Rage of the Oligarchs Naomi Klein: 'What They Want Is Absolutely Everything
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/...
From the outside looking in, I see a new twisted form of “Prosperity Gospel”. Where they believe not only God wants the believers to be wealthy. But also they must “purify” their city on a hill. Of course they will determine who is pure or impure.
> participates in world politics that seek to entrench and unify conservative elites
Is Thiel’s corpus callosum severed or something? I have a hunch he genuinely does not see a contradiction here.
These “leaders” need to be institutionalized before they literally cataclyze the end times.
The ultra rich don't want to pay the taxes that keeps civilization running. People like Elon Musk would not be on top in a Mad Max world.
The American Dream for me was always freedom from others bullshit in a “ok I have no obligation to your social gossip, religious or otherwise.”
Language is cancer as that is the source of all these mind viruses about economics when economics is just physical statistics. Language is used to obfuscate our only imperative is biological survival.
We’re still running on the fumes of the consciousness of the last century. We had the automation in the 50s to provide the basics for everyone in the US and religious nutters full of honorific ideas to history decide we had to make orthogonal jobs, modern piousness point achievements, a virtual scoreboard, to serve physical reality still.
Americans are pathetic. I’m glad I’m off the hook for their healthcare. This is an utterly insane culture reliant on 1984 Newspeak to align itself with the world not its own experience. Refuses to admit it may be the bad guy. Glad the other 8 billion are end running around 300 million idiots
What is interesting is that America has done it (and the rest of the west is following) despite its historical religion being very hostile to the accumulation of wealth (all the "eye of the needle", "root of all evil" etc.).
The primary goal of capitalism is profit. Therefore successful people in capitalism are rich. People look up to and idolize the most successful people within their cultures.
The connection is crystal clear to me.
> There's also nothing wrong with capitalism ...
I think if you put yourself in my shoes, you could come up with your own counter examples. There's plenty of things wrong with the pursuit of profit when many people suffer needlessly. It breeds callousness, greed, selfishness, and other personality traits that aren't great for society.
The implementation is difficult but not impossible. There's just been no interest in implementing it due to lobbying.
But that isn't how it works. Those 'winning' at capitalism can use their wealth to change the rules and/or avoid their enforcement. The wealthy cannot be constrained by the system that they themselves control.
Vile to see religion wielded for oppression so blindly in the pursuit of riches.