I assume human nature, if not constantly monitored, has a tendency to be incredibly selfish, fearful, and insular; and so we are merely seeing the most recent iteration of a common theme. It’s a whole different magnitude of evil if this situation is a deliberate return to those “ideals”.
edited to add: what I meant by “monitored” was self monitored – having self control over raw urges – but control by external agencies such as (ethical) law enforcement has its place too.
I have to say I have a bit more faith in general human nature or perhaps i should say a random sampling of humans and their nature. Some specific people’s human nature on the other hand I do despair about.
Although seriously the supposed international political correctness “conspiracy” seems to have been Lyndon LaRouche meme that has gone mainstream. And it was the LaRouchies who made the Hitler/Obama posters.
I agree they do feel exposed but I seriously doubt that they think that the system is unfair at all. The attitudes recently displayed by many of the extremely wealthy, particularly those in investment banking, seems to more stem from a feeling of superiority: they ARE smarter, they DO work harder, they ARE entitled to every single tax break and offshore account, because at the very heart of their beings, they believe themselves on par with Vanderbilt, Morgan, Rockefeller, et. al. I believe, anecdotally, that many very wealthy people are sociopaths. They believe themselves much smarter than everyone else and are therefore not bound by societal mores nor the law. Having Big Money is akin to a huge pressure cooker: it distorts humans into something less humane.
For what it’s worth, the Nazis said they were going to save Germany from everyone that wasn’t blond and blue eyed, and their “logic” was a totally useless mishmash of nearly any theory they could shout. If they could shout it as a one-line question or slogan that utterly ignored any thought of nuance and was functional only to get someone agitated, then mores the better.
That’s exactly the technique outlined in Mein Kampf, which has chapters devoted specifically to the practice of propaganda. Mein Kampf was actually a group project while Hitler and his yobs were under cushy house arrest after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, and I tend to credit Goebbels with these lucid sections on propaganda.
If you read those sections, you will instantly recognize common media tropes and techniques of today. You know after WW2 academics wanted to study and teach the story of Fascism to inoculate the public against it, but I think the powers that be said “Saaaaay, there’s some pretty useful stuff in here! What? It’s dangerous? Oh shut up Poindexter, we’ll only use it for good!”
Exactly. I’ve been enjoying Fest’s “Hitler” and learning a great deal about “little drummer boy” Hitler and his bunch of Nazi stooges. Clearly, the rich fuckers who think they’re right to compare themselves to said Jews either don’t know history for fuck all, or they’re sociopaths as mentioned above. Or, hell, maybe both.
Ah, yet another sociopathic megalomaniac that garners his massive wealth by being a parasite that thrusts the costly externalities of his investments upon the rest of society (especially the poor).
Kenneth Langone, as beautiful as your contributions to “modern art” are, I still just don’t like you very much because you make me and everyone else pay for it.
As a capitalist, surely you can understand why we don’t like paying for parasites like you?
Go fuck yourself, Kenneth Langone. Go fuck yourself.
I’m thinking maybe we should make this dude’s worst fears come true. No sense in wasting our breath without good, solid data. How should we start? Ghetto slavery, or straight to the gas chamber?
If you really want to hurt a billionaire where he’s gonna actually feel pain, take all his money away, make him live on minimum wage, and bar him from applying for any sort of public assistance.
One of the reasons the “rich people being treated like Jews in Nazi Germany” idea is so nonsensical is that even if rich people today were being persecuted, they could easily avoid that persecution by giving up their excess wealth (or have it taken from them). No such option for people being persecuted for their ancestry.
You ARE 100% correct. European Jews thought, at first, that they could give up wealth to maintain normalcy, and then it turned into giving up some liberties, and then it turned into giving up all liberty, and then it turned into death. So, here, there is no such program or pogrom against richie riches.
In fact, they have it just the opposite, as @Cowicide will fervently attest: with only a few notable exceptions, the rich class are quite literally the psychopaths who would gladly starve and kill most of the population in order to maintain their station.
Meanwhile, normal people would like normal things. Normal things are:
-Decent food, clean water, good housing, safe communities, internet access, outdoor spaces to play.
-Opportunity to grow and thrive educationally and spiritually, maybe make a few bucks through the direct result of hard work, without stepping on anybody else’s soul to get ahead.
-The ability to raise a family, or take part in one, and not worry about health care or having enough money or resources to take care of the young ones and old ones when they need it.
-Having a decent amount of leisure time and a few good entertainment possibilities.
Pretty much normal stuff. What do billionaires and trillionaires want? Normal stuff x1,000,000,000 ? Really? Naw. They’re psychos. They don’t have a leg to stand on in this argument.
