Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.

[ploum@mamot.fr]

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.

[nathanael@exquisite.social]

@ploum

how do we get rid of poor people as a whole.

couldn't it be that the quote means: let's make poor people more wealthy? and not:

let's kill the poor and take all their stuff.

or am i just naive? also: when everyone is rich, no one is poor, the word looses its meaning

cc @cstross

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@nathanael @ploum

You're naive. Poverty is relative: the very wealthy WANT the vast majority to be poor because it justifies their assumption of personal superiority. If they only wanted "poor" to mean "have one euro less in their wallet", that'd be tolerable: but it seems to be necessary for their egos to see starvation, misery, and death on all sides.

[ravenbait@mastodon.scot]

@cstross @nathanael @ploum Also, I think they genuinely believe poor people are lesser beings. They know the world is heading towards a big crunch. They want to be standing in the ashes. The poor demand resources. The poor could rise up and present a threat — there are so many more of them. I wish I could believe the email meant "how do we tackle poverty," but that's not what they said.

People who want to alleviate poverty don't talk about putting explosive collars on a private security team.

[ploum@mamot.fr]

@cstross @nathanael : but the worse is that they are becoming increasingly "stupid and crazy". To the point any great vilain in a novel would appear sane.

They believe in their own marketing shit: living like riches on Mars, without poors and with AI servants (that will somewhat program and maintain themselves).

That explains why their greatest fear is currently "robots rising and rebeling".

Yeah, they are that deep in their crazyness…

[zeri@chaos.social]

@ploum @cstross and that's why guillotines are inferior to making them power the Alaskan gravel industry for the rest of their natural life. Sry I have the urgent need to push this image so that maybe I get to see it implemented with the current US administration and their oligarchs.

[holliek72@mastodonapp.uk]

@cstross @nathanael @ploum They're scared that if "poor" was to "have one euro less in their wallet," that the poor will overtake them, and they will become the poor. They don't want any more competitors in the rich stakes.

What gets me is that they seem to want to see starvation, misery, and death on all sides, but also want to be universally loved and worshipped. If they solved poverty, by giving up on a few of their billions, they would be hailed as saviours, but they can't do that.

[lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@ploum @cstross like i said: money addiction should be in the DSM

[nathanael@exquisite.social]

@cstross @ploum not sure i can follow. the rich want the majority to be poor doesn't make any sense from an economic standpoint. they got rich because people buy stuff they want. poor people can't buy stuff. i am aware that some people got rich by other means, but in general

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@lritter @ploum

Unfortunately money addiction is not in the DSM: it's in the church pulpits instead.

[ploum@mamot.fr]

@cstross @nathanael : and if you ever doubt their stupidity, remember that they discuss all of that using a f***ing gmail account !

(but the worse is that it is not that stupid because all it takes for them to benefit is convincing 50,1% of the voters to vote for their candidate)

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@nathanael @ploum You misunderstand. It's not about economics, it's about primate pack dominance and hierarchy. The motivations of the hyper-rich are very much *not* rational, otherwise they'd have stopped collecting money long ao.

[nathanael@exquisite.social]

@ploum @cstross okay, maybe you are talking about some specific rich people. but the rich people i personally know are not at all like you describe them here

[ploum@mamot.fr]

@nathanael @cstross : that’s not logical, that’s exactly why they are insane.

They see themselves as an elite who deserve more from life. Money is not the point.

By the way, how Epstein became rich is also very interesting: he basically scammed a very rich guy by making him believe he was a fortune manager (but failing to tell him he had no customers). At the time, he also wanted to stay low profile.

But, once very rich, he lost it completely and wanted fame/glory.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@nathanael @ploum Unless you personally know any billionaires, you don't know any rich people.

[26aafa19@mastodon.social]

@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I grew up poor in the USA. Poverty there is framed as a moral condition by the entire society in the USA. You are lesser because you are poor and, in some cases, not considered human. I speak in general terms so exceptions, etc. Many give to charity to feel morally superior to the poor. It's brutal and pervasive so getting to "how do we get rid of poor people" is not surprising in the least.

[moz@fosstodon.org]

@nathanael @cstross @ploum every token a poor person has is necessarily a token that a stupid(ly) rich person could have but does not. This is not just inefficient, it is disgusting.

At least in the eyes of the very rich.

[holliek72@mastodonapp.uk]

@nathanael @ploum @cstross Those are merely rich people, and not ultra-rich people. In the eyes of the ultra-rich, those you see as rich are actually poor.

[ploum@mamot.fr]

@nathanael @cstross : there’s a difference between "rich" and "billionnaire-rich".

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael @ploum To some extent that's an inevitable side-effect of a social hierarchy constructed on a foundation of chattel slavery. Slaves are property, they can't own anything, so to be poor is to be closer to that state of immiseration.

Slavery: the original sin of the colonizers of the Americas. (That, with a side-order of genocide-by-plague, but slavery left the biggest mark on the present day.)

And as Pratchet said: evil is treating people as things.