None of this is inevitable. None of it. There is a very small number of determined psychopaths causing all of this fuckery and they have names and addresses
More Perfect Union (@moreperfectunion.bsky.social)

Billionaire Marc Andreessen says he has "zero" introspection, and that the idea itself is a modern invention.

Bluesky Social

@pikesley What utter bullshit.

First off, he’s wrong about how long introspection has been around. Let’s start with the Buddhist practices of looking inward to better understand yourself, for just one example.

Secondly, arguing that something isn’t worth doing entirely because it’s a more modern concept is objectively ridiculous. If that were genuinely his reasoning for how he chooses to live, he wouldn’t accept America as a concept, wouldn’t use automobiles, and would never have employed a computer or telephone.

Yet another billionaire who thinks what he says is de facto correct, let alone valuable.

@reay @pikesley

"let alone valuable" is they key here. It is an almost universal quality of billionaire tech bros that they universalize their success in one field or their otherwise limited domain expertise to all of life.

Musk suddenly thinking he is an underwater cave rescue expert is maybe the most memorable example.

@Mikal @pikesley I’d heard about this phenomenon recently, where specifically billionaires have the delusion that what they think and believe and say is de facto useful or interesting, entirely because they’re billionaires and so must have done something/everything right.

@reay @pikesley

This is IMO partly the fault of journalists who give them a platform. None of these people should be interviewed about things they have no actual qualifications to discuss. Let them blabber all they want on their own social media accounts or blogs like the rest of us. Don't give them credibility by mainstreaming their sociopathic viewpoints.

@Mikal @pikesley Exactly.

I’ve been saying this for politicians for a while, and it applies just as much to billionaires: Just because someone gets a microphone and a camera, it doesn’t suddenly make them worth listening to.