: Do you know that thought experiment where you get 1000€ when you press a button but someone you don't know dies? -- A millionaire is someone who was willing to press this button 1000 times, a billionaire a million times.
@chris_evelyn @ploum @cstross
That is horribly perfect. -
Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/02/more-in-sadness-than-in-anger.html
It’s logical: non-crazy people will, at some point, hit the "more money than enough even for my craziest fullfilling dreams".
People who are still destroying their social/ecological environment for more money above that level are, obviously, crazy. And dangerous.
-
Hubertus Bigend's lack of humanity manifests in infinity classier way that what we have in the real world...
Arguably, the Blue Ant trilogy is problematic in its representation of billionaires. Elon was perceived as eccentric, cool, and largely harmless and benevolent for a long time... It was a different time.😆
-
@26aafa19 @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum South Carolina politician discussing giving children lunches at school makes your point
https://www.politico.com/story/2010/01/sc-lt-gov-poor-like-stray-animals-031959
@rrb @26aafa19 @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I love how they will say something despicable and then claim "you're taking my words out of context!" but then you read their entire remarks and the quote sounds *even worse* in context.
An example of a quote taken out of context is "you didn't build that" from Barack Obama. This chud calling the poor "stray animals" sounds way worse when you add "because they breed."
-
@rrb @26aafa19 @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I love how they will say something despicable and then claim "you're taking my words out of context!" but then you read their entire remarks and the quote sounds *even worse* in context.
An example of a quote taken out of context is "you didn't build that" from Barack Obama. This chud calling the poor "stray animals" sounds way worse when you add "because they breed."
@rrb @26aafa19 @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum see also every bigoted Charlie Kirk quote that we were told was taken out of context. The "context" was just him further justifying his bigotry. The context was him saying the bigoted quote and then *standing by it*. You didn't need the "context," he agreed with the original quote. He spent his last seven words dehumanizing not one but *two* unrelated minorities.
-
@cstross @nathanael @ploum Yeah, and primate pack dominance and hierarchy is HOW they feel rich.
They don't feel rich from owning stuff. They feel rich from owning people.
And you don't get to own people if everyone can just quit and do something else instead. You only get to own people if the alternative is suffering and death.
@isaackuo @cstross @nathanael @ploum this would be why they don't want universal income. It would allow people to just walk away from shitty jobs and conditions.
-
Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/02/more-in-sadness-than-in-anger.html
It’s logical: non-crazy people will, at some point, hit the "more money than enough even for my craziest fullfilling dreams".
People who are still destroying their social/ecological environment for more money above that level are, obviously, crazy. And dangerous.
-
@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael : you are right. This is also something very different from Europe, which never had slaves but is still rooted in aristocracy.
And, with all its problems, aristocracy has one advantages over slavery: aristocrats had responsibility. they were educated to be responsible. It didn’t always work but this was the norm. Honor and reputation were more important than "raw power" or "money"
@ploum
@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael
(nitpicking but we had our share of slaves in Europe - likely for longer than the US - and we did export that approach for society) -
Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/02/more-in-sadness-than-in-anger.html
It’s logical: non-crazy people will, at some point, hit the "more money than enough even for my craziest fullfilling dreams".
People who are still destroying their social/ecological environment for more money above that level are, obviously, crazy. And dangerous.
@ploum Let's not call them crazy. They are broken.
-
@nathanael @ploum @cstross When everyone is rich, no one is rich. Certain rich people don't want to see that ever happen, because they won't survive.
-
@rrb @26aafa19 @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I love how they will say something despicable and then claim "you're taking my words out of context!" but then you read their entire remarks and the quote sounds *even worse* in context.
An example of a quote taken out of context is "you didn't build that" from Barack Obama. This chud calling the poor "stray animals" sounds way worse when you add "because they breed."
@dresstokilt @rrb @26aafa19 @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum
The Dead Kennedys saw it coming- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4yTGTCsTO4 -
Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/02/more-in-sadness-than-in-anger.html
It’s logical: non-crazy people will, at some point, hit the "more money than enough even for my craziest fullfilling dreams".
People who are still destroying their social/ecological environment for more money above that level are, obviously, crazy. And dangerous.
@ploum @cstross@wandering.shop It's not about money it's about power
-
@ploum @cstross @ravenbait @nathanael Europe had slaves. The Vikings were prolific slavers, for instance, and it went on for a long, long time. Europe just choses not to engage with that past.
@26aafa19 @ploum @cstross @ravenbait @nathanael American black slavery was almost uniquely bad, formed the basis of the modern institutions and “but what about a millennia ago” is not a strong argument.
-
undefined oblomov@sociale.network shared this topic