Guillotine Jones, FlâneurNov 5

The Guardian's Zoe Williams outlines the rules for criticizing billionaires, and offers a critique of their effect on the world:

"A certain discursive paralysis sets in when we are all talking constantly about billionaire behaviour, billion-seeking business models, billionaire agendas, billionaire networks, but remain too shy to ask whether billionaires should exist at all. There is pretty broad agreement, not limited to generation Z or the socialist republic of New York, that this minuscule wealth class undermines democracy in myriad ways, that they mostly erode workplace rights and drive down wages, that the pharaohs of tech are algorithmically mushing our brains, that their philanthropy is often sleight of hand, that they don’t want to fix the climate crisis – indeed, they are actively looking forward to the apocalypse with a side order of civil war, because it means there will be fewer of us. But we rigorously avoid the logical conclusion: that maybe having a billion dollars in the first place is innately bad."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/05/billie-eilish-billionaires-super-rich
#Billionaires #BillieEilish #ZoeWilliams #WSJInnovatorAwards #Innequality

Why the anger with Billie Eilish? Because it’s against the rules to say what we all know about billionaires

The singer is giving away millions – but the parameters for criticising the super-rich are very narrow, and hardly anyone qualifies, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

The Guardian
Show thread*banned 4 MarkDown love*Jan 4, 2020

@freemo @realcaseyrollins Because the large social media networks are all corporate owned and profit driven, we have scandalous episodes like the Cambridge Analytica one.

Then again, State sponsored efforts at manipulating people's minds, via ad campaigns, and troll farm actions. The FSB is very active on this front.

I don't comdemn them for this, as the opposing side has done the same in different ways, besides openly funding insurrection and regime change campaigns in many places.

See also : Chile, 1973. Assassination of a President, inside the saet of government, funded by foreign interests including corporate ones. Ford Foundation for example.

Chile suffered a lot, and now is once again in turmoil, as the injustice and myseries caused by the economic policies spearheaded by the Chicago School, and first implemented in post coup Chile, lead to tremendous disparity and unrest in the country.

#Chile #Innequality #Economics #Interventionism #CIA