Exactly. A broken clock is right twice a day. If "idiot" rich people can monetize their mistakes, consistently do so, and manage to do it almost as if by using the same playbook as each other...they're not idiots, it is on purpose, and they just want enough plausible deniability that they don't get strung up from a Michelin star restaurant.
flipht
joined 2 years ago
I mean, you're kind of seeing this with Donald Trump's legal issues. He can't get anyone with real clout, so he's actually facing consequences in that arena now.
That assumes all things are equal.
They rely on you repeating this adage to get away with this shit. It's too consistent. If he were actually stupid, he'd face negative consequences, which is something these folks very rarely have to do.
He does not have to do it himself. He has accountants and lawyers who can take his stupid decisions and turn them into money.
At a certain point the economies of scale of being a billionaire just keep you rich. What I've said is pretty standard tax bullshit that they grow up pulling.
No one will convince me he isn't doing this on purpose to tank the brand.
He and his buddies were mad that they couldn't compete. So he made the offer in a manic moment, and then was forced to go through with it. Now that he's got it, he's going to destroy it, and use the loss to reduce his taxes from all his government contracts.
And he simultaneously gets to platform fascists and silence people calling out the powerful. Wins all around.
For a normal person, this looks like failing. I totally get that. But rich people can derive massive benefits from stuff that would ruin us, and every single thing Musk is doing benefits him in some way.
Ignoring that ancient mathematicians were able to calculate the size of the earth with pretty good results, considering their "world spanning empires" are what we'd consider regional now.
Also that you can literally watch a ship come over the horizon, seeing it's sails first before the body actually moves into view. If the earth were flat the entire thing would be visible the entire time.
You can't reason people out of positions they didn't reason themselves into.
Not actually surprised. These people are evil, not stupid. He knows he drove away the low paid immigrant workers, they just want a way to blame them anyway.
Hallmark of fascism - the enemy is so strong that they'll steal your jobs, but also is weak and cowardly and deserves the poor treatment we give them.
Help them locate resources that are working on solutions.
Energy grid storage news, low emission building, DIY stuff have all been mood savers for me.
At the end of the day, we are all going to die. Our species is going to die. If it's next year because Yellowstone erupts and blots out the sun, or next week because Russia decides to go full MAD, or millions of years from now because interstellar travel lanes collapse...all we can do is the best we can with what's in front of us.
For me, now, that means thinking about what I can do without. It means having a bug out bag to know I can tough out a day or two away from home. It means having emergency plans in place and other options for rolling with the punches. It also means looking out for the others around me and trying to build networks that look out for each other.
I believe the world is falling apart, but I think we have an opportunity to fall gracefully and maybe, if we are lucky, we can pass something on to the future that might grow into something new. The end likely won't be worldwide cataclysm, so imo the best thing to do is to prepare to be mobile in a crisis.
It is crazy that you need to think like a criminal or a corporate espionage target, but...
Consider backing your phone up and then wiping it. Some business folks do this to avoid having sensitive information on devices they must hand over to the TSA. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/how-can-i-wipe-and-restore-tablets-and-phones-for-travel/
Then again, if you can get them to swarm and spend their energy on stupid shit that has no place to go, maybe they won't be backing up Trump while he's mired in legal cases.
The fewer of them available to run interference for him, the better.
Democrats in Congress would be right in providing ample distractions for their regressive colleagues right now.
It should have been "obvious what they were going to do" the moment their country was invaded and they fought back instead of rolling over.
Elon Musk is now interfering in the defense against an ongoing genocide. He offered them this infrastructural support, he was going to get paid for it, he has shot himself in the foot on that side of the equation, and he is using that "mistake" to justify interfering in policy and planning for a sovereign government trying to defend its people.
There's no acceptable way to spin this. As my high school accounting teacher used to say, "You either knew or should have known." He knows what he's doing, or he's dangerously incompetent. Either way, he should be cut off from any opportunity to fuck with Ukraine.