Jeffrey Belk
Steven BeschlossIf you were the world’s richest man, wouldn’t you want to use all that wealth to bring people together rather than exacerbate conflict and pain?
LOLRH1 
🇺🇲🇺🇦@StevenBeschloss like other right-wing sociopaths, the cruelty is the point.
I've moved to @StevenBeschloss I suspect if you cared about such things, you never would have become the world's richest man. 😕
bahuaI don't think it's possible to overestimate the egotism of billionaires. If anything, Musk's wealth has shown the severity of his casual contempt for people who don't automatically adore him, and his lack of discipline in dealing with it.
curiousgawker (he/him)@StevenBeschloss depends. whats in it for me, the most mentally insecure person in the world
Watergirl@StevenBeschloss Last week’s 60 Minutes featured a man who used $100 million of his own wealth to restore a habitat and support sustainable work for the local people in Africa. He is amazing. His last words in the piece were similar to yours. Bringing back this place has rewarded him more than wealth and fame could ever do. He is at peace with what he has done for the world. Had me in tears by the end.
Adam Cook@StevenBeschloss Musk has built his business empire atop conflict - by inventing an "us versus them" narrative that is largely imagined.
It is only natural that he would embrace it further.
edgeoforever 🍎@adamjcook @StevenBeschloss he built nothing. He purchased stuff with money inherited from Apartheid. He was literally raised on hatred. Mother’s milk and all that.
NotNowOrLatermoney corrupts...
but he as a horrible person before the larger amounts of money were made, he had no where to go, but further down.
SanityNow@StevenBeschloss
Imagine a world where everyone is a "winner".
That's what the $ would work toward. https://youtu.be/gHTcQB_4AFw
Imagine a world where everyone is a "winner".
That's what the $ would work toward. https://youtu.be/gHTcQB_4AFw
Hot Chocolate - Every 1’s A Winner (ZDF Disco, 12.06.1978)
TheJenSure, but decent people generally don't become the world's richest.
Because they are decent people.
Shawn Wegner@StevenBeschloss comes to show you that money is evil!! Qlon Musk shows you what money does to a person!! Too much money and power don't mix!!
Daniel Howard 🌻@StevenBeschloss divide and conquer
E.G. Phillips@StevenBeschloss what if I were the world’s 2nd richest man?
Nacirema Toidi@StevenBeschloss Me? Sure! A lily white kid from South African emerald money is probably not so civic minded. I kinda noticed that when he won the Intergalactic Litterbug and Shithead award for launching into space a car that could’ve been auctioned for an amount sufficient to house my town’s entire homeless population for 2023
David Ross Bacchetti@StevenBeschloss he's playing the game, just like tRUmp
Clearly seen at this point, #Putin wasn't the only problem,,, some shady wealthy people need old school mediation & wealth reallocation
Dr. Earhart Sampson PhD@DrB_NY @StevenBeschloss @WillieGeist has already called Elon a genius--just like morning joe said about trump. They keep confusing confidence with competence.
Both men inherited great wealth, which made them excessively self-confident.
@Abby @StevenBeschloss great point again with 'Confidence' , it's a confidence born in wealth they mistake for strength. Then they get played for the mistake.
Here is one for you- "street smart education" should be a college class. Who do they manipulate most & what do they lack most?
✌️
@DrB_NY @StevenBeschloss Hi David, I know almost nothing about using mastodon just saw the link to your "tote"....
@Abby @StevenBeschloss me too,, adapt to change & move forward
Reading fiction has been shown to enhance empathy. Perhaps reading fiction can enhance street smarts.
nhb
Legion@nataliehb @Abby @DrB_NY @StevenBeschloss you spelled mein herr wrong 🤣 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgjOedirhcQ
Liza Minnelli - Mein Herr from Cabaret (60 FPS HD) 1972
@nataliehb @minervakoenig @DrB_NY @StevenBeschloss
It is funny! Mein Herr / Mine Heir.
It's great, IMO. 🤓
@nataliehb @minervakoenig @DrB_NY @StevenBeschloss
Ty! I would have missed it.
@Abby @minervakoenig @DrB_NY @StevenBeschloss there are so many nuances that are lost in tooting/tweeting/posting...
@minervakoenig @nataliehb @DrB_NY @StevenBeschloss
very, very clever!
That assumes people like that have noble ideals. Some do, a material number of others dont!
Shelby Wynne@StevenBeschloss It's the "exacerbate conflict and pain" that's making these fools wealthy. People pay to see this type of negativity and divisiveness. The more chaos the better the grift.
It's Just Jenn 🏳️⚧️@StevenBeschloss I'd start a foundation, buy an island, and you'd never hear about me again.
William Robison@StevenBeschloss you don't become the richest man in the world by being benevolent. Once you are, you don't have any incentive to change.
Unprecedented 2023@StevenBeschloss Nope. Misery loves company.
SDMike 😷 💉 ✊🏾 🇺🇦 💯@StevenBeschloss one would think. 🤷♂️
Ford Eytou@StevenBeschloss I'd buy an ice cream shop and eat all the profits. 🍨 #worlddomination
gft77@StevenBeschloss I would want to help people with that money, but I'm just a regular guy. I'm not easily offended. I don't fire or yell at people who don't think my Tweets are funny. I don't walk into businesses with a sink in hand. Elon did let us know by walking into Twitter with the sink that he'd be flushing it down the drain.
Jonathan Grunau@StevenBeschloss well now, if one were the sort of person who sought to bring ALL people together and not the sort to sow division and conflict then I say there is a less than zero percent chance one is ever going to be even within shouting distance of "richest person".
Ham on WryTrouble is that the now second richest man in the world is an insecure man baby who wants to be popular by seeking the approval of all the wrong people.
The Lichtenbergian@StevenBeschloss I'm beginning to feel that it's just me.
brickbat@StevenBeschloss You are forgetting that making huge quantities of money often takes the most corrupt and aggressive sort of individual. Taking financial success as a sign of goodness is a ridiculous American convention.
Robyn Rudd@StevenBeschloss Elon Musk is the modern day Scrooge
maraPeople who have that kind of empathy don't tend to get wealthy in the first place. And if a person gets wealthy suddenly, that kind of empathy is almost always the first thing to go.
DoctorOctothorp@StevenBeschloss you don't get to be that rich without being at least a little sociopathic.
Jerry McDonald@StevenBeschloss Steve, we live in historic times. Feudality, despotism and slavish fealty played out in toyish cyberspace in contrast with dignity & genuine heroism of desperate struggle for liberty on the steppes of Ukraine.
@StevenBeschloss Honestly, I think people have to be soulless to begin with to become that rich
Flaming Cheeto@StevenBeschloss or fill a pool with chocolate pudding and super models. But ,yeah, something other than riding atop Twitter and firing the rodeo clowns
snarkyCentrist@StevenBeschloss everyone says 'yes', until they obtain that wealth and the answer tends to shift to 'no'.
EarthOneI don't know, Steven. I'd like to think so, but looking back on my painfully human flaws throughout an average-income life, I've wondered what being rich might have done to me, seeing how corrupted so many of them become. Apparently absolute power does corrupt absolutely.
Maureen Kelsey@StevenBeschloss he’s no longer world’s richest person. Tesla lost 60% of its value this year and he’s flushing $44B down the toilet where it belongs
Auntie_G@StevenBeschloss Even if you did nothing & just sit back and enjoy your wealth, that would (almost) be understandable. But to use it to deliberately foment conflict?
And for every example of hyper-rich people I can think of doing this, it's all... because they can?