this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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222
The Billionaires Are Abandoning Humanity (www.thenation.com)
submitted 7 hours ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 92 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Think about how much empathy your parents generation has for yours. They kind of sympathize, wish things were easier, but ultimately do not understand the wealth gap or your day-to-day.

Think about how much empathy you have for a 3rd world exploited labourer. You kind of sympathize, definitely wish things were easier, but ultimately do not understand on how they live on less than a dollar a day.

Billionaires aren't just one or two levels removed from understanding your situation. They are whole planets apart. They cannot comprehend our daily struggles. They do not see it except through summarized news reports that pander and reframe it to their lifestyle.

Billionaires are the most removed species on this planet

[–] thedruid@lemmy.world 22 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Your generalizing re your parents and the previous gens sympathy.

Especially those of us who were poor as kids.

We know how hard it is. In 1968 a house was about twice a persons average yearly income, now? Forgot it. My son probably will never have the option. The. Again, I really didn't either.

My son will probably never be able to own a house, may not live in a free country, will face runaway inflation and much more

I faced much in my time. Some way worse than anything my son will see

But those were instances. Moments I. Time. Hard, difficult, but fleeting after a while

What we are living in now is pervasive, all consuming and total greed stifling the younger generations and pulling what little safety nets we have for the old.

I grew up harder. But I also grew up easier. For instance I. The early seventies , you could get a full weight set for 18 bucks ( don't ask how I know that )

Today that weight set is 300. I mean wages were WAYYYYY. Lower.

But when a house could be got for 20 grand , they didn't have to be.

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 13 points 4 hours ago

I feel like we are in agreement

[–] Whirling_Ashandarei@lemmy.world 13 points 2 hours ago

Billionaires are the most removed species on this planet

If we all do our part, they could be removed further

[–] Grumpyleb@lemmus.org 46 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Unchecked capitalism has failed, and the USA is the first victim. This is what happens when you dumb down a country so much that they can't see the danger for themselves. Too bad for regular Americans but the leopards are going to feast.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 23 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Uhh, USA is one of the last to fall, off the backs of what we have the nerve to call "third world."

It's rich Theil refers to a book with a colonial slogan of "no free lunch," after he and his ilk already sucked the husks of humanity dry. Pun intended.

[–] Bravo@eviltoast.org 8 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

The main problem with modern civilization is that it's no longer possible to rob rich people. If Peter Thiel's money actually physically existed, in like a vault somewhere, SOMEBODY would have burgled the vault by now, purely because of the insanely favorable risk vs reward ratio - like a lottery where the cost of buying tickets of every possible combination costs less than the jackpot, once the reward is high enough, there will always be SOMEONE who will make the necessary investment to negate the risk. And "robbing the rich" would always have enough popular support that there would be little effort to find the thief as long as the oligarch was unpopular enough. But now Thiel's money no longer physically exists, and it's basically impossible to forcibly take it from him without basically having to destroy the entire global banking system first in order to get at it.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 12 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

You're not wrong, but billionaires are just as easy to kill now as they ever were. If you can't take the money away from the planet destroying psychopath, take the planet destroying psychopath away from the money.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Killing them doesn’t give you their resources though. If you managed to get away with it, you will have to spend money staying anonymous and some board of directors will use the company value to enrich the next asshole.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 1 points 5 minutes ago

You don't need their money. You need them not to have it. Do it enough times and whoever ends up with it will make more responsible choices with it even if nothing else changes.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

This is why we used to let government deal with overgrown wealth. They're the only ones with the power to stand up to robber barons. It's too bad that this time they bought the government.

[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org 26 points 3 hours ago

Luigi

[–] MyOpinion@lemmy.today 25 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe it is required to be inhumane to be a billionaire?

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

If so, then

Maybe it is required to be inhumane to ~~be~~ a billionaire

[–] antisocialite@lemmy.today 22 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Spez talked about this years ago. He wants society to fall so he can rule over what's left because he thinks he's superior to all other humans

[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 8 points 2 hours ago

Dude can't even run a glorified message board... How the fuck does he think he's gonna run a post-apocalyptic society?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

This isn't a joke, Steve Huffman built a bunker with the express desire of becoming a feudal lord in whatever post apocalyptic hell hole that he helped create.

[–] evenglow@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Yup. It's not about money it's about control. So long as they have control while the world burns they are happy.

Once you win at life and have enough money to fuck off to a beach somewhere most people do. Some people can't. Because they still want your money.

So they can control you.

They are basically addicts. If they weren't they would be on that beach and no one would be talking about them.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 20 points 2 hours ago

Peter Thiel and his friends feel they no longer belong to our species.

Hard to argue with that actually. I'm going to go with they're some terrible type of worm, slug, or parasite rather than human beings.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 17 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.

William Gibson, Count Zero (Sprawl, #2)

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/126076-and-for-an-instant-she-stared-directly-into-those-soft

Like the torment Nexus tweet, I feel like some rich idiots read stuff like that and think it's a good idea.

[–] Allemaniac@lemmy.world 12 points 2 hours ago

as a german I am very sorry to the world for Peter Thiel, Trumps bloodline, Hitler and a shit ton more. We are bad exporters as it turns out

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 hours ago

Sorry mate, this "money" thing can only be owned by humans. See, that dog over there, that chair, that building, or that chatbot over yonder, they can't own anything, because they're not human. If you are not part of humanity, you can't own human IOU credits. So, have fun at the island, we'll check in on you in October.

[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 10 points 6 hours ago

They abandoned humanity the second they decided to exploit their fellow man for profit. Fuck them and fuck anyone ignorant enough to believe that they ever had anything but ill will towards the rest of the world.

[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 8 points 34 minutes ago

They never had any humanity to begin with. It is the only way to become a Billionaire.

[–] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 hours ago

🌎🌑🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀

[–] Naich@lemmings.world 7 points 7 hours ago

Well, they can feel free to fuck right off and find another species that will accept them.

[–] Karrion409@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago

Then maybe we should start relieving them of theirs

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 hours ago

is it a news?