I hear your righteous ideals and agree with them, but we will never get to a Solar Punk society or some other vision of a future worth wanting without convincing the powerful of the world to want it too. It’s never happening in a single generation, and it will be the work of our children our children’s children to establish the culture and the practical momentum toward that future.

Only something like 1-3% of people are psychopaths. I would argue high society, the ultra wealthy, are absolutely overrepresented, maybe 10-fold at least under capitalism when wealth buys protection and discretion, and you can get away with living a more hedonistic existence without consequences. But even so, that’s still only 10-30% of billionaires say, that are true psychopaths do who care only for their own ambitions and designs.

The rest are just not aware that there is are better ways, convinced their ideas are the right ones, and that they can do what nobody has been able to do before them. And they have the wealth and resources to try.

You can absolutely be a progressive billionaire, and I’d argue right now, many, if not most of the world’s wealthiest are doing what they think is right for the world. It’s just hard to change anything like this in meaningful and enduring ways. So many moving parts, so many minds to change. Nobody has figured it out yet. But what progressives do by definition is they try. I would are Taylor Swift is among these people. Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and many others.

Conservatives believe in the old ways, and that certain cruel status quos are necessary or natural. That being poor for example is your fate, your destined role. And likewise if you’re wealthy somehow your “earned it”. This belief is often enough for otherwise good people to keep their eyes closed and then turn a blind eye to suffering that is occurring because of them. But must still still care deep down. It’s just better for them and theirs not to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, keeping a decent job, working hard, and living a middle class life in a liberal democracy is its own kind of “conservativism”. That’s what most of us are doing. You could just as easily argue almost nobody is actually “progressive” when the rubber meets the road, and who could blame them when it’s true a “normal” life under modern capitalism is how we get to live to be a hundred. It’s not obvious or even really confirmed the better options are in fact better.

This is all to say, it’s about strategy. Taylor Swift would kick Trump’s ass in a popularity contest. She’s more experienced than most celebrities in the political sphere and most of politics is fundraising and posturing anyway. What’s important is how much she defers to save empowers the experts. She seems like someone who will.