Good god. I feel bad for them on two fronts.

1. That’s a brutal way to die and at a young age.
2. They were so delusioned by religion that they put themselves in danger to spread around ancient mythological texts to random people.

In no way is religion worth the events.

I will say that I am no oracle, just one man. It is easy to perceive problems and very hard to prescribe solutions.

That being said, I can offer the following perspectives.

1. We have lost control of our leaders to the wealthy. We do get to vote, but we do not get to vote for a working class person. In order to be elected into the high offices you need a lot of money and influence. This money is provided largely by the wealthy who have a shared interest in filtering us little people out of the process entirely.
2. People (the masses) always have absolute power, but power must be shaped and directed for progress. Currently, a lack of class consciousness and the constant bombardment of propaganda to our televisions, our phones, etc, is ruining us. We also have no presence on the national stage via political party, as stated earlier, which exacerbates the directionless nature.
3. Capitalism is largely unregulated in any way that matters, and has gotten us into a sustained feedback loop of the above points.

In order to fix these problems, we need to fight back through locally organized groups; tenant unions, renters unions, etc. Having the hard conversations with friends and family. Re-framing arguments and world views in terms of class rather than cancerous “red versus blue” politics. Showing up to peaceful protests while we can still participate in them. Pulling the levers of democracy given to us in local elections, and on the national stage, pulling the levers for the candidate that will not plunge us into immediate fascism as a stop gap. We need to do this now and with vigor to prevent the other potentials.

The alternative to action now, I’m afraid, will end in revolution attempts by a divided working class. This implies civil war where nothing is certain.

I’m curious as to how this manifests when advanced security is enabled. Advanced security on iCloud is supposed to make photos and many other services e2ee.

We do not have the option to ignore the opinions of billionaires. Their opinions become government policy through lobbying and it impacts us all.

I suppose you’re right, it is. I am not articulating myself properly here. Let me re-frame this.

Every time we chalk things up to a bad actor being hypocritical, we are taking our eye off of the ball. The problems we are facing are not individual actors that are simply acting hypocritical in the moment. We are, in reality, dealing with a much larger issue. The economic structure is filled with grifters, liars, and exploiters at the top because that is how it is best leveraged.

So when articles are written calling some billionaire a hypocrite, we are not accomplishing anything. I would argue it is largely a game of masturbatory whack-a-mole to make ourselves feel better, because we cannot fix this system with random callouts and the (extremely) rare removal of “bad apples.”

No, not quite. I’m saying musk has never believed in the free market in his life and has never argued in good faith. All of those wealthy types know exactly what they are doing. They publicly embrace a fake ideal of free market economics up until they no longer have to put up the facade.

Based

I don’t think you’re really addressing my comment, which is just a criticism of how folks write about these “hypocrisies.”

Of course it’s not fair; that’s the entire foundational pillar on which capitalism rests. I’m not saying “hate the game, not the player”. Rather I’m saying the game is bullshit and the player should have his balls kicked with steel toed boot repeatedly.

This is how all capitalist markets progress, which is why I get annoyed when folks try to talk about this as though it is hypocritical. There is nothing hypocritical about a capitalist attempting to stifle innovation and competition for the advancement of their own personal wealth. This is what capitalism is about.

I logged into Telegram today to this update from Durov. It reads like a bunch of hogwash from someone who is hiding something. They are eyeing investor funding soon, right? (EDIT: eyeing an IPO https://www.techopedia.com/news/telegram-eyes-ipo-as-it-aims-to-become-profitable-in-2025) A lot of things seem to be coinciding with him slinging mud about his competitors.

I didn’t get recommended it here, but elsewhere. I ended up paying for a years worth last year and yeah I like it better than pretty much everything else. There is still a rare occasion that I need to use Google, but that is maybe once a week whereas with DuckDuckGo it was multiple times per-day.

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe in the USA it is easier due to our relaxed (almost non-existent) business oversight from the government? Not sure.

You know, that’s fair too. We are pretty right-wing compared to most of Europe.

They have a point for the USAs flavor of democracy specifically. I don’t have a choice on the ballot to vote for a working class person who shares my struggles. My options are those who came from very wealthy families and have tremendous influence.

You need a lot of money and power to get on ballots and to actually win anything. So yeah we have a democracy, but we only get to vote for the wealthy who are largely influenced (or bought and paid for entirely) by corporations and other ultra-wealthy people who want policy written for themselves.

January 6th folks were not revolutionists. They were there to re-install the same leader (Trump) into the same power structure that already existed. Their actions were pro-government, just for their side rather than the other.

China of today is capitalist in the same way the USA is, with minor differences. Major corporations owning almost everything with government backing and influence.

Listen man. If this is the thing that is gonna kill me, I’m looking.

His supporters would end up at the ballot box either way. They are dedicated to the brand.

Ok you defined this way better than I did.

The definitions are tricky based on how you read them, but no. Your role in society is to perform labor (I’m assuming), and the fruits of that labor are then forfeited to those above you for a wage. Thus they have the capital and would belong to the “capitalist class.”