Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
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@cstross @nathanael : but the worse is that they are becoming increasingly "stupid and crazy". To the point any great vilain in a novel would appear sane.
They believe in their own marketing shit: living like riches on Mars, without poors and with AI servants (that will somewhat program and maintain themselves).
That explains why their greatest fear is currently "robots rising and rebeling".
Yeah, they are that deep in their crazyness…
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@nathanael @cstross : that’s not logical, that’s exactly why they are insane.
They see themselves as an elite who deserve more from life. Money is not the point.
By the way, how Epstein became rich is also very interesting: he basically scammed a very rich guy by making him believe he was a fortune manager (but failing to tell him he had no customers). At the time, he also wanted to stay low profile.
But, once very rich, he lost it completely and wanted fame/glory.
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@nathanael @ploum Unless you personally know any billionaires, you don't know any rich people.
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@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I grew up poor in the USA. Poverty there is framed as a moral condition by the entire society in the USA. You are lesser because you are poor and, in some cases, not considered human. I speak in general terms so exceptions, etc. Many give to charity to feel morally superior to the poor. It's brutal and pervasive so getting to "how do we get rid of poor people" is not surprising in the least.
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@nathanael @cstross @ploum every token a poor person has is necessarily a token that a stupid(ly) rich person could have but does not. This is not just inefficient, it is disgusting.
At least in the eyes of the very rich.
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@nathanael @cstross : there’s a difference between "rich" and "billionnaire-rich".
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@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I grew up poor in the USA. Poverty there is framed as a moral condition by the entire society in the USA. You are lesser because you are poor and, in some cases, not considered human. I speak in general terms so exceptions, etc. Many give to charity to feel morally superior to the poor. It's brutal and pervasive so getting to "how do we get rid of poor people" is not surprising in the least.
@26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael @ploum To some extent that's an inevitable side-effect of a social hierarchy constructed on a foundation of chattel slavery. Slaves are property, they can't own anything, so to be poor is to be closer to that state of immiseration.
Slavery: the original sin of the colonizers of the Americas. (That, with a side-order of genocide-by-plague, but slavery left the biggest mark on the present day.)
And as Pratchet said: evil is treating people as things.
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You're naive. Poverty is relative: the very wealthy WANT the vast majority to be poor because it justifies their assumption of personal superiority. If they only wanted "poor" to mean "have one euro less in their wallet", that'd be tolerable: but it seems to be necessary for their egos to see starvation, misery, and death on all sides.
Without disagreeing with your central point about the mega rich being crazy (clearly they are), there could be 2 constructions of the "get rid of the poor" phrase.
The phrase "I want to eliminate the homeless" could mean death camps or a massive house building program depending on who is saying it.
We see what we want to see - moustache twirling villain or visionary humanitarian.
All crazy bastards tho.
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@HollieK72 @nathanael @cstross : as said "You know the difference between a million euros and a billion euros ? It’s approximately a billion euro".
Elon Musk coult enter the Wembley stadium fulll of homeless broken persons, make them all multimillionnaires (probably more than you will earn in your whole life) and not even feel any difference in its financial life.
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Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/02/more-in-sadness-than-in-anger.html
It’s logical: non-crazy people will, at some point, hit the "more money than enough even for my craziest fullfilling dreams".
People who are still destroying their social/ecological environment for more money above that level are, obviously, crazy. And dangerous.
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@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum "They know the world is heading towards a big crunch."
It's worse than that. They actively want to create that big crunch. The reality is that there's enough to go around. But they willfully want to disbelieve that.
The truth is, they want to kill people, and they willfully bend their beliefs to excuse that.
As for putting explosive collars on their security team - it's part of a bizarre obsession with figuring out how to prevent them from simply
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@26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael @ploum To some extent that's an inevitable side-effect of a social hierarchy constructed on a foundation of chattel slavery. Slaves are property, they can't own anything, so to be poor is to be closer to that state of immiseration.
Slavery: the original sin of the colonizers of the Americas. (That, with a side-order of genocide-by-plague, but slavery left the biggest mark on the present day.)
And as Pratchet said: evil is treating people as things.
@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael : you are right. This is also something very different from Europe, which never had slaves but is still rooted in aristocracy.
And, with all its problems, aristocracy has one advantages over slavery: aristocrats had responsibility. they were educated to be responsible. It didn’t always work but this was the norm. Honor and reputation were more important than "raw power" or "money"
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@26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael @ploum To some extent that's an inevitable side-effect of a social hierarchy constructed on a foundation of chattel slavery. Slaves are property, they can't own anything, so to be poor is to be closer to that state of immiseration.
Slavery: the original sin of the colonizers of the Americas. (That, with a side-order of genocide-by-plague, but slavery left the biggest mark on the present day.)
And as Pratchet said: evil is treating people as things.
@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael @ploum there's a real right-wing push to encourage tipping culture here in Spain. The dynamics are gross.
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@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum "They know the world is heading towards a big crunch."
It's worse than that. They actively want to create that big crunch. The reality is that there's enough to go around. But they willfully want to disbelieve that.
The truth is, they want to kill people, and they willfully bend their beliefs to excuse that.
As for putting explosive collars on their security team - it's part of a bizarre obsession with figuring out how to prevent them from simply
@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum killing them and taking their bunkers for themselves when the apocalypse they so desperately want to cause happens.
A consultant suggested to them that they could be friends with their security personnel. That suggestion did not go well with the audience.
They're too psychopathic to even understand the idea of friendship, much less be friends with people who they will depend on for their lives.
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@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I grew up poor in the USA. Poverty there is framed as a moral condition by the entire society in the USA. You are lesser because you are poor and, in some cases, not considered human. I speak in general terms so exceptions, etc. Many give to charity to feel morally superior to the poor. It's brutal and pervasive so getting to "how do we get rid of poor people" is not surprising in the least.
@26aafa19 @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum South Carolina politician discussing giving children lunches at school makes your point
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@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael : you are right. This is also something very different from Europe, which never had slaves but is still rooted in aristocracy.
And, with all its problems, aristocracy has one advantages over slavery: aristocrats had responsibility. they were educated to be responsible. It didn’t always work but this was the norm. Honor and reputation were more important than "raw power" or "money"
@ploum @cstross @ravenbait @nathanael Europe had slaves. The Vikings were prolific slavers, for instance, and it went on for a long, long time. Europe just choses not to engage with that past.
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@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael : you are right. This is also something very different from Europe, which never had slaves but is still rooted in aristocracy.
And, with all its problems, aristocracy has one advantages over slavery: aristocrats had responsibility. they were educated to be responsible. It didn’t always work but this was the norm. Honor and reputation were more important than "raw power" or "money"
@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael : which was the cause of the French revolution.
Aristocrats took huge loans to preserve their honor (and sometimes to be responsible of their servants). The new "bourgeoisie" class took advantage of that and, as they were refused the honor, they simply took down the aristocracy because they had enough money and there was a famine that only their money could solve.
It never was about the poor. And the guillotine was mostly used between rival bourgeois
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@26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael @ploum To some extent that's an inevitable side-effect of a social hierarchy constructed on a foundation of chattel slavery. Slaves are property, they can't own anything, so to be poor is to be closer to that state of immiseration.
Slavery: the original sin of the colonizers of the Americas. (That, with a side-order of genocide-by-plague, but slavery left the biggest mark on the present day.)
And as Pratchet said: evil is treating people as things.
@cstross @26aafa19 @ravenbait @nathanael @ploum
The propaganda campaign at the other end too ; the illusion that people are rich because they are worthy creators of wealth.
Whereas the truth is that they are rich ... because of the rest. As Nick Hanauer puts it, without industrial civilzation, the most entrepreneurial guy in the world still just sells fruit at the side of the road.
They see the "poor" as their stepping stones and drool at the prospect of replacing us with silicon and steel.
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Like @cstross , I’ve only been realizing very late that extremely rich people are necessarily crazy.
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/02/more-in-sadness-than-in-anger.html
It’s logical: non-crazy people will, at some point, hit the "more money than enough even for my craziest fullfilling dreams".
People who are still destroying their social/ecological environment for more money above that level are, obviously, crazy. And dangerous.
@ploum @cstross Ah, you misunderstood, it's their score that is constantly showing in their personal heads up display.
And in their game of life, they play to get the high score and to make sure that the upstart that was born in the castle on the hill on the other side of the village doesn't beat them.
And if a couple of board cutouts that look like peons have to suffer, that's a a sacrifice they are willing to take.
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@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum killing them and taking their bunkers for themselves when the apocalypse they so desperately want to cause happens.
A consultant suggested to them that they could be friends with their security personnel. That suggestion did not go well with the audience.
They're too psychopathic to even understand the idea of friendship, much less be friends with people who they will depend on for their lives.
@isaackuo @ravenbait @cstross @nathanael : the whole Epstein story show that they don’t have friends. They have "connections". They want to go around people that would look nice on a picture in a journal. They don’t trust any one.
Epstein managed to make a business out of that: "convincing famous people that other famous people would be at his parties".
I’m sure that at least some were not interested in the sex part but did it "to be part of the gang" (which is no excuse)
