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Comment by antisthenes | Hacker News Reader

I've heard this phenomenon being called a "purity spiral".

It makes sense intuitively - nothing productive is really being done when a group just engages in ever-escalating virtue signalling.

But since I'm not an expert, is there more material about this that one can access? Would love to read/hear someone who studies this.

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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

— C. S. Lewis

>his cupidity may at some point be satiated

Will it, though?

Bill Gates is giving away a lot of money. Warren Buffet, too. And a lot of billionaires aren't.

So, yes, it may.

Check their net worth. It's only going up.

To a cynic like me it just seems like they're buying good PR, and it's relatively cheap.

It’s possible for both to be true. Humans are complex. Motivations are often a mix of factors. Why would billionaires be different?

You would like to read more on this?

Read "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and pay attention to how Delores Umbridge defines a set of ideas that must not be questioned. Her role of Inquisitor is similar to the role of a modern Diversity Council.

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